Pashley Down Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Pashley Down Infant School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are very happy at this unique school.

The school's values, such as respect, kindness and resilience, are known and understood by pupils exceptionally well. Pupils are inspired by thoughtful extra-curricular activities and opportunities to care for each other and their school environment. For example, pupils love the school farm, which includes chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs.

The school allotment, which includes an apiary, gives pupils wider experiences such as checking honey being made as part of project work about bees. Trips, like visits to the neighbouring South Do...wns, motivate pupils to try their best with their work. Pupils learn about road and sea safety and welcome visitors, including authors and musicians.

These experiences help pupils to develop confidence and positive attitudes to their learning.

Staff have high expectations for pupils' behaviour. The playground is calm and full of imaginative play.

Clear boundaries and strong pastoral support contribute significantly to pupils feeling safe. The school has the highest ambition for all pupils to achieve strong outcomes across the curriculum. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well.

Leaders have rightly focused on improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils to ensure that these pupils achieve as well as their peers.

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

Pupils' work is presented beautifully throughout the curriculum. Pupils are proud of their handwriting and the work that they produce.

All subjects are designed and sequenced with clear steps of knowledge that build from Reception to the end of Year 2. Lessons often link to experiences in the outdoors skilfully and utilise a wide range of classroom resources that support learning well. In mathematics, pupils represent their thinking confidently and securely.

They solve problems and learn to notice patterns, explaining their reasoning clearly. In subjects like art and design, pupils develop a wide range of techniques and understand the curriculum fully. For example, pupils learn about observational drawing and build on this by learning about tone, hatching and the work of famous artists.

Pupils with SEND have their individual needs identified quickly. They receive help through adapted resources, depending on pupils' needs. Where necessary, staff work with external agencies such as speech and language therapists to ensure that all pupils achieve well.

Including in Reception, staff help pupils to retain key knowledge and skills by revisiting learning and connecting lessons to purposeful activities and trips such as to galleries, parks and the beach. Although the school has developed an assessment system for foundation subjects, the strategies used to check how well children have learned and retained knowledge are not yet consistently and effectively utilised in all lessons across the school. This means that some pupils do not always build on their prior knowledge and achieve as well as they could.

Pupils learn to read effectively. The school has a thoughtfully designed approach to phonics that helps those at the earliest stages of reading to be successful. Staff have secure subject knowledge.

They model the pronunciation of sounds consistently well and implement the phonics programme diligently. Books are generally matched to the sounds that pupils have learned, but the school is developing this further to ensure that reading books that pupils take home match those sounds precisely.

Pupils enjoy a wide range of opportunities that stretch their talents and interests such as art, gymnastics, tennis and yoga.

Pupils can describe being respectful and resilient with clear links to the curriculum and events such as whole-school assemblies which celebrate values and achievements each week. Pupils are enthusiastic about receiving 'class dojo' points for making the right choices and being noticed for doing the right thing. Pupils thrive in their responsibilities and their roles, such as school councillors, librarians and digital leaders.

Pupils learn about staying safe online and help each other, with one pupil sharing that everyone should 'zip it, block it, and flag it' to anything that causes upset online. Pupils have good attendance. If any pupils are at risk of poor attendance the school supports them sensitively and effectively.

The school analyses attendance information carefully and does all it can to support pupils and their families. This helps to ensure that the curriculum is taught effectively.

Governors carry out their roles very effectively.

They have rightly prioritised ensuring consistent high achievement for disadvantaged pupils at the school. Governors meet all their statutory obligations. The school engages with staff positively to help all feel supported with their workload.

Parents appreciate how thoughtfully and positively staff work in partnership with them. One parent summarised the views of many, saying that the school 'is a wonderful place that has the individual child at the centre of everything [it does].'

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school has been developing its approach to checking pupils' understanding in foundation subjects, and this work needs to continue. The school should continue to develop the assessment system, and use information gathered to address errors and misconceptions so that all pupils achieve exceptionally well.

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 January 2014.