Stocksbridge Nursery Infant School

Overview

Stocksbridge Nursery Infant School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection. The school is described as a “safe and caring environment” where pupils are “valued and supported” and “love coming to school.” Leaders and staff share high aspirations, ensuring that pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, receive strong support and enrichment opportunities.

Strengths

• Pupils demonstrate “positive attitudes to their work” and are “captivated by their learning,” with subject curriculums helping them “learn more and remember more over time.”
• Staff use “strong subject knowledge” to teach effectively, quickly identifying and addressing gaps in learning, which allows disadvantaged pupils to make “strong progress.”
• The school has prioritised reading from the early years, with “effective phonics teaching” that is consistent across the school and helps pupils develop a “real love of stories.”
• Attendance figures are improving and are “in line with the national average,” supported by a “relentless” approach to reducing persistent absence.
• The personal development curriculum is “designed and sequenced with care,” helping pupils understand diversity, equality, and how to stay safe online and in their communities.

Areas to improve

• The English curriculum does not yet set out the fundamental writing skills pupils need; the school must ensure the curriculum “maps out clearly how to strengthen and build writing skills effectively over time” to prevent errors from becoming embedded.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.