St Michael and All Angels CofE Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

St Michael and All Angels is a good school.

The executive headteacher gives a strong steer to the school's work and has a clear vision for its development. She is using federation status well to provide increased benefits to the school. This is seen in the joint Forest Schools and Dance projects and in the sharing of staff expertise from across the federation to support writing improvements, as well as in the way in which heads of learning are enabled to support each other in their roles.

Staff provide a caring, welcoming environment and this ensures that pupils are happy to come to school and attend regularly. Pupils feel extremely safe in school and fully confident of adult support should t...hey need it; they clearly reported to inspectors that there is no bullying at the school. They have an excellent understanding of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, confidently talking about the importance of exercise to increase their heart rate and the need for pasta and bread in order to release energy slowly.

Parents and carers are mainly happy with the school and what it provides. They strongly agree that the school helps their children to have a healthy lifestyle and ensures that they are safe. Excellent relationships and an effective learning environment ensure children settle well into school routines and quickly become confident, active learners.

They make good progress during their time in the Reception class and achieve well. By the end of Year 2, attainment is above average in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils make good progress given their starting points.

There has been a notable improvement in writing recently due to a strong emphasis on sounds and letters work, regular opportunities for extended writing and the use of talk and storytelling as a means of encouraging good writing. Teachers organise and manage lessons well and ensure a good match of work to pupils' needs. They use support staff effectively to work with small groups.

Although staff interact well with pupils, they do not always challenge them sufficiently through effective questioning and this slows their progress. Teachers mark work regularly and set targets for pupils but do not always ensure pupils know what they need to do to improve or refer to their targets as a means of supporting this. This limits pupils' ability to assess how well they are doing or be involved in improving their work.

The curriculum is broad and balanced and enriched well through the use of topics and special events such as World Book Day. Rigorous tracking of pupils' progress and effective actions to support those falling behind ensures all groups of pupils make similarly good progress. Leaders have a clear and accurate view of the school and know what needs to be done to bring about further improvement.

The school has maintained its overall good provision since the previous inspection and the benefits of federation, such as the joint writing review, are beginning to impact positively on the work of the school. There is a clear focus on raising attainment further through rigorous tracking and effective support. On the evidence of the progress made so far, the school has good capacity for sustained improvement.

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Information about the school

St Michael and All Angels is much smaller than the average-sized infant school.

There is a below average proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups, some of whom are at an early stage of learning English. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average; these are mainly speech and language difficulties. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average.

The school is part of the Oaks Church of England Learning Federation, which was formed in May 2009. It is part of a hard federation consisting of three schools. A new executive headteacher was appointed in April 2010.

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