The Giles Infant and Nursery School

Overview

The Giles Infant and Nursery School is described as a large institution with a ‘family’ feel, where pupils are happy and safe. The report states that the school’s overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour, personal development, leadership, and early years provision are all ‘Good’.

Strengths

• The curriculum is ‘appropriate and well thought out’, with teachers demonstrating ‘strong knowledge’ of subjects.
• There is a ‘strong emphasis on developing pupils’ vocabulary’, with staff ensuring pupils understand key words across all subjects.
• Reading is treated as the school’s ‘core purpose’, supported by a suitable phonics system and effective catch-up measures for those struggling.
• The school maintains a ‘happy and purposeful atmosphere’ where bullying ‘hardly ever happens’ and staff resolve problems quickly.
• Staff feel ‘valued and well supported by leaders’, who work to make workloads manageable.

Areas to improve

• Leaders must ensure child protection concerns are addressed with rigour, including detailed records and seeking advice from children’s social care when appropriate.
• Action is required to improve attendance for a small minority of pupils and to ensure part-time timetables are used only in exceptional circumstances.
• Approaches to helping pupils with SEND and the lowest 20% achieve highly need to be more consistent across all subjects and classes.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, although inspectors noted weaknesses in the quality of child protection records and how some concerns were dealt with, which leaders have since addressed.