Farnham Common Infant School

Inspection of a good school: Farnham Common Infant School Beaconsfield Road, Farnham Common, Slough, Buckinghamshire SL2 3HS

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Outcome

Farnham Common Infant School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Farnham Common Infant School is a happy and caring place. The school’s motto, ‘Together Taking Learning Above and Beyond’, permeates life at the school. Pupils enjoy coming to school and appreciate the exciting activities that they do. During the inspection, Year 2 pupils were particularly thrilled to be visiting St Paul’s Cathedral in London as part of their learning in history.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils know that staff care and look after them. Staff know pupils well and have a good insight into the best way to support them. Pupils behave well and they are very keen to learn. They told me that bullying does not happen.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils appreciate the wide range of clubs that they can attend at lunchtime and after school. Pupils play well together at playtimes, enjoying the different spaces and range of activities.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have high expectations for pupils’ behaviour and work. Displays of pupils’ work celebrate their learning across the curriculum. The on-site forest school gives all pupils exciting opportunities to learn outdoors about nature and the environment. Parents and carers are highly supportive of the school. One parent said, ‘I have two very happy and thriving children attending Farnham Common Infant School.’

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders have a clear vision for what pupils should learn. They know that across the curriculum, new content should build on the knowledge and skills pupils have already learned. Staff carefully plan the sequence of what pupils should learn. As a result, pupils are helped to remember more.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders are wisely making further improvements to curriculum planning for history and other foundation subjects. These improvements are already helping to give pupils a deeper understanding of all subjects and how they relate to each other. 15–16 October 2019

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Leaders help pupils to develop skills for life. For example, leaders want all pupils to leave Year 2 being able to ride a bike. From Reception to Year 2, there are opportunities for pupils to learn to ride and make safety checks on their bicycle.

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Staff plan exciting opportunities for pupils so that their learning is engaging and interesting. When I spoke with pupils about their learning, they were very keen to tell me how much they enjoy being in their classes. Children in the early years buzz with excitement as they learn and discover new things. Classrooms across the school are vibrant and well organised to support pupils’ learning.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported well. Teachers skilfully adjust the curriculum and use appropriate resources to support these pupils to succeed.

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Mathematics is taught well. Children enjoy exciting outdoor mathematics activities in the early years. Many pupils across the school told me that mathematics was their favourite subject because ‘it was fun’. Staff ask effective questions to ensure that pupils understand their learning. Younger pupils are encouraged to remember their mathematical knowledge through helpful activities such as rhymes with actions.

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Leaders make reading a priority for all pupils. Children get off to a flying start in the early years and enjoy reading that is relevant to the world around them. For example, I saw two children read a book about guinea pigs, while watching the school guinea pigs play. Teachers and learning assistants teach pupils to read very well. Pupils enjoy reading a wide range of books and listening to stories. Nursery children listen with much enjoyment to stories read by adults. Teachers plan phonics teaching to meet the needs of all pupils. Pupils use their phonics knowledge with great determination to sound out unfamiliar words. Staff give extra help to pupils who need more support to catch up with their peers. Pupils read books that are the right level for their reading skills. In this way, they become confident and fluent readers.

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Pupils achieve well across the curriculum. They enjoy history, for example where teachers bring things to life by dressing up as characters from the Great Fire of London, enabling pupils to ask questions about living at that time. However, learning in the foundation subjects like history is not as well planned as that in the core areas such as mathematics and English. Leaders want to deepen pupils’ understanding further in these subjects and improve the way they assess pupils’ learning.

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Staff in the school are very positive and dedicated. Leaders and the governing body are considerate of teachers’ workload. Staff are appreciative of how leaders consider their well-being.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

There is a strong culture around keeping children safe throughout the school. Leaders have created a caring and safe environment. Staff are well trained to look for signs that a 15–16 October 2019

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pupil may be at risk of harm. They know what to do if a child has any concerns. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe when they are using the internet.

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Leaders and governors ensure that all pre-employment checks are in place so that all staff recruited to work in school are checked thoroughly. Leaders work in partnership with a range of external agencies to support children and families when needed.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

The curriculum is well planned and sequenced overall but leaders should continue to improve the way the curriculum is sequenced and assessed in the foundation stage subjects, such as history, in order to deepen pupils’ knowledge.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that the school could now be better than good or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged Farnham Common Infant School to be good on 29–30 March 2011.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and 15–16 October 2019

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pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 15–16 October 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10111326 Type of school Infant

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.farnhamcommonvillageschools.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 5 April 2016

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Information about this school

 The school is part of the Farnham Common Village Schools Federation. The headteacher is responsible for both schools in the federation.

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Information about this inspection

 During this inspection, I met with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher and the special educational needs coordinator.  I met with subject leaders, class teachers and support staff. I spoke with a representative of the local authority on the telephone. I met with four members of the governing board, including the chair of governors.  I considered the 45 responses to Ofsted’s Parent View questionnaire and 27 free-text comments. I also considered the 25 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire for staff and the 31 responses to Ofsted’s online pupil questionnaire.  To check on the quality of education, I focused on reading, mathematics and history. Meetings were held with subject leaders. I visited all classes, talked to pupils about their work and discussed the school’s approach to teaching the curriculum with teaching staff. I heard pupils read and observed pupils reading to adults.  I examined a range of documents, included those relating to safeguarding, school

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improvement and leaders’ evaluation of the school’s performance.

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Inspection team

Darren Aisthorpe, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 15–16 October 2019

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regulates and inspects to 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 and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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