Mengham Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Key findings

This continues to be a good school. All areas identified for improvement at the previous inspection have been successfully addressed. The management team has built upon the school's many strengths and developed teaching and the outdoor learning environment for the Early Years Foundation Stage, as well as improving pupils' rate of attendance and punctuality significantly, and lifting the quality of behaviour and safety to outstanding.

The school is not outstanding overall, because the teaching is not yet leading to outstanding achievement. Achievement is good. Pupils make consistently good progress and are attaining above average standards in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 2.
...r/>Target setting is well developed in literacy so that pupils understand what they need to do next, but is not yet consistent across all subjects. Teaching is consistently good with an increasing amount of outstanding practice. Increasing the opportunities for pupils of all abilities, especially higher attainers, to solve problems and explore their own ideas has raised the levels of challenge and enjoyment.

On occasions, teachers miss opportunities to allow pupils to work in this way, thus holding back their progress. Pupils behave exceptionally well and display extremely positive attitudes towards their work, each other and adults in the school. The atmosphere in and around the school is extremely calm and orderly.

The school is exceedingly effective at ensuring pupils are kept safe. The headteacher provides clear vision for driving improvement. The management of teaching and learning is effective and staff are held fully accountable for pupils' progress.

The school is successfully increasing the opportunities for middle managers to check the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms, to supplement the monitoring carried out by senior leaders. Performance management is systematic and leads to well-targeted professional development.

Information about the school

This is smaller than average-sized infant school.

Most pupils are of White British heritage, with a small number from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs varies from year to year but is lower than the national average. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below the national average.

The school has achieved a number of external accreditations, including Healthy Schools status and the Activemark for sports provision. The site is shared by a voluntary sector pre-school, before- and after-school clubs and a holiday club, in addition to an independent nursery. These extended services are not managed by the governing body and did not form part of the inspection.

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