Carrington Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Carrington Infant School

Following my visit to the school on 23 January 2019, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in January 2015. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your team are very ambitious for Carrington Infants, ensuring that every pupil is well supported to achieve their best. Through careful evaluation, you have an accurate understanding of the strengths and the identified areas for continued... improvement.

Leaders are enthusiastic and work hard so that pupils make strong progress. Parents and carers are supportive of the school. One said: 'My daughter absolutely adores going to school.'

Governors have a clear understanding of the school's strengths and appropriate areas for further development. They challenge and support the senior leadership team effectively. Governors visit regularly to carry out a wide range of tasks, including evaluating school systems and safeguarding.

Governors are also very supportive of the headteacher. The governors attend a range of training to support their roles and responsibilities, including on safer recruitment and safeguarding. Pupils learn in a vibrant, calm and caring environment.

One pupil said: 'This is a happy school.' They told me that they can always find an adult to talk to if they are worried about something. Pupils play well together and are supportive of each other.

During my visit, pupils played well in the snow on the playground and displayed good behaviour towards each other. Pupils are very proud that they have exciting clubs at lunchtime, including computing, gym and board games. The effective displays in the classrooms and corridors enrich the learning environment.

Pupils behave very well and support each other with their learning. In my classroom visits, pupils were motivated and keen to do their very best. Leaders have successfully addressed the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection.

Pupils now have more opportunities to respond to teachers' feedback, helping them to make strong progress. More most-able pupils are provided with further challenges to develop their depth of understanding across the curriculum. Subject coordinators have more leadership time to monitor and evaluate their areas of responsibility.

Pupils have many opportunities to apply their phonics knowledge to support their reading. Safeguarding is effective. Safeguarding is rightly your first priority, and everyone is vigilant.

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed. There is well-chosen, ongoing training for staff and governors, so that they know how to keep pupils safe. Pre-employment checks to ensure the suitability of staff are firmly in place.

Governors visit regularly, carefully reviewing and evaluating safeguarding policies and procedures. There are rigorous systems to monitor and check the well-being of pupils. When any concerns arise, staff take quick and effective action.

You involve outside agencies to provide further support to pupils and their families. Carrington Infants ensures that pupils learn in a safe and caring environment. Pupils are aware of the potential dangers when using the internet.

Pupils said that, if they ever viewed anything on the internet that made them feel unsafe, they would tell an adult. Pupils feel safe in the school and are well supported by the adults around them. Parents agree that their children are safe at the school.

Inspection findings ? During this inspection, we agreed to focus on: how effectively leaders ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve well; how leaders ensure that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress; and how leaders ensure that key stage 1 pupils make good progress in reading. ? Disadvantaged pupils make good progress from their starting points. The progress of disadvantaged pupils is carefully tracked and regularly reviewed.

In the lessons we visited, disadvantaged pupils were engaged and working well towards meeting their learning goals. Disadvantaged pupils receive a range of useful and well-planned additional adult support. Leaders support families through workshops and by allowing them to borrow some learning resources to help support their children at home.

• Funding to support disadvantaged pupils is used effectively. The governing body holds leaders to account for the spending of the pupil premium funding and how the funding is used to benefit pupils. However, leaders are rightly aware that there are still differences in attainment for some groups of disadvantaged pupils in school compared to all pupils nationally.

• Most pupils with SEND make good progress. Pupils display strong attitudes to learning and are keen to do well in class. Teaching assistants provide strong support to pupils, including effective encouragement and accurate questions to support pupils' understanding.

Staff deliver well-chosen additional teaching programmes to help pupils with additional needs. Leaders undertake frequent evaluations of pupils' work to ensure that pupils can make strong progress. Pupils in the additional resourced provision are integrated effectively across the school.

• Over the past two years, a greater proportion of pupils achieved at greater depth in the national reading tests for key stage 1 than pupils nationally. However, fewer pupils achieved at age-related expectations by comparison with others nationally. Leaders have accurately identified the strengths and areas for development in reading and how to ensure that more pupils achieve at the standard expected for their age.

Teachers now track pupils' progress effectively and use a range of well-chosen additional support when required to ensure that pupils make strong progress. Pupils in Year 2 have started to visit a local library to choose books to read at school and at home and this enables pupils to have access to a wide variety of reading material. ? Pupils now have more opportunities to read, through guided reading sessions.

These sessions now start with the youngest children in the Reception classes. Staff now give pupils' more opportunities to develop their comprehension skills and talk about the texts that they are reading. Pupils use their phonics knowledge to read unfamiliar words.

The profile of reading for some middle-attaining pupils has been further raised by providing them with additional support to ensure that they reach the expected standard by the end of key stage 1. Parents have opportunities to visit the school and read with their children. Leaders are aware that they should sustain the continued focus on strengthening pupils' progress in reading, especially the middle-attaining pupils.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? there are sustained improvements for disadvantaged pupils, so that they achieve as well as other pupils nationally ? more key stage 1 pupils meet the expected standard for their age in reading. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Buckinghamshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Darren Aisthorpe Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you, the interim deputy headteacher, the school business manager, the interim special educational needs coordinator, the subject coordinators for English and mathematics, and seven governors. I spoke with a representative of the local authority and had a meeting with a group of pupils. I spoke with eight parents on the playground, and considered 26 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire Parent View, including 37 free-text comments.

Together with you, I observed teaching and learning across the school. I looked at pupils' learning in their mathematics books and their English books, and examined their assessment books and reading-record books. I also looked at pupils' science books and their learning journals, and looked at evidence of learning in the classrooms.

I observed pupils at playtime and spoke with them informally. I heard pupils read to me. I also considered the school action plan, the school self-evaluation, and a range of documentation related to teaching, learning and assessment, safeguarding, governance, and the curriculum.

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