Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs Carol Litowczuk Headteacher Manor Park Infant and Nursery School Flatts Lane Calverton Nottingham NG14 6JZ

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 14 June 2016 , 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 September 2010.

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. At that time, the inspector commended you for your pupils’ consistently good progress, as well as the good care, guidance and support you gave to pupils. You have continued to improve both of these aspects, along with many others. You ensure that a culture of high expectations exists throughout the school. As a result, all teachers and support staff know that they are expected to ensure that pupils make consistently good or better progress.

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

You are justifiably proud that all the adults in your school work closely together as a team. Staff hold in high regard the contribution and work that every member makes, regardless of their role. Ideas and suggestions are mutually welcomed and staff clearly understand, and model, the behaviour and attitudes they develop in pupils. It is not surprising that those staff who responded to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire confirm unanimously that they are proud to work at Manor Park. They explain that the school has high aspirations for all pupils, and that you and other senior leaders treat them with respect. They support your insistence on calm and orderly conduct from pupils. As a result, most pupils behave very well and understand they are expected to work hard and pay attention in lessons. Staff give particularly effective support to those pupils whose circumstances make them potentially vulnerable, or who find it difficult to manage their own behaviour.

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

You ensure that each pupil at Manor Park is cared for well. The school is a friendly and happy place where pupils enjoy coming to school to learn. Attendance is above the national average, and rising. Pupils say that they enjoy their lessons and that learning is fun.

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

You are well supported by an effective governing body. Nevertheless, governors challenge you rigorously to continue to improve outcomes for all pupils. You and the governors are very aware that the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and others widened between 2013 and 2015. Because of this, you have improved the support you have given to these pupils. As a result, the progress of disadvantaged pupils has improved and those currently in the school are making broadly similar progress to, or better progress than, others. Many, though not all, of the gaps between their attainment and that of other pupils are closing.

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

You have attended to the areas identified for improvement at the last inspection effectively. You have written a school development plan that now ensures that you and your staff concentrate on the most important areas, such as improving progress further for disadvantaged pupils. Assessment information is used well by teachers to help them focus on any pupils who need to make more progress. You are also ensuring that the work teachers set in lessons meets the learning needs of all pupils, particularly in handwriting. Pupils are learning to form their letters correctly and, as they become older, to use a joined handwriting script neatly.

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

Parents continue to hold the school in high regard. Those who responded to your recent survey expressed very positive views of all aspects of the school. This is reflected in those who gave their opinions via Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire. A very large majority believe that you both lead and manage the school well and that their children make good progress as a result of good teaching. One parent summed up the views of many others by stating, ‘I cannot praise this school highly enough. The staff are fantastic, very professional and have the welfare of my child as their priority. The head is extremely positive and has great ideas on how to encourage the children to be the best that they can be.’

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

You ensure that all your staff are well trained in safeguarding. This includes the most recent issues of national concern, such as extremism and child exploitation. Staff are very aware of the different forms of abuse, and are alert to the warning signs that could suggest that a pupil might be being harmed.

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

All safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. During my visit, I examined a sample of safeguarding records. These were detailed and of high quality. They show that you make prompt referrals to external agencies where these are needed, and take whatever steps necessary to ensure that pupils are helped quickly and effectively. You work closely with the families concerned and ensure that you keep them informed of the steps you are taking, except where this would increase the risk of harm to a pupil.

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Short inspection of Manor Park Infant and Nursery School

Pupils I met during my visit told me that they felt safe in school. They felt that, if they were concerned about anything, they could approach any adult for help. They say that they are taught about a range of risks, such as electricity, water and strangers. Teachers also teach pupils about how to cross the road carefully and how to use computers safely.

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Inspection findings

 You have correctly judged the Manor Park to be a good school which is continuing to improve. You work effectively with your senior leaders, who help you to uphold the school’s vision of success. These leaders ensure that they monitor pupils’ outcomes and report these to governors. They also fulfil a valuable role in helping staff who are new to the school to improve their effectiveness.  Governors fulfil an effective strategic role in ensuring that the school continues to improve. The experienced chair of governors, who is a national leader for governance, ensures that all governors play an active part in holding you and senior leaders to account. Like you, governors have a clear and accurate view of the school and know the further improvements that are needed next. They ensure that you, and they, manage teachers’ performance rigorously. The targets teachers receive are linked closely to improvements in classroom

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Inspection findings

performance.  You have ensured that teachers assess pupils’ outcomes in English and mathematics in all year groups accurately. You have done this by ensuring that all teachers have a clear idea of the standards expected at pupils’ different ages. You check this thoroughly through moderation with a range of schools.  Children in the Nursery class make good progress from their starting points which, for the majority of children, are below those found typically in children of the same age. An increasing proportion of children have attained a good level of development by the time they leave the Reception class. The proportion expected to achieve this by the end of the summer term this year is likely to be at least in line with the national average. The proportion of pupils who pass the Year 1 phonics screening check has been consistently above the national average, with a similar proportion on track to pass this year.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils continue to make good progress during key stage 1 and, by the time they leave, they are well prepared for the next stage of their education. Results at the end of Year 2 have been at least in line with the national average for the past three years. Information provided by you shows that, this year, around seven in 10 of these pupils will reach at least the standards expected for their age in reading and mathematics, and around two thirds will reach this in writing.  For the past two years, disadvantaged pupils have not attained as highly as other pupils by the time they leave Manor Park. Nevertheless, these pupils made good progress from their starting points, which were often lower than those of other pupils. As a result of the improved support you have provided for disadvantaged pupils, in most instances those currently in the school are making progress which is broadly as fast as, or slightly faster than, other pupils. You are

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Inspection findings

aware that some gaps in outcomes, such as those in writing for pupils in Year 2, remain. I completed an extensive sample of the work of disadvantaged pupils from different year groups and of differing abilities during my visit. This confirmed that the progress of these pupils is good. The most able disadvantaged pupils are given work that consistently makes them think hard, and pupils who have special educational needs or disability receive work that helps them to catch up.  You ensure that teachers and support staff engender a love of learning and, in particular, reading, from the Nursery class onwards. During my visit, I saw pupils highly engaged and enjoying greatly the different books that staff were reading with them.  Pupils I met during my visit told me how much they enjoyed their work. They say that teachers help them if they do not understand something, and give them work that is more challenging if they find any tasks easy. They also enjoy the

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Inspection findings

homework that staff give them, and could tell me how this helps them to improve. Pupils I spoke with were also keen to say how they particularly like the range of clubs that adults provide for them. These include craft, cooking, gardening, athletics and Tae Kwon Do. Pupils say that adults help them to understand the need to eat healthily and to stay fit.  Your staff provide a range of voluntary roles for pupils which teach them to be responsible and to do things to help others. For example, pupils are keen to assist in the dining room at lunchtime, wiping tables clean after their friends have finished. Other pupils are members of the school council, which has recently helped to buy hula-hoops and other items of equipment for pupils to use at breaktimes.  Work I studied during the inspection shows that pupils make good progress in other subjects, such as science. They learn to use correct scientific vocabulary,

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Inspection findings

with, for example, pupils in Year 1 classifying materials into those which are transparent, translucent and opaque. Pupils learn to investigate things, predict results and write results accurately.  Staff manage extremely well the small number of pupils who find it difficult to control their behaviour. Staff develop trusting, positive relationships with these pupils and provide them with appropriate strategies and support to ensure that they improve their behaviour over time. Staff are highly alert to signs of potential frustrations in these pupils and quickly adapt what they do to reduce the risk of pupils behaving inappropriately. You have spent a portion of the pupil premium funding very effectively to create nurture provision, including a nurture room. This is helping pupils to cooperate and to build their resilience.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the remaining gaps between the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and other pupils in the school close as quickly as possible. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Nottinghamshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, representatives of the governing body and the subject leader for assessment. We visited all classes to observe teaching and learning. I looked at pupils’ work across the school. I observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and at lunchtime, as well as meeting with a group of pupils at breaktime. I considered the views of 21 parents posted on Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, alongside the school’s most recent questionnaire. I read a range of documents, including the school’s self-evaluation, your school development plan and information on outcomes for pupils currently in the school. I studied information related to attendance, anonymised examples of teachers’ appraisal and examined safeguarding records and policies. I examined the school’s website to check that it meets requirements on the publication of specified information. I looked at the range of views expressed by staff, through Ofsted’s questionnaire, about the school

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