Elmwood Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Elmwood Infant School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and proud members of the Elmwood community. Each pupil's uniqueness is valued. Diversity is celebrated throughout the school.

Pupils feel safe here and are kept safe. This is because of the warm and nurturing relationships between staff and pupils.

The school is ambitious for what pupils can achieve.

Leaders and staff have sharply focused on ensuring that all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well across the curriculum. This work is effective overall. Additionally, the school's '10 super skills' are w...ell embedded throughout the curriculum and other aspects of school life.

These are designed to support pupils to be successful learners and develop skills for the future.

Expectations for pupils' behaviour are clear and understood by all. Pupils are polite and respectful.

In lessons, they are typically focused and enthusiastically engaged in their learning. Pupils enjoy the social times that they have at break and lunch times.

Pupils' wider development is supported through special events and celebrations in school.

For example, pupils enjoy the learning and experiences provided by 'achievers week', 'refugee week' and 'the pride of Elmwood' celebration. Educational visits, such as to Crystal Palace Park and the local library, enrich the taught curriculum. Pupils have opportunities to contribute their ideas to the school community through being part of the school council.

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

Starting in early years, the school's curriculum identifies and clearly sets out the key knowledge and skills that pupils need to learn. Leaders have also begun work on identifying and mapping out essential subject-related vocabulary across the curriculum. Teachers explain new learning clearly.

Lessons typically provide pupils with purposeful opportunities to revisit and recap their prior learning.

However, across the curriculum, the school's intent and expectations for subjects are, in a few instances, not fully realised. For example, on occasions, the activities that pupils complete are not as sharply linked to the intended learning as they could be.

In addition, checks of what pupils know and can remember are, at times, not ensuring that errors and misconceptions in learning are consistently identified and addressed.

Reading is prioritised. Teachers and staff deliver consistently high-quality phonics sessions.

In these sessions pupils are engaged, focused and on task. Pupils have many opportunities for rehearsal and to practise reading words. Pupils' phonics knowledge is purposefully tracked and monitored so that any gaps are quickly identified and addressed.

Effective catch-up and keep-up sessions help those pupils who are falling behind. Pupils have books matched to their stage of reading, which promotes well-focused practice in using decoding to read unknown words. However, when reading with pupils, there are times when adults' support is not focused sharply on developing pupils' fluency in reading.

For the weaker readers in particular, this reduces the quality time that they have to practise using their phonics knowldege.

A love for reading is promoted through regular opportunities to read for pleasure and daily story times. These are supplemented by a range of additional experiences, including, book fairs, library visits, a half-termly author focus and celebrating events such as World Book Day.

The school has effective systems in place to identify pupils' additional needs. Staff receive training to be able to meet pupils' needs and support them to access the curriculum alongside their peers. In English and mathematics, learning is routinely adapted to meet the needs of pupils with SEND in a highly effective manner.

Effective adaptations to learning are less established in other subject areas. Leaders have begun work on ensuring effective adaptations are also consistently in place across the wider curriculum. A small number of pupils with SEND benefit from a personalised curriculum to meet their complex needs.

Improving attendance is a priority for the school. There are clear procedures in place to track and monitor pupils' attendance. Effective action is taken when a pupil's attendance becomes a concern.

Promoting pupil's personal development, in particular building their awareness of their rights and responsibilities, is threaded through all aspects of school life. Pupils are taught how to look after themselves both emotionally and physically. They develop an understanding of healthy relationships at an age-appropriate level.

Pupils also learn about different beliefs and cultures.

Staff enjoy working at this school. They feel well supported and that their workload is taken into account.

The governing body, although relatively new, know the school well. This helps it to hold leaders to account while also providing support.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders' clear vision for pupils' learning is not fully realised through the delivery of a few aspects of the curriculum. Sometimes, the activities in lessons are not sharply focused on the expected learning, and across the wider curriculum, there are occasions where adaptations to help pupils with SEND are not consistently in place. In addition, reading practice for weaker readers is, in a few instances, not giving sharp emphasis to developing their fluency.

These things all reduce the quality of pupils' learning. The school needs to continue to develop staff expertise to address these aspects, including through the provision of further training for staff where needed. ? Some checks on what pupils know and understand are not robust enough.

This means that, sometimes, pupils' misconceptions or gaps in their understanding are not picked up. The school needs to ensure that pupils' understanding is routinely checked across the curriculum, and that teaching addresses any gaps.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in September 2014.

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