Croftlands Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy to attend Croftlands Infant School.

They enjoy playing with their friends at playtimes. Children in the early years, including two-year-olds, settle into school life well. They trust the staff to care for them, including when they need comfort or reassurance.

The school is ambitious for all pupils to achieve well. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils enjoy learning and try their best.

They typically achieve well. This means that when pupils leave the school at the end of Year 2, they are ready for their next steps in education.

Pupils behave well in lessons and around school.

...>They learn to treat each other with respect as soon as they join the school in the early years. Pupils are polite to adults. The school is a calm and friendly place to learn and play.

Pupils enjoy a broad range of opportunities and experiences that enrich the curriculum. This includes donating food to the local foodbank and raising funds for charities. Pupils also benefit from educational trips and visits, such as a visit to a castle, canoeing on a lake and singing in a music festival.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school has made considerable improvements to the curriculum since it was last inspected. In most areas, the important knowledge that pupils should learn and the best order in which to teach this are identified clearly. This is similar in the early years, where the essential knowledge that children should learn in readiness for key stage 1 is typically well thought through.

However, in a small number of subjects and areas of learning, the key knowledge that children and pupils should gain is not as clear. This means that teachers do not routinely place the right emphasis on the knowledge that the pupils need for future learning. This sometimes prevents pupils from developing a detailed understanding and making connections with what they have learned before.

In most subjects, teachers take every opportunity to check what pupils know and can remember. Teachers then use this information to shape future teaching. They choose appropriate activities to help pupils to learn curriculum content.

However, assessment strategies to check pupils' knowledge and understanding in a few subjects and areas of learning are underdeveloped. On occasion, teachers are uncertain if pupils have gained the knowledge that they should before they introduce new learning. This leads to gaps in some pupils' learning, which prevents pupils from building on what they know.

Reading is prioritised across the school. Pupils enjoy listening to adults reading interesting books to them at story times. Staff receive appropriate training to deliver the early reading programme effectively.

As a result, children in the provision for two-year-olds develop their early language well, while pupils in Reception and key stage 1 gain a secure knowledge of phonics.

There are effective processes to identify the additional needs of pupils with SEND. Pupils with SEND are well supported to follow the curriculum.

Teachers make appropriate adaptions to their teaching to ensure that pupils with SEND achieve well.

The school has high expectations for pupils' behaviour. The school rules help pupils to understand what is expected of them.

Pupils try their best to live up to these expectations. They relish the praise that they receive for behaving well.

The school has thought carefully about pupils' personal development.

Pupils learn about road safety and the differences between people, such as different families. This gives pupils the age-appropriate knowledge they need to stay healthy, safe and prepared for life in modern Britain. Older pupils who act as school councillors are keen to contribute their ideas about how to improve their school.

They proudly told inspectors that they regularly seek the views of other pupils at playtimes and meet each week to discuss their ideas.

The school communicates effectively with parents and carers. For example, it provides regular online updates about how to support learning at home and helpful information about online safety for young children.

This helps parents to feel confident when supporting their children's learning at home.

The school is considerate of staff's workload and well-being. For example, it considers how best to implement new initiatives without overburdening staff.

Governors are also mindful of the well-being of staff across the school. They provide support and challenge to ensure that pupils receive a high-quality education. They are committed to their roles.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

While pupils are safe at this school, inspectors found some shortcomings in the safeguarding arrangements. The school, including governors, does not ensure that all staff have up-to-date training in some aspects of safeguarding.

In addition, procedures for safer recruitment checks occasionally lack rigour. This makes it difficult for the school and governors to evaluate the effectiveness of their safeguarding practices.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a few subjects and areas of learning, the school has not identified clearly enough the most important knowledge that children in the early years and pupils in key stage 1 should learn.

This means that teachers do not emphasise and revisit some important ideas and concepts. Consequently, in these subjects, pupils do not develop the detailed knowledge that they do in others. The school should ensure that subject curriculums set out the important knowledge for pupils to learn.

• In a small number of subjects, the school's approaches to checking on pupils' knowledge and understanding are underdeveloped. On occasion, this stops teachers from being certain that pupils have gained the knowledge that they should before they introduce new learning. The school should determine how best to check that pupils have learned the intended curriculum.

It should also ensure that teachers are suitably equipped to use assessment strategies with confidence and accuracy, ensuring that gaps in pupils' learning are identified and tackled quickly. ? The school does not make certain that some staff have up-to-date training on some aspects of safeguarding. In addition, the school's safer recruitment checks lack rigour.

This makes it difficult for the school and governors to evaluate the effectiveness of their safeguarding practices. The school should ensure that it systematically develops staff's safeguarding knowledge. It should also make sure that its safer recruitment procedures are thorough and that there is a full and accurate record of checks undertaken.

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