Hetts Lane Infant and Nursery School

Age group 3–7 Inspection date(s) 6–7 March 2012 Inspection number 380481 Hetts Lane Infant and Nursery School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 122496 Local authority Nottinghamshire Inspection number 380481 Inspection dates 6–7 March 2012 Lead inspector Jeremy Spencer HMI

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Type of school Infant School category Community Age range of pupils 3–7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 234 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Peter Crawford Headteacher Sarah Cahill Date of previous school inspection 25 March 2009 School address Hetts Lane Warsop Mansfield NG20 0AS Telephone number 01623 842224 Fax number 01623 845056 Email address office@hettslane.notts.sch.uk achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked

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after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different forma t, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when.

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You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. Inspectors observed teaching and learning in 15 lessons, taught by seven teachers. This accounted for nine hours of inspection time. Meetings were held with pupils, representatives of the governing body and school staff. Inspectors took account of the online questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection. They observed the school’s work, including school policies, attendance data, the school development plan, minutes of the governing body’s meetings, assessment data and planning documentation. Inspectors met informally with some parents and carers and scrutinised questionnaires completed by 116 parents and carers and 28 staff.

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Information about the school

This is an average-sized infant and nursery school. The vast majority of pupils are of White British heritage and almost all speak English as their first language. The proportion known to be eligible for free school meals is above average. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is below average. However, several pupils with additional behavioural needs have recently joined the school. A breakfast club, managed by the school’s governing body, operates on the school site.

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Information about the school

The school has gained Healthy Schools status and has achieved the Investors In People award. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Key findings

 This is a good school and it operates in a warm and caring environment. Pupils and their families greatly value the support and guidance received from the school. The school is not outstanding because the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement are not outstanding.  Pupils’ achievement is good. Children join the Nursery with skills well below those expected for three-year-olds. Individuals and different groups of pupils make good progress in developing their reading, writing and mathematics skills as they move through the school. They leave Year 2 with standards broadly in line with those expected for their age.  The quality of teaching is good. As a result, pupils make good progress over time. Teachers assess pupils’ needs well to ensure that learning is at the right level for most pupils. However, on some occasions, lessons are not challenging enough for more-able pupils, particularly in mathematics. There are some

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Key findings

examples of ineffective marking in the school. Teachers are skilled in using a range of strategies to successfully engage pupils in learning. However, boys are not encouraged frequently enough by staff to engage in activities to develop their writing skills in the Early Years Foundation Stage.  Pupils’ behaviour is good and pupils feel safe in school. The school manages the behaviour of pupils with additional needs well. Disruptive behaviour rarely interrupts the learning of other pupils.  The quality of the leadership and management of the school is good. Senior leaders monitor the work of the school effectively and accurately identify areas of teaching requiring improvement. They produce clear and well-constructed action plans. Consequently, staff understand the school’s priorities and have made good progress in addressing weaknesses identified in the school’s previous inspection. The headteacher manages the performance of staff

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Key findings

rigorously, sensitively and effectively.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise pupils’ attainment, accelerate progress and improve the quality of Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

teaching by:  ensuring that learning activities provide greater challenge for more-able pupils, particularly in mathematics  improving the quality of teachers’ marking to ensure it has greater impact upon the learning of all groups of pupils  ensuring that staff in the Early Years Foundation Stage engage boys more effectively in activities to develop their writing skills.

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Achievement of pupils

The overwhelming majority of parents and carers feel that their children make good progress in their learning. Inspectors agree that pupils, including those who are disabled or have special educational needs, make good progress from their starting points.

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Achievement of pupils

Children enter the Early Years Foundation Stage with skills below those expected for their age, particularly their communication, language and literacy skills and also in their personal, social and emotional development. Close links with parents and carers help children settle confidently and quickly into school routines. Children make good progress in the Nursery and Reception classes because staff teach them well in a safe and stimulating environment. Although a varied range of activities is provided to support the development of children’s writing skills, boys do not engage in these activities as often as girls, because staff do not encourage them to do so frequently enough. This slows the progress they make. Strong provision ensures that children make good progress in developing their speaking and listening skills. Positive relationships and high staff expectations support the good development of children’s

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Achievement of pupils

personal, social and emotional development.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils make good, consistent progress in Years 1 and 2 in developing their writing and mathematics skills. Pupils make good progress in reading because the school teaches phonics (the sounds that letters make) effectively. By the end of Year 2, pupils’ attainment is average in reading, writing and mathematics.

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Achievement of pupils

The school tracks the progress of different groups of pupils carefully, and this enables teachers to swiftly identify if pupils fall behind. Appropriate and timely intervention and support are provided for these learners. As a result, pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, and disabled pupils or those who have special educational needs, make good progress. However, the progress of more-able pupils is less strong because learning activities are not always sufficiently challenging for them, particularly in mathematics lessons.

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Achievement of pupils

Work observed in pupils’ books indicates that pupils’ achievement over time is good. Learning seen during the inspection was good in most lessons and at least satisfactory in all lessons. Pupils were observed enjoying learning and making good progress. For example, during one lesson in a Reception class, children helped a Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Achievement of pupils

teaching assistant, posing as a giant, to put on clothes in the correct order. Children giggled and took great delight in the activity, while thinking carefully and cooperating with each other to solve problems.

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Quality of teaching

The overwhelming majority of parents and carers who responded to the questionnaire said they think their children are well cared for and well taught by staff. The quality of teaching is good and, as a result, pupils achieve well over time. Teachers have high expectations of pupils, and motivate and build their self-esteem skilfully and effectively. As a result, pupils show tenacity and a determination to succeed. Teachers demonstrate good subject knowledge across the curriculum. A suitably brisk pace of learning is usually maintained in lessons. However, on some occasions, more-able pupils are not challenged as well as they could be in lessons and their pace of learning drops. Typically, this is because they are kept on the carpet for too long, while teachers reinforce concepts they have already grasped, for the benefit of middle and lower-ability pupils.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers successfully use a broad range of strategies to keep pupils engaged. For example, they frequently build in opportunities for pupils to discuss learning with a partner or with a small group during their input at the beginning of lessons. Teaching assistants provide high-quality support for learners. They were observed supporting the attention and focus of pupils very well during lessons and skilfully questioning pupils to develop and improve their understanding. Teachers mark pupils work regularly; however, there is considerable variability in the quality and usefulness of teachers’ comments. Consequently, the impact of marking on pupils’ learning is weak.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers consistently share their expectations of children’s learning at the beginning of lessons and review progress at the end of the lesson. However, teachers do not make the best use of ‘mini-plenaries’ (discussions about pupils’ learning during the lesson) to re-focus pupils’ attention towards intended learning outcomes, and assess their learning against these. Homework is organised well by teachers and supports pupils’ good progress across the school.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers deliver the school’s curriculum effectively and make purposeful links between different subjects to consolidate pupils’ understanding. Teachers also ensure that pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is developed well. For example, in a good lesson observed during the inspection, pupils in Year 2 discussed moral dilemmas. The teacher skilfully probed and developed pupils’ understanding, allowing pupils to consolidate their thinking during moments of reflection.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The behaviour and safety of pupils are good. All pupils spoken to during the inspection said that they feel safe in school, and all parents and carers who responded to the questionnaire confirm this. Pupils demonstrate a satisfactory understanding for their age of what could constitute an unsafe situation. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Almost all parents and carers say that pupils’ behaviour is good at the school. Discussions with pupils confirm that, although there are some incidents of poor behaviour, these are dealt with effectively by staff. For example, a group of pupils told inspectors over lunch, ‘Some people mess around but only sometimes. When teachers tell them off, they always stop it.’ Pupils were observed during the inspection behaving well in classrooms and in other areas of the school. They were polite and considerate of each other’s needs. Pupils also behave well at the school’s breakfast club and were observed by inspectors enjoying a healthy breakfast and playing together happily. The school works with partners from other agencies effectively to support those with additional behavioural needs. As a result, and when combined with good behaviour management strategies in the school, their behaviour over time is improving. Incidents of bullying are unusual. When bullying does occur,

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

the school records the incident and responds quickly, appropriately and effectively.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils’ low attendance was highlighted as an issue for improvement at the time of the last inspection. The school has implemented a broad range of attendance improvement strategies. These have made a positive impact and, as a result, attendance has risen sharply. Attendance in the current academic year is only slightly below the national average.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher, very well supported by senior leaders, successfully builds the ambition of staff. Communication between members of staff is strong. They cooperate with each other well, feel valued and have a clear understanding of the school’s priorities. These factors combine together to foster the determination of staff to continue to improve. Staff are very receptive to training and development and have responded particularly well to training to encourage the more frequent use of problem-solving activities in mathematics lessons.

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Leadership and management

Leaders and managers have well-planned strategies in place to monitor and improve the quality of teaching and improve pupils’ achievement. For example, they undertake regular scrutinies of pupils’ work and frequently observe colleagues’ teaching. Information gleaned from monitoring is woven skilfully into the well-written school development plan, which clearly identifies when and how the impact of the school’s actions upon pupils’ learning will be measured. Members of the governing body are engaged in monitoring the effectiveness of the plan and provide good challenge and support to the school.

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Leadership and management

The curriculum is good and meets the needs of pupils well. Teachers carefully plan the progressive development of pupils’ skills. Pupils are given frequent opportunities to develop their extended writing skills as part of topic work. However, opportunities for them to develop and apply their mathematics skills are less frequent. Pupils have particularly enjoyed learning about Africa and other parts of the world, and have gained an improved understanding of different cultures as a result. However, pupils’ understanding of different cultures within their own country remains underdeveloped. The school has well developed plans in place to address this. The Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Leadership and management

curriculum supports the good development of pupils’ spiritual, moral and social skills.

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Leadership and management

A particular strength of this school is the caring and supportive way in which relationships with families are built and maintained. The school provides good advice and guidance to parents and carers and this is very well appreciated. One parent commented, ‘The school has been very supportive to us in helping us to understand our child’s needs and education.’ Other parents and carers made similar comments.

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Leadership and management

The school promotes equality of opportunity effectively, particularly through its robust systems to identify and successfully close gaps in achievement between different groups of pupils. All safeguarding policies and procedures are securely in place and consistently applied. Good improvements made since the last inspection, for example, in raising pupils’ attendance, and in increasing the proportion of pupils achieving the higher Level 3 in writing, indicate the school’s good capacity to continue to improve.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding These features are highly effective. An outstanding school provides exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. Grade 2 Good These are very positive features of a school. A school that is good is serving its pupils well. Grade 3 Satisfactory These features are of reasonable quality. A satisfactory school is providing adequately for its pupils. Grade 4 Inadequate These features are not of an acceptable standard. An inadequate school needs to make significant improvement in order to meet the needs of its pupils. Ofsted inspectors will make further visits until it improves.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Nursery schools 46 46 8 0 Primary schools 8 47 40 5 Secondary schools 14 38 40 8 Special schools 28 48 20 4 Pupil referral units 15 50 29 5 All schools 11 46 38 6

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

New school inspection arrangements have been introduced from 1 January 2012. This means that inspectors make judgements that were not made previously. The data in the table above are for the period 1 September 2010 to 31 August 2011 and represent judgements that were made under the school inspection arrangements that were introduced on 1 September 2009. These data are consistent with the latest published official statistics about maintained school inspection outcomes (see www.ofsted.gov.uk ). The sample of schools inspected during 2010/11 was not representative of all schools nationally, as weaker schools are inspected more frequently than good or outstanding schools. Primary schools include primary academy converters. Secondary schools include secondary academy converters, sponsor-led academies and city technology colleges. Special schools include special academy converters and non-maintained special schools.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Achievement: the progress and success of a pupil in their learning and development taking account of their attainment.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attainment: the standard of the pupils’ work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attendance: the regular attendance of pupils at school and in lessons, taking into account the school’s efforts to encourage good attendance.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Behaviour: how well pupils behave in lessons, with emphasis on their attitude to learning. Pupils’ punctuality to lessons and their conduct around the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Capacity to improve: the proven ability of the school to continue improving based on its self-evaluation and what the school has accomplished so far and on the quality of its systems to maintain improvement.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Leadership and management: the contribution of all the staff with responsibilities, not just the governors and headteacher, to identifying priorities, directing and motivating staff and running the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Learning: how well pupils acquire knowledge, develop their understanding, learn and practise skills and are developing their competence as learners.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Overall effectiveness: inspectors form a judgement on a school’s overall effectiveness based on the findings from their inspection of the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Progress: the rate at which pupils are learning in lessons and over longer periods of time. It is often measured by comparing the pupils’ attainment at the end of a key stage with their attainment when they started.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Safety: how safe pupils are in school, including in lessons; and their understanding of risks. Pupils’ freedom from bullying and harassment. How well the school promotes safety, for example e-learning.

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

main findings from the inspection of their school.

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Inspection of Hetts Lane Infant and Nursery School, Mansfield, NG20 0AS

Thank you for being so polite and friendly when we visited your school recently. Please also pass on our thanks to your parents and carers for filling in a questionnaire about the school. We liked the way you play happily together and work hard in lessons. We enjoyed talking to you and hearing some of you read. You are rightly proud of the school’s happy atmosphere, in which you all get on well together. We are very pleased to see that your attendance has improved so well since inspectors last visited your school. Well done!

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Inspection of Hetts Lane Infant and Nursery School, Mansfield, NG20 0AS

The school provides a good standard of education. You make good progress in your learning because your teachers and other staff understand your needs well and make sure that learning is fun for you. Your headteacher, the governing body and other senior leaders do a good job and want the school to get even better. We have asked them to make teaching better so that you can learn more by:

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Inspection of Hetts Lane Infant and Nursery School, Mansfield, NG20 0AS

 making sure that those of you who find work easier, particularly in mathematics, are given more challenging work to do  improving the ways in which teachers mark your books, so that their comments are more useful to you and help you to understand exactly what you need to do to take the next steps in learning  making sure that boys in the Nursery and Reception classes practise their writing skills more often.

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Inspection of Hetts Lane Infant and Nursery School, Mansfield, NG20 0AS

You can all help too by making sure that you try as hard as you can in all of your lessons and continuing to come to school as often as possible, and on time for the start of lessons.

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Inspection of Hetts Lane Infant and Nursery School, Mansfield, NG20 0AS

Thank you once again for your help during the inspection. We wish you the best of luck for the future.

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Inspection of Hetts Lane Infant and Nursery School, Mansfield, NG20 0AS

Jeremy Spencer Her Majesty's Inspector procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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