Hunter’s Bar Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Hunter's Bar Infant School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

The headteacher and staff are highly regarded by parents and carers, who say that their children are treated with great respect and learn well.

Parents say communication between home and school is excellent. They recognise that staff care deeply for every child. This is a school at the heart of its community.

Pupils and children enjoy school and learning with their friends. They are polite and friendly to each other and to adults. Pupils play well together.

They make sure that no one is left to play alone at lunchtime or at breaktimes.

Pupils behave very well.... The school is a calm and orderly environment that is well looked after.

Bullying is very rare. Leaders do not tolerate it. Pupils know that, if they are worried, there are staff who will help them and adults they can trust.

Pupils have a strong sense of equality. They say everyone should be kind to each other and appreciate each other's differences and views.

Leaders and teachers have high expectations of all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Teachers plan lessons that encourage pupils to contribute well.

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

Leaders have planned a well-organised curriculum. It develops pupils' knowledge and expertise across a broad range of subjects.

The curriculum is carefully sequenced from the Reception Year to Year 2. Leaders are ambitious for all pupils. Disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND and pupils who speak English as an additional language follow the same curriculum as others.

Adults provide them with very effective support.

Teachers build learning in a logical way to meet the needs of all pupils. They are clear about what pupils should know.

Teachers' explanations are concise and help pupils to start work quickly. Teachers focus well on pupils' vocabulary and language development. They ask focused questions to check pupils' knowledge and understanding.

There is a strong team ethos, with subject leaders coaching and supporting teachers in their work.

Mathematics is taught exceptionally well. Teachers use a wide range of practical resources to help children learn well.

Pupils' errors are picked up quickly and are used to deepen their understanding. However, in some other subjects, staff do not consistently challenge pupils to deepen their learning further. Occasionally, teachers do not identify common misconceptions soon enough.

This means that, in a few subjects, pupils are not deepening their learning to reach the highest standards.

Phonics is taught very effectively across the school. This helps pupils to learn new letter sounds quickly.

Teachers plan interesting tasks for phonics. For example, pupils pick out the sounds they are learning from computer screens to help with segmenting and blending. Books are well matched to the letter sounds being learned.

Those who find phonics and reading more difficult get skilful support to help them to keep up with their peers. Pupils recall words and sounds quickly. Staff focus well on checking that pupils understand the books they read.

By Year 2, pupils have an extensive range of vocabulary and good reading comprehension skills.

Leaders create opportunities for parents to make a very strong contribution to reading. Large numbers of parents get involved in activities such as 'reading by torchlight' and 'secret reader', to promote reading.

Pupils regularly take reading books home to practise their reading skills. Pupils of all ages love reading and listen exceptionally well when adults read to them. They enjoy the large choice of books available to them and are proud of their 'reading gardens' in the corner of each classroom.

Across the school, pupils cooperate exceptionally well with adults. The foundations for this start in the Reception Year, where children are very attentive, cooperative and willing to help each other. From the start of children's time at the school, teachers promote the school's 'High Five' rules.

As a result, pupils are kind, respectful, caring and willing to share. At lunchtime and breaktimes, pupils mix well together. They enjoy using the trim trail equipment and are very active.

Pupils enjoy clubs such as drama, yoga, dance and tennis. They learn about democracy by voting for school councillors. Pupils learn about a wide range of artists from different cultures and how people have attempted to overcome inequality.

They have a good sense of fairness.

Leaders and governors consider staff's workload in all they do. They give extra time to staff to plan and develop the curriculum.

Staff appreciate the care, attention and support leaders provide. All staff are proud to be members of the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff receive regular training and know that safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. They are vigilant and understand how to keep pupils safe. Leaders discuss potential safeguarding incidents with staff often.

This gives staff experience in deciding what should be done if incidents occur. Governors and leaders make thorough checks on the suitability of adults who work with pupils.

Pupils learn about road safety, riding a bike safely and staying safe online.

The police service contributes to pupils' knowledge of how to stay safe. Leaders designed a 'green wall' around the school's playground to protect children from car emissions.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, leaders have not identified the steps that teachers need to take to deepen pupils' subject knowledge.

This means pupils are not reaching leaders' ambitious curriculum goals in some subjects. Senior leaders should support subject leaders to provide teaching staff with the strategies to extend pupils' knowledge further.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 February 2013.

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