Rowley Lane Junior Infant and Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Rowley Lane Junior Infant and Nursery School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils say that they enjoy coming to school.

Pupils helped to craft the school motto of 'believe, achieve and succeed'. This helps to keep everyone happy and focused. They adhere to the values of 'respect, honesty, teamwork, belief, passion and determination'.

These values guide pupils to work well alone and when working in teams. They also say that the values guide them to treat one another with care and respect.

Pupils' behaviour and their attitudes to learning are very good.

They are polite and friendly to each other. They are also very po...lite to the adults they work with. Pupils enjoy each other's company and are respectful of one another's views.

Pupils are keen and eager to learn in lessons which help them to achieve well. Pupils said that there is no bullying. They trust adults to help them resolve any issues should they occur.

Some older pupils enjoy taking on responsibilities such as sports leaders. They enjoy creating games to make playtimes happy and active occasions.

Parents are very positive about the school.

One summed up the view of many: 'The school have the children's best interests at the centre of everything they do.'

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

Leaders, staff and governors share the same high ambitions for all pupils to achieve well. They know what is working well in the school and what needs to improve.

They provide pupils with a broad and engaging curriculum. Staff worked together and thought how to revise the curriculum. They have developed new plans that help pupils to know and remember more in a wide range of subjects.

The plans make it clear about what to teach pupils and in what order. In PE, for example, pupils learn how to master skills of balancing on their own. They then use these skills to work with a partner to create careful sequences.

Leaders and governors know that some plans need reviewing as they become embedded. This will help them to know how well the plans are working and where to make refinements.

The mathematics curriculum is well ordered and helps teachers to plan effectively.

Teachers teach new concepts in bite-sized chunks. As a result, this helps pupils to remember important ideas. Pupils use their prior knowledge when learning new things.

For example, pupils use knowledge of fractions when calculating real-life money percentage problems. Pupils enjoy the active nature of lessons. Children in the early years enjoy singing well-known songs when counting.

This helps them to understand the size of numbers and to add and subtract with ease. This means they are well prepared for Year 1. Pupils also enjoy using their thinking skills and explaining their ideas mathematically.

In 2019, pupils achieved well in the key stage 1 and 2 national assessments.

The curriculum goes beyond the academic subjects. Pupils enjoy the wide range of activities that take place both during and after the school day.

The proportion of pupils participating in activities is impressive. Disadvantaged pupils or those with special educational needs/and or disabilities (SEND) attend. Pupils talked with enthusiasm about the clubs they enjoy.

For example, multi-sports, yoga, glee, drama and art are all popular. Parents shared positive views about the menu of activities on offer.

Leaders and staff ensure that reading is a top priority.

From their first day in school, children learn phonics. Children in the Reception year and key stage 1 enjoy phonics sessions. They love learning to apply their phonics knowledge to read and write words.

Pupils build up their reading stamina by reading regularly at school and home. Pupils enjoy reading and receiving rewards for reading often. On the whole, pupils read books that are at the right level for their reading ability.

However, for pupils in the earliest stages of reading, some books are not matched to the sounds they know.

Staff enjoy coming to work and are passionate about their role. This reflects in their morale and close team-working.

Leaders and governors are considerate to staff well-being and teachers' workload. They have responded to teachers' views about workload at the school. Leaders have worked hard to reduce burdens.

They have streamlined marking procedures and written reports to parents.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders make sure that all staff receive regular briefings to carry out their roles.

Staff know the risks pupils in their community may face. This means that staff are well informed and know what to look out for if pupils are at risk. Staff make sure that pupils are safe and well cared for.

Staff teach pupils how to keep safe. They teach pupils to take care when working online and when using mobile technology.

Leaders and governors ensure that staff recruitment procedures are robust.

They carry out pre-employment checks on staff and volunteers. This ensures that recruitment and induction of staff and volunteers are meticulous.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

Leaders have revised the curriculum well.

However, some curriculum plans such as PE, French and history are at an early stage of development and implementation. As a result, the quality of education across curriculum subjects is developing. Leaders need to check whether further refinements may be needed as the curriculum becomes embedded and evolves.

Leaders and governors should continue to ensure that their monitoring of the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum is thorough. . Sometimes, pupils in the earliest stages of reading have books that do not match the sounds they already know.

This means that they are unable to practise their reading with fluency and with understanding. Leaders should ensure that reading books are matched precisely so that pupils can build their confidence and read with accuracy.

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 a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that the school could now be better than good or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged Rowley Lane Junior Infant and Nursery School to be good on 31 March – 1 April 2015.

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