Springfield Infant School and Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Springfield Infant School

Following my visit to the school on 5 February 2019, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings.

The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in March 2015. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection.

Under your determined and steadfast leadership, Springfield Infants has gone from strength to strength. The addition of the nursery since the previous inspection has further enhanced provision. The continuous infant education that is ...now provided is highly regarded by parents and offers pupils a caring, inclusive and high-quality start to their education.

You have developed leadership across the school most effectively. This has helped to ensure that all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), have their needs met well. Springfields is a place where pupils thrive.

They enjoy coming to school and attend well. They enjoy their learning because it is fun and the many adults who teach and help them are kind. Pupils know what is expected of them.

They are well supported by clear systems to help manage behaviour. They relish the many opportunities to be involved in the wider life of the school through clubs and by taking on roles such as eco-warriors or junior governors. Parents value the school highly, and all of those completing the Ofsted survey, Parent View, would recommend it.

Comments such as, 'My child is settled and confident' and, 'A lovely community school where children feel they belong' were typical of those received. You have maintained the strengths identified at the previous inspection. Children make strong progress in the early years because highly skilled teaching makes learning both fun and challenging.

During the inspection, children were happily engaged in a wide range of activity to develop their skills across the early years curriculum. A clear focus on developing children's speech and language skills was evident and expectations were high. Staff are skilled at supporting children in group work, but also at standing back and allowing children to practise the skills they are learning independently through play and exploration.

Spiritual, moral, social and cultural education runs like a unifying thread throughout the school. Pupils and adults model the school's values in all that they do, both through planned activity such as assembly and in everyday interactions. As a result, the school is a happy place where everyone feels valued and included.

Pupils help each other. For instance, during the inspection a child from Reception Year supported a child in the Nursery to make painted letters connected to the Chinese New Year. Pupils relish the many opportunities to be part of their community through the many visits and visitors and events such as singing in the local care home.

The well-developed curriculum is central to teaching and learning across the school. Well-connected sequences of learning around topics such as space and explorers ensure that pupils' learning is interesting and develops their understanding well. Pupils told me how much they enjoy developing art skills through, for example, learning batik.

They also appreciate the many sporting activities you provide. You have addressed the areas for improvement from the previous inspection. Systems for the transfer of information, including for governance and phonics, are robust and detailed at all levels.

Teaching across the school is effective and leaders have raised outcomes across the school, particularly in writing. There are some groups of pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils, whose achievement in some aspects of the curriculum is not good enough. Regular review and meticulous tracking of pupils' progress is beginning to address this and the achievement of current disadvantaged pupils is rising.

Safeguarding is effective. Processes and systems for recruitment are clear and follow appropriate guidelines and documentation. Child protection is at the heart of the school.

Concerns are reported, recorded and acted on in a timely fashion. Work with other agencies is individualised and effective. Pupils feel safe at the school.

They trust in the adults to act to keep them safe. They have a good knowledge of how to keep themselves safe, including online. During the inspection, there was a focus day on online safety, which pupils engaged in confidently and knowledgably.

All staff and parents who spoke to me or completed the Ofsted survey felt that pupils were safe and well cared for at school. Inspection findings ? During the inspection we looked closely together at the way leaders, including governors, use information to ensure that pupils' needs are met well. All information scrutinised during the inspection was detailed and used well to support pupils in a wide range of ways.

Governance is effective. Governors use a wide range of information, such as recently developed monitoring visit reports, to ensure that they know the strengths of the school and what it needs to do to improve. ? We looked together at the provision across the school for pupils with SEND.

Leadership for pupils with SEND is very effective. Learning for this group of pupils is meticulously planned and incorporates the views of parents, teachers and other professionals from within the school and beyond. The inclusion manager ensures that pupils receive the right support so that they can make good progress from their starting points in a wide range of ways.

• Pupils with SEND are included well in school. As a result, they grow in confidence and thrive. Pupils with SEND who spoke to me were rightly proud of their achievements and their school.

• We looked together closely at the achievement of the most able pupils. In the 2018 national assessments at the end of Year 2 the most able pupils did not achieve well in reading or writing. However, effective development of writing means that the current most able pupils are making good progress from their starting points.

Their books show development in sentence construction and confident use of rich vocabulary. During the inspection, we saw a small group of pupils writing poetry. Their vocabulary choices were impressive and supported well by the accurate use of a thesaurus.

Pupils told me how their teachers help them to improve their writing with clear and focused feedback. Leaders' work to develop pupils' handwriting has helped pupils to develop a high degree of pride in their work. Reading and writing skills are well linked in tasks to strengthen pupils' understanding of vocabulary further.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the achievement in reading and mathematics of disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, improves across the school. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for West Sussex. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Deborah Gordon Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, we met regularly together. I also met with members of the governing body and with staff. I had a conversation with a representative from the local authority to gather their views of the school.

I reviewed documentation, including information about pupils' achievement, the school improvement plan and safeguarding checks, policies and procedures. Together, we visited classes across the school. In lessons, I observed pupils learning, looked at their books, heard them read and spoke to pupils about their work.

I had a meeting with pupils to gather their views of the school. I took into account the views of parents I met on the playground. I also considered 21 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, including 17 free-text responses and I also took account of 16 responses to the staff survey.