Folly Hill Infant Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Folly Hill Infant is an outstanding school. As a result of her highly committed approach to leadership, the headteacher has created an excellent team spirit among all the teaching and support staff, with outstanding support from the senior teachers.

Every member of staff who completed the questionnaire agreed that they were proud of the school. One judged that it was the best school she had ever worked in because it 'has a strong sense of community, and is extremely well led. The well-being of the children and staff is a priority.

A wonderful place to learn for children and staff'. Parents and carers, too, recognise the school's very positive ethos. All those who returned a questionnaire agre...ed that they are happy with their child's experience and that their children enjoy school.

One delighted parent rightly judged that it is 'a rare gem of a school' and another thought that 'the children benefit from excellent leadership, and committed and enthusiastic teaching and support staff'. A third family wrote that they 'had always thought the school was really good, but can honestly say that it just keeps getting better and better'. Outstanding care, guidance and support are a major factor contributing to the school's inclusive atmosphere.

As a consequence, the pupils' personal outcomes are always good and often excellent. The relationships between staff and pupils are close, warm and trusting. Pupils feel completely safe when they are at school.

Their adoption of healthy lifestyles is outstanding. Pupils' high attainment and their high rates of attendance mean that they are exceptionally well prepared for the next stage of their education. Achievement is outstanding.

Pupils' attainment in reading, writing and mathematics is consistently significantly above average by the end of Year 2, from levels that are broadly similar to those expected for the age group at the start of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Pupils' excellent progress results from outstanding teaching and learning. The imaginative curriculum offers a broad span of worthwhile experiences, with excellent enhancement from themed days and weeks and a large range of visits and visitors.

However, the quality of outdoor learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage does not yet match the high quality indoor provision. This means that the range of activities outdoors does not offer children, especially boys, the same inspirational opportunities to practise all aspect of their learning, including their early literacy skills. School leaders offer outstanding ambition and drive to improve the school, and have created a very secure climate for learning.

The governing body works extremely well as a team and makes an exceptional contribution to the development of the school through their involvement in all that it does. The school's engagement with parents is extremely well developed and all aspects of safeguarding are outstanding. The promotion of community cohesion at all levels is extremely well developed.

The headteacher, with other school leaders and members of the governing body, is assiduous in carrying out monitoring activities to check the quality of pupils' outcomes and the school's provision. The use of data and tracking information about pupils' attainment and progress is very good. Improvement planning is highly detailed and sets exacting expectations for future development.

Excellent progress has been made on the issues for improvement from the last inspection. For instance, the targets set for more-able pupils are very challenging, and the monitoring roles of subject leaders now have a strong impact on teaching and learning. Given the school's track record of sustaining outstanding outcomes for all groups of pupils, and the high quality of teaching and of the curriculum, the school has an outstanding capacity to sustain further improvement.

Information about the school

Folly Hill Infant School is much smaller than average. Almost all pupils are from White British backgrounds. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average.

The number of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is well below average. The breakfast club, which is managed by the governing body, was also included in this inspection. The school has achieved a large range of national accreditations including the Artsmark (Silver), International Schools and Eco Schools (Green Flag) awards.