Burlington Infant School

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

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Mrs Mari-Louise Booth Headteacher Burlington Infant School Marton Road Bridlington East Yorkshire YO16 7AQ

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

Following my visit to the school on 1 May 2019, 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 June 2015.

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant 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 specific areas. This may indicate that the school has improved significantly overall. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection.

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

You have continued to improve the school since the last inspection, ably assisted by your staff team. You have effectively implemented the recommendations of the previous inspection. Your calm leadership style and your philosophy of ‘always do your best and be your best’ permeates the school. Pupils work extremely well with each other, supporting each other’s learning. The team spirit among staff is clear for all to see. Staff feel part of the team, and accountable for their areas of responsibility. You make sure that everyone’s skills are used to their best in order to benefit pupils.

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

This effective teamwork is now paying dividends as pupils’ progress and achievement are improving year on year. From their generally low starting points on entry to the school, pupils overall are leaving with attainment that is at least in line with and in some cases slightly better than that of pupils nationally. However, outcomes for boys’ writing are still lower than average. You are addressing this through the thoughtful development of the well-planned outdoor area and the forest school. This new initiative since the last inspection is carefully planned to effectively enhance the learning that takes place in the classrooms. You have strengthened the teaching of British values. Pupils are beginning to understand the principles of democracy, through the election of the school circle membership. This group of pupils meets with you regularly to discuss issues important to them and identify further improvements they would like to see. This

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

means that the pupils’ views are effectively considered when writing the school development plan. Pupils are taught to respect each other’s views, and this can clearly be seen in how they respond during discussions.

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

The additional funding you receive for sport is spent wisely to widen pupils’ participation in and awareness of different sports. The extensive range of clubs include golf, badminton, street dance and cheerleading – alongside football, cricket and gymnastics. For those pupils who have more interest in the arts, there are talent shows and visiting theatre companies, so these pupils, too, have a chance to shine.

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

Behaviour is exemplary. Pupils are confident. They are consistently engaged in lessons throughout the day. They talk enthusiastically about their learning. They know the routines to follow and the high expectations you and the staff have for their behaviour. They are polite, holding doors open for each other, and cheerfully welcoming of others. The work of the emotional learning support assistant effectively promotes a feeling of security and warmth for those pupils who may find aspects of school more difficult to cope with. The result of this high-quality work is that these pupils’ behaviour in class has significantly improved, and there is absolutely no disruption to learning whatsoever. This is because these pupils feel exceptionally safe and know there is always someone available to support them.

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

Governors have an in-depth knowledge of the school. They have an excellent awareness of their roles and fulfil these expertly. They effectively monitor and challenge every aspect of school life. They have a clear understanding of the priorities for development and focus on these during meetings. They consistently review the impact of your actions and the value for money of any additional resource allocations. With the development of the middle leadership, governors are now able to gain a greater insight into the strengths and areas for improvement in individual subject areas.

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. You keep detailed paperwork for all the pupils for whom you have concerns, currently a significant proportion of the school. For those most vulnerable you keep extremely high-quality records of contacts and actions, and what impact these may have. Governors regularly scrutinise the records and paperwork to ensure that these are of good quality and that the school is responding appropriately, should there be any concerns about a pupil or their family. Your overview and that of governors could be further improved by storing the information in such a way that it is easier to retrieve.

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

As well as this regular monitoring you also annually review all procedures and the environment to ensure that they meet your high standards. As a result of the most recent site assessment, you have improved the safety of staff and pupils through the addition of extra internal security doors.

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Short inspection of Burlington Infant School

Staff are regularly given training, including scenarios based on case reviews to discuss the actions they would take to follow up concerns and keep their knowledge up to date. Your work with other professionals means that safeguarding is secure. Parents I spoke with identified how safe they felt their children were in the school, and how confident they were of getting effective support should they need it.

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Inspection findings

 All teaching seen during the inspection was extremely strong. Staff have high expectations of what pupils can achieve. There is a consistency and continuity across all areas of learning. This is having a particularly positive impact on reading. The lessons we observed demonstrated secure skill acquisition and application. Pupils who read to me were all clear that they read a wide range of books regularly at home, either their own books or those borrowed from school. They had developed a love of reading and used their knowledge of phonics to attack unknown words confidently. Pupils of all abilities could discuss the story and characters they were reading about and predict what may happen next. They understood the purpose of punctuation and so were all able to read with good levels of intonation and understanding.  Parents of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) who spoke with me during the inspection stated that the support their children

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Inspection findings

received was exemplary. They described how effective the ‘jigsaw’ room was in ensuring that their children felt safe and secure and how this emotional security enabled their children to be included in lessons. They were highly complimentary about the effectiveness of the support you give to them as a family. All the evidence I saw during the inspection would support this conclusion.  Parents also highlighted the ways you involve them in their children’s learning. They were very positive about the homework you set and understood how in some cases this means they were able to help their child catch up – for example, through reading recovery and mathematics homework.  The low levels of attainment in early years mask the high levels of progress these children make. For example, last year almost all children entered Reception with skills below or significantly below those typically expected for their age, and yet

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Inspection findings

over half left having attained a good level of development. You and the early years leader are constantly working to improve this. Recently, you have taken steps to significantly improve the outdoor environment so that it provides more opportunities for children to develop their language skills, investigative approaches and mathematical understanding. We observed children in the early years engaged in cooperative learning while exploring the properties of water and capacity, while others were busy writing lists of equipment needed to build their house. This was then shared, and other children joined in the building operation.  The three-year picture of progress is impressive, with the majority of children reaching at least expected standards in all areas of learning. This demonstrates extremely strong progress from children’s low starting points on entry.  You have put a great deal of time and effort into improving attendance, and this

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Inspection findings

has paid off. Your current rate of attendance is in line with that in other similar schools, and the absenteeism rate is below this. Persistent absence has dramatically reduced to below that seen in similar schools, and for many of these pupils there are understandable reasons for their absence, such as serious illness. This is because you effectively work with parents to address any barriers to attendance that may present. You successfully help parents to be aware of how important school is and you constantly give encouraging messages. You have effectively involved the pupils themselves through awarding attendance certificates and class prizes.  You have successfully established a partnership between the parent support adviser, family support workers and education welfare officers to give effective pastoral support and challenge to the pupils’ families where needed. Governors have been equally responsive and allocated funding to this strategy while closely

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Inspection findings

monitoring the impact of the actions.  Middle leaders are now great champions for their subjects and are fully accountable for pupils’ achievements. Under your leadership and that of the deputy headteacher, they have developed and honed their skills since the last inspection. They monitor teachers’ planning and pupils’ outcomes, and watch their colleagues teaching, to identify strengths and areas to improve within each subject.

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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

 boys’ attainment in writing continues to improve by the end of key stage 1  the storage of safeguarding documentation is organised to enable easier retrieval of information.

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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 East Riding of Yorkshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

The focus of the inspection was to affirm the standards identified at the previous section 5 inspection and to find out how well the school is progressing. I held a variety of meetings with you and your staff. I observed several sessions jointly with you across the school. I considered a range of evidence, including the school improvement plan and leaders’ self-evaluation. I also reviewed other documentation, including safeguarding records.

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Information about the inspection

I met with three members of the governing body and spoke with a representative of the local authority. I considered the 28 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, and I spoke with 10 parents. I also took account of the 18 responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire and spoke with six staff.

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