St Paul's Infant School

Overview

St Paul’s Infant School has “taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.” The school is described as “highly inclusive,” where pupils are “happy and safe” and quickly develop “positive attitudes to learning.” Leaders and staff foster strong relationships, ensuring pupils feel supported and proud of their school community.

Strengths

• The curriculum is “ambitious” and “well-designed,” with “precisely defined” knowledge and skills in most subjects, allowing pupils to build upon prior learning.
• Reading is a high priority; “phonics teaching is consistently of a high standard,” and teachers take “swift action” if pupils fall behind.
• Teachers have “secure subject knowledge,” set “high expectations,” and effectively adapt tasks to support disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
• Pupils embody values such as “kindness, togetherness and respect,” demonstrating “resilience and perseverance” in their learning.
• Staff feel “heard and involved” in decisions, with the governing body providing “essential support and challenge” to the school.

Areas to improve

• In some subjects, “essential knowledge that pupils need to know has not been identified as specifically as it could be,” leading to gaps in key knowledge. The school should “clearly define the precise knowledge they want pupils to learn and when.”

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective.”