Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs Nicola Beaumont Headteacher Lindley Church of England Infant School East Street Huddersfield West Yorkshire HD3 3NE

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Subject inspection of Lindley Church of England Infant School

Following my visit to your school on 4 February 2020, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. The findings do not change the overall effectiveness judgement of outstanding from the last section 5 inspection.

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Subject inspection of Lindley Church of England Infant School

This inspection was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for a no formal designation inspection of schools. The inspection was carried out to enable Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector to better understand the quality of education in specific subjects provided by outstanding primary schools.

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Main findings

You and your deputy headteacher, who has overall responsibility for curriculum development, regularly review your school’s curriculum. Your aim is that the curriculum matches pupils’ needs effectively and takes account of relevant educational research. Since September 2019, you have started to revise your curriculum with the aim of helping pupils to retain more of the important knowledge in the foundation subjects. Leaders have taken this approach when developing geography plans. Your geography subject leader, along with the deputy headteacher, is developing suitably sequenced planning that seeks to at least cover the requirements set out in the national curriculum. This builds on what children learn in Reception through to the end of Year 2. Events such as your ‘Around the world’ week extend pupils’ understanding of countries and increase their global awareness.

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Main findings

During my meeting with your geography subject leader, we found that your geography planning does not clearly identify the key geographical vocabulary you would like pupils to know. This limits how effectively pupils explain their geographical thinking. Furthermore, leaders have not ensured that plans give sufficient consideration of how pupils will learn simple fieldwork and map skills during their time at the school.

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Main findings

Teachers have received a range of appropriate training in implementing the curriculum, including geography. They teach the planned curriculum effectively and adapt teaching approaches to meet the needs of pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Teachers use a range of approaches to check that pupils are remembering the important knowledge taught. Leaders are considering approaches to assessment. They are conscious that this should be manageable for teachers while identifying next steps in learning for pupils.

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Main findings

In the lesson visits to early years, staff used questioning effectively to develop children’s understanding of the world and reinforce key geographical vocabulary. This was clear in both teacher-led learning and when children were choosing learning activities. Staff successfully use a wide range of cultural artefacts and resources to help children learn about countries in the world. Sometimes, teachers use maps that are too complex for Reception children to understand. Sometimes, the resources do not match children’s learning needs so that children’s learning builds in the planned sequence.

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Main findings

In Year 1 and Year 2, pupils enjoy their geography lessons. Pupils are clear about what it means to be a geographer and how maps, atlases, globes and online resources help them ‘find out about’ the world. Pupils with SEND receive appropriate support from adults or specific resources to help them access the curriculum. Teaching is helping pupils gain understanding about physical, human and cultural aspects of the world. Teachers use questioning effectively to recap some of the key geographical vocabulary.

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Main findings

My discussions with key stage 1 pupils and scrutiny of their topic folders show that pupils are growing in their geographical knowledge and in their interest in the subject. Study of geographical content beyond the national curriculum is enhancing pupils’ ‘cultural capital’. However, at present, some of the important geographical knowledge identified in your planning is not yet securely learned and remembered by pupils. For example, Year 1 pupils’ knowledge of the countries and cities of the United Kingdom was variable. Similarly, although Year 2 pupils have studied some of the oceans of the world and countries across all the major continents, they had not fully retained this knowledge. Sometimes these curricular goals, which you have set, are not being achieved as teaching is not explicit enough. When pupils experience this learning in ‘topics’, it is not ‘joined up’ sufficiently to prior learning.

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Main findings

You and your deputy headteacher have completed training to develop you own expertise in curriculum development. Your geography subject leader has recently benefited from working alongside your deputy to redesign the geography curriculum. She also attends the local authority’s geography subject network meetings. This professional development within and beyond school is growing leadership capacity for geography. You have established systems in place to monitor the implementation of the geography curriculum. Regular staff meetings and peer support from colleagues are in place to develop staff skills in teaching geography.

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Evidence

I met with you and your deputy headteacher, who has overall responsibility for curriculum. I later met with your subject leader for geography. During this second meeting, I reviewed your geography curriculum plans. I visited lessons in early years and key stage 1. These lesson visits were completed jointly with either you or your geography subject leader. I spoke to a group of Year 1 and Year 2 pupils to discuss their learning in geography lessons. I looked at a selection of pupils’ geography work in books and samples of Reception children’s learning journeys. Finally, I met with teachers to discuss the lesson visits and their approaches to teaching geography. I considered a range of documentation, including your curriculum intent statement, school improvement plans and geography action plan.

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Context

Lindley Church of England Infant School has 359 pupils on roll. The majority of pupils are White British. The other main ethnic groups at the school are Asian or Asian British, Pakistani and Indian. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND who have support plans is lower than the national average. The proportion of pupils with SEND who have an education, health and care plan is higher than the national average. Pupil numbers are very stable; few pupils move in and out of the school. Similarly, the teaching staff is stable over time and there has been little turnover of staff. This school is an academy but is not part of a multi- academy trust.

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Context

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, and the regional schools commissioner and the Director of Children’s Services for Kirklees. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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