Locks Heath Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This school helps pupils get their education off to an excellent start.

Pupils love coming to school every day and want to do their best. Adults know children and families well, treating them with great care. They work hard to give pupils a firm foundation on which to build their future learning.

Consequently, pupils are prepared well, both academically and socially, for moving on to junior school at the end of Year 2.

Parents value how adults in school help their children to feel safe and nurtured. Instances of bullying and poor behaviour are rare.

Pupils are kind to each other and respectful towards their teachers and other adults in the school. Th...ose who need extra help to make the right choices are supported well. As a result, the atmosphere around the school is happy and calm.

The school's values are evident throughout. Leaders aspire for pupils to be curious, determined, respectful and collaborative. Staff constantly model the school's values, setting a great example, which pupils follow.

Pupils understand adults' high expectations for their learning and wider development. They rise to meet the challenge set.

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

Throughout their time at the school, pupils experience a broad curriculum that prepares them successfully for key stage 2.

Teachers know their subjects well, enabling them to plan useful learning for pupils. This learning begins in the early years, where children gain the language and skills they will need as they get older. In key stage 1, learning aligns more closely to specific subjects, with careful thought given to what pupils need to learn and when.

Across all three years, reading, writing and mathematics are prioritised appropriately while still giving pupils the chance to gain vital early knowledge of other subjects.

Children's learning journeys start well in the early years. Children participate in a range of useful activities that support their learning across the curriculum.

The environment is safe and carefully managed, with the outside space used thoughtfully. Adults understand children's needs and care for them sensitively. However, their knowledge of what children can and cannot do is not used as well as it could be to inform planning for future sessions.

Nevertheless, children benefit from their early years experience.

Leaders are passionate about wanting pupils to become enthusiastic and capable readers. Their recent, useful work has reinvigorated the school's approach to teaching pupils how to read, recognising that the previous approach was not meeting pupils' needs well enough.

Investments in staff training and resources are ensuring a clear and effective approach to teaching phonics, starting early on in the Reception Year. Pupils who need extra help to keep up with their peers are supported well by knowledgeable adults. Consequently, pupils quickly learn to read accurately and fluently.

Pupils enjoy reading with adults at home and experiencing a wide and carefully chosen range of stories during 'book talk' time at school.

Pupils with identified special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported well. Where appropriate, they access the same broad curriculum as other pupils.

Leaders proactively access help from beyond the school, where needed, such as speech and language therapy and support for behaviour. However, some other pupils have not had their special educational needs identified promptly and precisely enough. This limits the extra help beyond the school that they are able to access.

Leaders have taken recent steps to improve the timeliness of how pupils' additional needs are identified, but there is more to do.

Pupils' personal development is at the heart of the school's work. Leaders have thought carefully about how the school's values are lived and breathed, via the personal, social, and health education curriculum, assemblies and other deliberately planned learning experiences.

Relevant topics, such as relationships and health education, are covered in a timely and meaningful way. Careful thought has been given to pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development within the context of this infant school. 'Book talk' texts are deliberately chosen to promote cultural awareness and help pupils begin to understand their place in the world.

Leaders hold an accurate view of the school's strengths and weaknesses. They look beyond the school to learn from the expertise and experiences of others. This helps them to reflect and adapt where aspects of the school are not as effective as they would like.

Staff trust their senior leaders to consider their welfare while being uncompromising about their expectations for providing what pupils deserve.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Across the school, there is a culture of vigilance and support.

Staff, leaders and governors are trained well to understand and carry out their respective safeguarding roles. Leaders prioritise giving pupils useful knowledge about understanding risk through the taught safety curriculum. This gives pupils the vocabulary and voice to tell adults when something 'isn't ok'.

Rigorous systems help leaders keep a careful eye on any concerns that may arise, enabling them to act swiftly if they need to. Consequently, this is an environment where pupils feel safe with their trusted adults.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The special educational needs of some pupils are not formally identified quickly enough.

Where this is the case, pupils' needs are not always understood well enough or met precisely by the adults who work with them. Leaders need to ensure that pupils' additional needs are identified and assessed promptly so that they are understood by all and so that appropriate support can be quickly put in place. ? In the early years, some of what children need to learn is not identified clearly enough.

Other than in literacy and mathematics, adults' checks on what children have learned do not systematically influence what they learn next. As a result, adults do not plan precisely enough to meet children's emerging needs across the wider curriculum. Leaders should make sure that learning in the early years builds precisely and deliberately on what children currently know and can do so that they are even better prepared for key stage 1.

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