Uplands Infant School

Overview

Uplands Infant School provides a ‘happy, warm and caring environment’ where pupils feel safe and behave well. The school delivers a ‘Good’ quality education, characterised by an ambitious curriculum and strong support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders have recently revised the early reading curriculum to address previous declines in outcomes, with early signs of improvement.

Strengths

• Staff create a welcoming atmosphere, with parents noting teachers are ‘always ready to listen’ and ‘greet us with a smile’.
• The provision for pupils with SEND is ‘particularly strong’, with staff skilled in using varied teaching methods and liaising closely with parents.
• Mathematics teaching is effective, with teachers quickly identifying knowledge gaps and providing same-day extra practice to keep pupils on track.
• Pupils develop as ‘thoughtful young citizens’, learning to respect cultural differences and understanding that it is ‘okay to be different’.
• Children in the early years benefit from well-planned indoor activities that prioritise spoken language, reading, and mathematics.

Areas to improve

• Leaders should ensure the school’s approach to teaching reading is ‘consistently applied across the school’ to address current inconsistencies in implementing phonics strategies.
• Leaders should ensure the early years outdoor environment supports curriculum implementation ‘equally well’ as the indoor areas, as outdoor resources currently do not promote learning as effectively.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with leaders stating that safeguarding is ‘in everything we do’ and ensuring staff are alert to concerns and trained to report them immediately.