Manor Infant and Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils get off to a great start in their education here. Strong relationships between adults and children, right from when they join the nursery, means that children settle quickly and learn happily.

Adults ensure that they get to know pupils as individuals. Across the school, pupils feel safe, secure and truly cared for.

The school aspires for all pupils to achieve their very best.

Since the previous inspection, the school has made rapid improvements to the curriculum. Pupils are benefitting well from this. Pupils strive to be successful.

They work hard, relish learning new knowledge and skills and generally achieve well.

Pupils enjoy a wid...e variety of experiences that enrich the curriculum. Visits to the beach and Portsmouth museums enhance their understanding of local history.

Pupils' love of reading is enriched through working with authors who visit the school and by regular trips to the local library.

The school encourages pupils to make a positive contribution to their community. They learn how to relate to people through visiting care homes and joining in with community groups at the local church.

Furthermore, pupils learn to care for others through raising money for charities which are close to their hearts.

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

The school has designed an ambitious curriculum. It sets out the important knowledge and skills that the pupils need to learn right from the start of Nursery to the end of Year 2.

It ensures that all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), develop the understanding and have the experiences that they need to be successful.

Since the previous inspection, the school has worked hard to improve how well pupils learn to read and write. This is particularly in light of the below average national test results in 2023.

Some of the impact of these improvements is evident in pupils' work today. In writing, strong staff subject knowledge now develops pupils' understanding well. Teachers provide regular, helpful feedback to pupils.

This helps pupils to write accurately, use a wide vocabulary and achieve well.

The school prioritises teaching pupils to read. Pupils learn phonics using a well-structured programme.

Teachers make sure that swift interventions help pupils to keep up with the phonics programme. Pupils read books matched closely to their phonics knowledge. This enables them to practise reading fluently with confidence.

In some other subjects, pupils are achieving well. For instance, in physical education (PE), pupils have many opportunities to revisit and practise important skills such as throwing and catching. Furthermore, pupils with SEND learn a wide range of PE skills through carefully adapted activities.

This reflects the whole school's approach in ensuring the needs of pupils with SEND are well-known and carefully considered.However, when subjects have been reviewed or redeveloped more recently, teachers' subject knowledge is not as secure as it could be. Occasionally, teachers do not use the most effective strategies to help pupils connect ideas together and remember what they have learned.

This means that pupils do not always achieve as well as they could. For example, in mathematics, some pupils do not have the chance to use their mathematical knowledge often enough for them to cement their understanding.

Pupils generally behave well around the school and in lessons.

The school has high expectations for pupils' behaviour. These are clearly understood and consistently applied across the school. Furthermore, effective additional help to manage their behaviour is provided for those pupils who need this.

The school is tenacious in ensuring that pupils attend school. While attendance rates for most pupils are positive, there are a few pupils who do not attend school as well as they should. The school's work to improve the attendance of these pupils is helping to bring about necessary improvements.

Work to support pupils' personal development is strong. Pupils learn how to be a good friend. They know what makes a healthy relationship and why it is important to be tolerant and kind towards each other.

Pupils have secure knowledge of healthy eating. They also know that regular exercise helps the heart and strengthens bones and joints. Children in the early years learn about the importance of dental hygiene and enjoy their daily teeth cleaning session.

Leaders do not stand still in their drive to improve the school. All leaders in the school, including governors, share the same high aspiration for pupils to achieve well. Regular training ensures that staff are suitably equipped to help pupils learn and succeed.

Staff enjoy working at the school. There is a real sense of community here with everyone working together to continue to improve the education provided.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some elements of the curriculum are at an earlier stage of implementation than others. Where this is the case, staff's knowledge about what pupils must learn and how to teach this so that pupils know and remember more needs to develop further. The school needs to continue to develop staff's subject knowledge and their understanding of highly effective teaching strategies so that they can support all pupils to achieve well across the whole curriculum.

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