Stalyhill Infant School

Overview

Stalyhill Infant School continues to be a good school, providing a safe and enjoyable environment where pupils behave well and concentrate highly in lessons. Leaders have designed a broad, ambitious curriculum that meets the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Strengths

• Pupils describe the school as a "safe place" where adults look after them well and bullying is rare.
• The curriculum is "broad and ambitious," with teachers possessing strong subject knowledge and using effective strategies to assess understanding.
• Reading and phonics provision is effective, with most pupils in key stage 1 reading "fluently and with expression."
• Leaders provide a wide range of extra-curricular activities, such as pottery and singing clubs, fostering a sense of teamwork.
• Governors are knowledgeable and hold leaders to account effectively, while staff find leaders approachable and considerate of workload.

Areas to improve

• Leaders must ensure teachers have effective strategies across the whole curriculum to enable pupils to retain knowledge and apply it more fluently, as some do not embed learning securely before moving on.
• Leaders should develop more effective ways to ensure a few pupils have a secure understanding of phonics before progressing to harder books, enabling them to become fluent and accurate readers.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with suitable systems for reporting concerns, thorough staff training, and pupils feeling confident in reporting worries to adults.