St Mary’s CofE Aided Infant School, Frensham

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

St Mary's CofE Aided Infant School, Frensham continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love their small, friendly school. Leaders have created a caring atmosphere, where strong relationships ensure that pupils respect each other. Pupils enjoy each other's company.

We saw pupils of all ages chatting happily together over lunch. They like many aspects of school life, such as learning on Frensham Common, school trips and computing lessons.

Leaders have created a strong sense of tradition and belonging within the St Mary's community.

The school proudly displays its rich history. As one parent commented, 'Alongside a strong curriculum..., the school blends in the fun rituals of village life.' Pupils told inspectors about how much they enjoy running stalls at Frensham Fayre – a highlight in the school calendar.

Pupils feel safe in school. They know that adults will always listen to them. Pupils commented on how much they trust adults that work with them.

They are not concerned about bullying in their happy and nurturing school.

Pupils rise to the high expectations that adults have for them, in both their behaviour and their learning. They are confident and eager to learn, polite and want to please.

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

Leaders make sure that reading is central to life at St Mary's. They are ambitious that all pupils learn to read as quickly as possible. Pupils enjoy reading a wide variety of books, both at school and at home.

They love choosing what to read from the school library and sharing a book with Isla, 'the reading dog'. The 'library garden' provides pupils with relaxing spots to read in.

Staff have received high-quality phonics (letters and the sounds they represent) training.

Teaching is skilled. Leaders make sure that teachers know exactly what order to teach new sounds. Children in the early years get great satisfaction from completing phonics tasks, proudly reading back their own writing to adults.

They willingly try out their new learning. For example, a child attempted to write the word 'vegetable' using the sounds that they knew. Staff quickly spot any pupil who is struggling to keep up and well-planned support is put in place.

As a result, pupils attain well. All pupils reached the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check in 2019.

Teachers receive useful training to help them teach different subjects.

They use assessment carefully to check pupils' understanding and help them to learn. Leaders have mapped out the intended end points in the curriculum for each year group. However, in some subjects, leaders have not yet worked out the precise order they want pupils to learn new knowledge to get to these end points.

Sometimes these end points are not demanding enough for the most able pupils.

Leaders supplement the curriculum with well-planned visitors and trips. For example, leaders want pupils' resilience to improve so they arranged a visit from a polar explorer.

He taught pupils about the importance of teamwork and the perseverance needed to reach the North Pole.

The school's values, which include respect, honesty and fairness, help pupils reflect on how to behave with each other and the world around them. Leaders ensure that pupils have opportunities to understand how to respect the environment and nature.

Staff make great use of the local woodlands. They support pupils to take risks, while building their self-esteem. Leaders foster pupils' personal development well.

For example, pupils regularly learn about healthy eating, including opportunities to cook and how to live a healthy life.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) learn well. Staff understand the needs of pupils with SEND.

They work with parents and outside agencies to make sure that they have thought of everything that might help a pupil further. Pupils, including those with SEND, benefit from a carefully planned transition to junior school.

Pupils enjoy their learning.

Occasionally, pupils get overexcited by an activity. Staff skilfully focus the pupils back to the task at hand. Pupils understand the behaviour policy well.

Staff are vigilant to ensure that bullying does not happen. Pupils are friendly to each other. All parents who responded to Ofsted Parent View confirmed that their children had not experienced bullying at St Mary's.

Staff enjoy working at the school. They say that leaders help them in managing behaviour when needed. Leaders are considerate of their workload.

There is a great team spirit at St Mary's, with staff supporting each other well.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders ensure that safeguarding is a high priority.

Pre-employment checks are carried out thoroughly. Adults who work or volunteer in the school are clear on what to do if they have a concern about a child. Communication is strong among the staff team.

They have regular safeguarding training. Weekly updates ensure that the needs of any vulnerable pupils are at the forefront of everyone's mind. Parents are highly complimentary about the care their children receive at St Mary's.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

Leaders ensure that the most able pupils are stretched well in subjects such as reading, writing and mathematics. Work in these subjects matches leaders' curriculum aims well. However, work in other subjects is not always demanding enough.

Leaders need to develop the curriculum further, in subjects such as history and geography, to ensure that all pupils are challenged to develop their skills and knowledge. . Pupils enjoy a broad and balanced curriculum.

Leaders have carefully planned some subjects so that teachers are clear about the order in which they teach content. This is very successful in English and mathematics, as well as in science and computing. However, this is not the case in all subjects.

Leaders need to make sure that learning in all subjects is coherently planned and sequenced to the end points that they have already defined. Leaders need to make sure that staff are well trained to deliver it.

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 second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good on 30 September – 1 October 2010.

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