Foundry Lane Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Foundry Lane Primary offers a caring community. Good relationships are epitomised by the warm greetings that pupils receive from teachers each morning. Classrooms and corridors are calm and orderly, and pupils play well together on the playground.

Pupils thoroughly enjoy coming to school and learning new things. Leaders have successfully raised expectations in reading and mathematics but have more work to do to ensure that all subjects are appropriately ambitious.

Pupils are safe here.

They appreciate the care adults offer, particularly in 'The Nest', where counselling and therapeutic support is a priority. Any form of unkindness or bullying is rare, and it i...s swiftly and effectively dealt with when reported. One parent, typical of many, commented, 'I have been impressed with the school ever since my first child attended.

They are incredibly supportive of all children and have health and well-being at the forefront of everything they do.'

This is an inclusive school. Here, differences are respected, and pupils learn important values, such as honesty and tolerance.

Older pupils enjoy taking positions of responsibility and take part in enriching activities, such as the Southampton Civic Award.

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

A strengthened senior leadership team is raising expectations across the school. In some subjects, such as mathematics, history and art, the curriculum is ambitious.

Here, the teaching of knowledge and skills builds carefully on pupils' prior learning, but this is not the case in all subjects. Improving subject leadership has been a priority since the last inspection. This has led to progress in curriculum thinking, which is worthy of credit considering it has been achieved while providing learning during the pandemic.

Leaders have plans in place where further improvement is needed in other subjects.

Teachers check what pupils know and can do, but this information is not always informing the next steps of their teaching. For example, in science and geography, pupils' misconceptions are not always addressed before they move on to learn new content.

Some pupils are not clear about what their strengths are, or what they need to do to improve their work.

The promotion of the love of reading begins from the very first day children join Reception. Staff skilfully assess pupils' reading skills and adapt their planning to target support where it is needed.

Consequently, over time, pupils become confident and fluent readers.

Pupils' attendance is high. Staff offer carefully tailored support to any who are finding it hard to attend school.

Pupils behave well and generally work hard in class because staff have high expectations of them. Occasionally, some pupils can lose focus when lesson activities have not been carefully planned to engage and challenge them. When this is the case, pupils can become passive in lessons.

Consequently, they do not learn or remember as much as they could.

The personal development of pupils is a strength of the school. The personal, social, health and economic education curriculum is age-appropriate and comprehensive.

Pupils learn about diversity and the reasons that lie behind some of the inequalities that they hear about in the news, such as the impact of slavery on attitudes today towards people of different races. Pupils are taught to understand the need to treat others with respect.

Foundry Lane offers a wide range of extra-curricular activities, trips and visits.

Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic to these activities, the school has made tremendous efforts to continue offering enriching events. Pupils develop confidence and resilience by reading aloud in assemblies and through the many problem-solving activities in lessons. Parents value the support given to their children, reporting, 'The staff really care about the children and their well-being and do everything they can to support them.'



Leaders and staff share a moral purpose to ensure that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities achieve equally as well as their peers. Staff know these pupils well and identify their needs quickly. Appropriate activities are swiftly delivered to address these needs.

Governors have worked hard alongside leaders on the improvement made to the school. They prioritise safeguarding and the welfare of pupils and staff. Staff feel that leaders value their workload and support their well-being as best they can.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff build strong relationships with pupils and their families from the moment they join the school. The community feeling is valued by parents and enables the school to offer support to families at times of crisis.

Leaders ensure staff are regularly trained in how to identify and react to safeguarding concerns. There are clear systems in place to record and share any concerns that staff may have about pupils. Staff exchange information in a timely way and the safeguarding team meets regularly to share and respond to emerging issues.

New staff undergo the necessary pre-employment checks. However, leaders need to ensure that their record-keeping in this area is thorough so that systems consistently meet statutory requirements.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Teachers are not checking what pupils know and can remember in some subjects effectively.

Consequently, some pupils have misconceptions and gaps in their knowledge that are not addressed. Information teachers collect from checking what pupils understand should be used to plan the next steps of teaching across all subjects. ? In some subjects, content is not yet sufficiently well planned to enable pupils to know more, remember more and be able to do more.

Teachers are not always equipped with sufficient information to deliver intended outcomes. This means pupils cannot always make links between new knowledge and existing knowledge within and across different subjects. Leaders need to review teachers' subject plans to ensure that the sequence of learning builds on pupils' prior knowledge more effectively.

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