St Anne's Infant School

Age group 3 – 7 Inspection date(s) 9 – 10 June 2011 Inspection number 356454 St Anne’s Infant School Inspection report

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Unique Reference Number 108956 Local Authority Bristol, City of Inspection number 356454 Inspection dates 9–10 June 2011 Reporting inspector Joyce Cox

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This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 under pilot arrangements; it was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act .

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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 221 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Adam Rumney Headteacher Mary-Jane Hinchliffe Date of previous school inspection 30 April–1 May 2008 School address Bloomfield Road Brislington Bristol BS4 3QJ Telephone number 0117 9031435 Fax number 0117 9031436 Email address st.annes.i@bristol.gov.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 no t 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 format, 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’. Royal Exchange Buildings St Ann's Square Manchester M2 7LA

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

This pilot inspection was carried out by three additional inspectors. The inspectors observed seven teachers and visited 12 lessons. They held meetings with parents and carers, members of the governing body, staff and pupils. The inspectors observed the school’s work, and looked at the school development plan, assessment information, teachers’ planning, pupils’ work and safeguarding procedures. They also analysed questionnaires returned by 112 parents and carers and 25 staff.

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Information about the school

This is an average-sized infant school. The number of pupils on roll has risen since the previous inspection and the school is almost full. There are seven classes in the school, and children in the Early Years Foundation Stage are taught in the Nursery and in the two Reception classes. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average; this includes those with a statement of special educational needs. A quarter of the pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds. A very small number of pupils are at an early stage of speaking English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average. 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 1

Does the school adequately promote the pupils’ well-being? Yes Does the school adequately promote community cohesion? Yes Does the school provide value for money? Yes

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Key findings

 This is an outstanding school where pupils benefit from very high quality education. Pupils are extremely well behaved, very hard working and achieve exceptionally well. Pupils’ attainment by the age of seven is high, especially so in reading. All groups of pupils make outstanding progress.

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Key findings

 The school has taken significant strides forward since its previous inspection due to the outstanding leadership and impressive teaching. Leaders at all levels have a much-improved capacity to measure pupils’ attainment and achievement and track their progress in all subjects. This, together with an exciting curriculum, has resulted in a dramatic and sustained rise in pupils’ attainment and achievement over the last three years. Not surprisingly, the school is over- subscribed and short of space. Good plans are underway to modernise an area of the school to provide a much-needed parents, carers and community room.

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Key findings

 Pupils achieve very well because the quality of teaching is never less than good and in over half of all lessons it is outstanding. A strength, throughout the school, is the challenge given to pupils. Reading and literacy skills are taught exceptionally well and any pupil in danger of falling behind in reading has highly effective support.

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Key findings

 Pupils are totally involved and interested in all lessons. They feel very safe in school because leaders and staff place an impressive emphasis on promoting pupils’ safety and well-being.

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Key findings

 The headteacher, together with the staff and governors, form an impressive team who strive constantly to improve the outcomes for all pupils. There is a relentless focus on ensuring teaching and learning is of a high quality and on 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

ensuring all pupils, regardless of their differences, achieve as well as they possibly can.

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What does the school need to do to improve further:

 Implement the planned restructuring to provide additional space for parents and carers to be even more involved in their children’s learning.

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Main report

Children enter the Nursery with skills that are often lower than is usually expected for their age in their personal development and in their early reading, writing and mathematical skills. This is particularly true for boys, children known to be eligible for free school meals and children who speak English as an additional language. Children do exceptionally well in learning new things in the Early Years Foundation Stage and as a result, their attainment is above the expected levels by the time that they are ready to join Year 1.

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Main report

Children achieve outstandingly well in the Early Years Foundation Stage because teaching is of very high quality. Added to this, there are excellent induction procedures, an outstanding partnership with parents and carers, and rigorous attention to children’s language development. The impressive emphasis on promoting children’s welfare and happy relationships enables children to settle quickly and happily into school routines and feel very safe. Children in both the Nursery and the Reception classes benefit from plenty of opportunities to move freely between the exceptionally colourful and exciting indoor and outdoor areas. They thoroughly enjoy the inspiring and attractive activities. Moreover, smiling staff act as excellent ‘play and learning partners’. Staff are highly skilled at observing and assessing the children so they know precisely when to intervene and interact to extend and enhance children’s language, learning and development. They are highly

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Main report

competent practitioners and skilfully enable children to confidently try new experiences and develop their independence. For example, during the inspection, Reception children clearly enjoyed designing and making a large cardboard ship complete with sails because the staff interacted exceptionally well and ensured children learnt many new words such as ‘anchor’ and ‘mainsail’.

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Main report

Throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage, staff hold regular progress meetings which focus on how effectively all the children are learning and making progress, and also successfully identifies any potentially vulnerable groups. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive high-quality support so they often make outstanding progress because staff seize every opportunity to encourage children to communicate in more than single words and gestures. Those children at an early stage of learning to speak English receive excellent support and extra resources so that they quickly become bilingual. The introduction of regular, focused sessions to help Nursery and Reception children learn their letters and sounds (phonics) is considerably enhancing their progress in early reading and writing. More-able Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate

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Main report

Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Main report

Reception children can write several sentences unaided and they always remember their finger spaces between words.

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Main report

Pupils’ outstanding progress in literacy continues throughout Year 1 and Year 2 because there is a strong determination that all pupils will learn how to read by the end of Year 2 regardless of their social circumstances, ethnicity, special educational needs or disabilities. Consequently, attainment in reading is very high by the age of six and remains at this level by the end of Year 2. This is because virtually all the pupils attain the expected average level in reading, and many exceed this by using more complex skills at the higher Level 3.

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Main report

Senior leaders have successfully raised the profile of reading in the school by investing in reading resources, planning a structured approach to the way pupils learn letters and sounds and by rigorous lesson monitoring. Pupils’ individual progress in learning to read is assessed frequently and in depth so that any pupil in danger of falling behind is referred quickly to the reading recovery teacher who provides daily half-hour individual sessions for 20 weeks. Pupils’ individual reading records are detailed and they clearly inform parents and carers how to support at home. Specially trained ‘Better Reading Partners’ provide excellent support for those pupils who are reading at just below the age related expectations. Senior leaders and staff are never complacent and have worked very hard to successfully improve writing for boys, pupils with special educational needs and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals. As a result, all groups of pupils attain above average

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Main report

results in writing at the end of Year 2.

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Main report

The school has also successfully maintained and consolidated pupils’ above average attainment in mathematics due to ensuring there is a more precise match of work to pupils’ abilities and in particular by challenging more-able pupils to achieve the higher Level 3 grade.

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Main report

Staff focus especially well on pupils’ language development in all activities and pitch learning and support precisely at pupils’ capabilities. Consequently, all pupils thoroughly enjoy their work and become increasingly confident and fluent in English. Expectations of what all pupils can achieve are very high. Teachers are very confident in their subject knowledge and know what they have to do to maintain high standards. They work very well together in their year teams and are always receptive to finding better ways of doing things. Inspirational teaching ensures that pupils are highly motivated, engaged and persevere even when they find tasks challenging. Many lessons start with valuable reminders of how to be a good learner and pupils themselves are very clear about their successes and how they can improve their work. Lessons are conducted at a swift pace with no time wasted and pupils are encouraged to practise their reading, writing and mathematical skills in all

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Main report

subjects. As a result, pupils and groups of pupils are making exceptional progress over time. They are clearly retaining their learning as they really enjoy sharing new facts and information. For instance, Year 1 and Year 2 pupils confidently told inspectors all about Grace Darling’s bravery and the amazing fossils discovered by Mary Anning on the Jurassic coast. 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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Main report

Pupils’ consistently outstanding behaviour on a day-to-day basis and their very positive attitudes are a key factor in their excellent achievement. They know and understand the school’s behaviour code and Year 1 pupils have produced a very good anti-bullying booklet. Any form of bullying, although rare, is very effectively dealt with. Parents and carers and pupils agree that pupils are helped to behave well and respect each other. They have a mature sense of right and wrong and often remind each other about behaving well.

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Main report

The quality of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is excellent. There are 15 different minority ethnic groups represented in the school, and staff clearly value and celebrate the diversity of the school community, and achieve considerable success in promoting tolerance and understanding between pupils and families from a wide range of backgrounds. As such, community cohesion is at the core of the school’s work.

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Main report

Pupils feel extremely safe in school and are very aware of internet dangers saying, ‘Some sites are blocked to keep us safe.’ All the parents and carers who replied to the Ofsted questionnaire felt that their children are kept very safe at school and virtually all feel that pupils behave well. Attendance levels are above average and most absenteeism is due to illness.

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Main report

The headteacher’s outstanding leadership has been a key factor in creating an extremely ambitious staff team who successfully improve the outcomes for all pupils. Senior leaders provide a relentless and effective focus on improving teaching that results in high calibre teaching and learning throughout the school. Senior leaders and staff are fully aware of any difference in progress and attainment of various groups of pupils. Through the use of early identification strategies and highly effective interventions have succeeded in narrowing the achievement gap. The outstanding support for potentially vulnerable pupils show the school’s strong commitment to equality of opportunity and tackling discrimination, which enables all pupils to achieve very well, whatever their circumstances or difficulties. Staff ensure that they break down any barriers that might lead to gaps in their learning and achievement.

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Main report

The governing body provides excellent challenge and support to the school. Each governor takes responsibility for a specific group of pupils within the school, such as looked after children or those who are known to be eligible for free school meals, which ensures that no group is overlooked or forgotten at governors’ meetings when they compare pupils’ progress. They ask very challenging questions if any group is not doing as well as another and keep a close eye on boys’ writing through regular meetings with identified groups of boys.

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Main report

There is an effective partnership with parents and carers. Many of whom help regularly in school or attend the weekly parents’ group where they discuss their children’s learning and assist with making resources for the school. They meet in the staff room due to a lack of space in the school. Staff are correctly very keen to 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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Main report

implement the proposed refurbishment to construct a much-needed parents’ and carers’ base.

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Main report

The school’s arrangements for safeguarding pupils consistently exceed statutory requirements. For example, groups of pupils accompany governors on their health and safety walks and note any potential dangers. Taking into consideration an impressive track record of school improvement, the high staff morale and the exceedingly ambitious, challenging and determined leadership, the school demonstrates an outstanding capacity for future improvement.

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Ofsted invited all the registered parents and carers of pupils registered at St Anne’s Infant School to complete a questionnaire about their views of the school. In the questionnaire, parents and carers were asked to record how strongly they agreed with 12 statements about the school. The inspection team received 112 completed questionnaires by the end of the on-site inspection. In total, there are 221 pupils registered at the school.

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Statements Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree Total % Total % Total % Total % Q1 My child is happy at school 72 64 36 32 1 1 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q2 My child feels safe at school 68 61 41 37 0 0 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q3 The school helps my child to achieve as well as they can 61 54 43 38 3 3 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q4 The school meets my child’s particular needs 48 43 55 49 2 2 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q5 The school ensures my child is well looked after 67 60 40 36 0 0 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q6 Teaching at this school is good 73 65 31 28 0 0 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q7 There is a good standard of behaviour at this school 55 49 52 46 2 2 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q8 Lessons are not disrupted by bad behaviour 44 39 44 39 7 6 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q9 The school deals with any cases of bullying well 50 45 37 33 3 3 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q10 The school helps me to support my child’s learning 61 54 43 38 4 4 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q11 The school responds to my concerns and keeps me well informed 59 53 38 34 8 7 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

Q12 The school is well led and managed 68 61 35 31 5 4 0 0

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Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted’s questionnaire

The table above summarises the responses that parents and carers made to each statement. The percentages indicate the proportion of parents and carers giving that response out of the total number of completed questionnaires. Where one or more parents and carers chose not to answer a particular question, the percentages will not add up to 100%.

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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 48 6 0 Primary schools 6 47 40 7 Secondary schools 12 39 38 11

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Sixth forms 13 42 41 3 Special schools 28 49 19 4 Pupil referral units 14 45 31 10

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

New school inspection arrangements were introduced on 1 September 2009. This means that inspectors now make some additional judgements that were not made previously. The data in the table above are for the period 1 September 2010 to 31 December 2010 and 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. Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100. Sixth form figures reflect the judgements made for the overall effectiveness of the sixth form in secondary schools, special schools and pupil referral units.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Achievement: the progress and success of a pupil in their learning, development or training.

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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

Capacity to improve: the proven ability of the school to continue improving. Inspectors base this judgement on 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 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. The following judgements, in particular, influence what the overall effectiveness judgement will be:  The achievement of all pupils.  Behaviour and safety.  The quality of teaching.  The effectiveness of leadership and management. and taking into consideration  how well the school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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

main findings from the inspection of their school.

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Inspection of St Anne’s Infant School, Bristol BS4 3QJ

We really enjoyed visiting your school and I am writing to thank you for two very interesting and happy days. We feel that that you go to an outstanding school.

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Inspection of St Anne’s Infant School, Bristol BS4 3QJ

 Your behaviour is excellent and you work hard and play very happily together.  You are taught amazingly well and your lessons are fun and interesting. You work hard and this helps you to make outstanding progress.  Your headteacher, staff and governors lead and manage the school exceptionally well and they always want the best for you.  Nursery and Reception children have a very happy time and learn many new things quickly, so that they are thoroughly ready for learning in Year 1.  You all enjoy learning very much and are given many exciting things to do. You learn a great amount for children of your age because the adults always encourage you to do your very best.  The adults keep you very safe in school.

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Inspection of St Anne’s Infant School, Bristol BS4 3QJ

There is just one area where the school could be even better. We think the school could make a room for your parents and carers to meet in so they can help the school to make you even better learners.

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Inspection of St Anne’s Infant School, Bristol BS4 3QJ

All of you can help by continuing to work hard and by keeping up your excellent standard of behaviour.

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Inspection of St Anne’s Infant School, Bristol BS4 3QJ

We wish you every success in the future.

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Inspection of St Anne’s Infant School, Bristol BS4 3QJ

Joyce Cox Lead 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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