Emscote Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Emscote Infant School is at the heart of its community. Leaders and staff care deeply for every child and want the very best for all.

Everyone is accepted and celebrated.

There is a strong focus on pupils' safety and well-being. Warm, positive relationships between staff and pupils help pupils to feel safe and settled.

Pupils enjoy attending school and learning and playing together.

Pupils are polite and friendly. They hold doors open for visitors and look after each other.

They understand when some of their friends need an extra helping hand, and they quickly step in. Pupils learn to value difference and show respect. The 'friendship stop' ...means that pupils always have someone to play with.

Most pupils behave very well. They know that staff help them to understand if things go wrong.

There is a range of experiences on offer.

From singing in the local care home to visiting local castles or the Houses of Parliament, there is something for everyone. Pupils enjoy attending after-school clubs such as choir, drama, or dance. They benefit from learning practical skills, such as building campfires at 'life skills for kids' club.

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

Pupils at Emscote enjoy learning to read. The school has ensured that there is a phonics programme in place which identifies the order in which sounds are taught. Reading challenges and 'reading for pleasure diaries' help pupils to develop a love of books and stories.

Pupils who find reading more challenging receive extra support to catch up. However, infrequent checks on their progress and some lack of precision in the support they receive means that these pupils do not always catch up quickly enough.

The curriculum is ambitious.

The school has identified what pupils are to learn, including the important vocabulary for each subject. For example, in physical education (PE), there is a focus on the specific skills that pupils need to learn so that they are well prepared for playing the sports they will encounter in their next stages of education. Pupils learn the importance of physical activity, saying 'it keeps our hearts going.'

In maths lessons, a focus on number helps most pupils to gain the understanding that they need for later learning. However, in some subjects, the precise, subject-specific skills and knowledge pupils need are not made clear enough. Some activities and experiences such as trips, which are intended to enhance learning, do not always help pupils to learn and remember the most important things.

Once children are attending full time in early years, they get off to a good start. They quickly learn the routines and settle into the enriching learning environment. They learn independence and are keen to show visitors their learning, both indoors and out.

For example, they delight in mixing 'potions' in the mud kitchen area and writing stories and making books using their knowledge of sounds and letters.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are particularly well cared for. The school quickly gets to know individual pupils and their families.

Pupils with SEND are fully included in everything the school has to offer. Leaders are ambitious for pupils with SEND and intend them to learn the same curriculum as their classmates. However, sometimes, they do not receive the precise help they need to benefit from this ambition.

On occasion, they complete work which has not been adapted to meet their needs. As a result, some pupils with SEND do not make as much progress as they could.

The school provides a range of opportunities for pupils' wider development.

Pupils from early years up experience different places of worship and raise money for charities and good causes. Voting their peers onto the school council or eco-council helps pupils to learn about how life in modern Britain works. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe, including online.

They know how to keep themselves healthy, including through diet, exercise and cleaning their teeth.

The relatively new leadership team have made improvements to the school. They are very mindful of staff well-being.

Staff value this and feel well supported. However, in some aspects of school life, including how the curriculum is implemented and academic provision for pupils with SEND, leaders, including those responsible for governance, do not have a clear enough picture to help them evaluate what is working well or what needs further improvement.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The help that some pupils receive when they are falling behind in reading is not always sharply focused enough. This slows their learning and hampers them from catching up quickly. The school should ensure that there is sufficient focus on ensuring that pupils who are falling behind with reading receive the precise support they need to catch up quickly.

• In a few subjects, subject-specific skills and knowledge are not clear enough. This means that pupils sometimes remember activities they have done rather than the intended skills and knowledge. The school should make sure that, in these subjects, the identified key skills and knowledge are explicitly taught so that pupils know more and remember more.

• Sometimes, pupils with SEND do not receive the precise support that they need. This means that these pupils do not achieve as well as they could. The school should ensure that teaching approaches and support are precisely adapted to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.

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