Yeading Infant and Nursery School

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

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Mrs Rupinder Ahluwalia Headteacher Yeading Infant and Nursery School Carlyon Road Yeading Lane Hayes Middlesex UB4 0NR

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Short inspection of Yeading Infant and Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 6 March 2018, 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 October 2013.

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Short inspection of Yeading Infant and Nursery School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I am of the opinion that the school has demonstrated strong practice and marked improvement in certain areas. This may indicate that the school is improving towards being outstanding. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection.

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Short inspection of Yeading Infant and Nursery School

You, your leadership team and governors have addressed the key priorities for improvement identified by the previous inspection. For example, you have raised the level of challenge in writing for the most able pupils and, as a result, they are now achieving well.

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Short inspection of Yeading Infant and Nursery School

Leaders and staff strive for the very best at Yeading Infants, placing the pupils and their progress at the very heart of all activities. This is a warm, supportive and caring school, where children are encouraged to explore and have fun. Pupils are highly motivated and show curiosity, concentration and imagination. The pupils I spoke to told me that they enjoy coming to school and did not want ‘to miss a day’. All pupils listen intently and are highly responsive, kind and caring towards each other. New arrivals in school settle very quickly because of the quality of the nurture and support provided.

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Short inspection of Yeading Infant and Nursery School

The children enjoy a rich and stimulating curriculum. In the early years, fun and exploration are at the core of practice. Teaching is strong across the school; the teaching of phonics is a particular strength. Staff provide an exceptional range of stimulating resources and activities, which reflect and value the diversity of the children’s experiences. Across the school, assessment is accurate and well used to build in challenge to pupils. Relationships between staff and pupils are strong and supportive. There are many clubs for pupils to choose from including cooking, dance and football. Visitors from the arts and sports are a regular feature of the school’s life. Parents and carers engage strongly with the school to support their children.

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Short inspection of Yeading Infant and Nursery School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of high quality. Staff manage pupils’ well- being meticulously. Leaders work with outside agencies and liaise with them quickly in order to secure strong support for children and their families. Leaders manage concerns sensitively and effectively. There is a culture of vigilance in which children’s welfare is actively promoted. Children are listened to and feel safe.

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Short inspection of Yeading Infant and Nursery School

All staff have a secure knowledge and understanding of current safeguarding guidance and procedures. Pre-employment checks on adults working at the school meet statutory requirements. Staff training is up to date, and their safeguarding practice is effective. Governors carry out appropriate checks on safeguarding during the school year.

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Inspection findings

 The first focus for this inspection was the effectiveness of the school’s curriculum. I focused on this because the curriculum was not identified as a strength in the school’s own evaluation of its work, although your view is that it is strong. We agreed that this needed to be tested.  Since the previous inspection, you have sought to include new ideas and innovative curriculum practices. You give due attention to progression in reading, writing and mathematics, and the outcomes of this work were another focus for this inspection. Additionally, the school has developed a curriculum based on themes that are pursued in depth so that pupils have the opportunity to develop practical knowledge and understanding in a wide range of subjects. Recent themes include repeating patterns and symmetry in art, world faiths and religions, popular children’s authors, mathematical patterns, and musical instruments.

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Inspection findings

 Classroom and corridor displays, as well as the broader school environment, both reflect and support a rich and wide-ranging curriculum. For example, there is an outdoor ‘cafe’, where pupils can buy and sell homemade pizzas, and solve practical mathematics problems. There is also an engaging outdoor area where pupils can grow vegetables, cook, create art with clay and paints, roam, and explore and observe the local wildlife from inside real bird hides. All of this stimulates the pupils, who want to learn by exploring. Pupils talk confidently about the work they have done in their books and on display. Overall, they make striking progress because the curriculum is strong and based on direct experience.  The second area of focus for this inspection was the accuracy and use of teachers’ assessments of pupils’ progress through the school. This was in order to understand the part played by assessment in underpinning the rapid progress

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Inspection findings

that pupils make towards the high standards in the nationally reported assessments at the end of key stage 1.  Teachers watch and record activities and interactions carefully, noting their observations in high-quality and detailed records of progress. In turn, these records are carefully used to plan challenging activities for each individual. In this way, the school ensures that all pupils, from their different starting points, make substantial and sustained progress across the curriculum. The accuracy of the school’s assessments is supported by regular moderation meetings with other schools. Observations of teachers’ practice in classrooms also confirmed that assessments are accurate.  The final area of focus for this inspection was the school’s work to improve pupils’ reading, writing, communication and language skills. You regard this as a strength of the school, as shown by pupils’ high attainment by the end of key

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Inspection findings

stage 1. Children make strong progress from generally low starting points when they enter Nursery, including a significant proportion of children who are new to speaking English.  The teaching of phonics from the earliest stages is strong. In the Nursery, for example, in response to lively teaching of letter sounds, children learn attentively and answer accurately and enthusiastically. In Reception classes, children are encouraged to join their handwriting and ‘think phonically’ before they write. The result is that children demonstrate consistently high rates of progress and are extremely well prepared for Year 1.  You regard parents as important partners in children’s learning. For example, you make sure that parents know their roles and have offered workshops in reading and writing; you have also introduced them to the new reading comprehension materials for the older pupils.  In Year 1, the picture of progress in reading and writing continues to be striking.

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Inspection findings

All of the pupils’ books seen demonstrated substantial and sustained progress with both spelling and content. A much higher proportion of Year 1 pupils than found nationally met the expected standards in the 2017 phonics check, following strong outcomes in the preceding two years.  Inspection evidence, including pupils’ work and assessment information, shows continuing strong progress in Year 2, with most pupils on track to meet the expected standard and many working at greater depth in writing. Pupils’ reading is also a strength. Pupils read widely and often, with fluency and comprehension appropriate to their age.  The school’s work to develop pupils’ communication and language skills is exemplified by its excellent support for pupils who speak English as an additional language. Additionally, classrooms are notable for the quality of purposeful talk, and teachers model good communication skills.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the school’s self-evaluation, which was offered for consideration, is precise in its judgements and evaluative comments so that it fully reflects the school’s successes.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Hillingdon. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

The inspector carried out the following activities during the inspection:

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Information about the inspection

 Meetings were held with the headteacher, deputy headteachers and middle leaders.  Discussions were held with three governors, including the chair of governors and a group of pupils; the inspector also had a telephone discussion with a local authority education adviser.  Teaching and learning were observed in a range of lessons.  Pupils’ progress was also evaluated by looking at pupils’ workbooks, learning journals and displays.  Several pupils read to the inspector.  Recent information about pupils’ progress was evaluated.  The views of parents were considered through responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, and discussions with parents in the playground before school.

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