Great Moor Infant School

Inspection of Great Moor Infant School Southwood Road, Great Moor, Stockport, Cheshire SK2 7DG

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Inspection dates: 23 and 24 November 2021

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

This school was last inspected 14 years ago and judged ‘Outstanding’ under a previous inspection framework. This reflected the school’s overall effectiveness under the inspection framework in use at the time.

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

From then until November 2020, the school was exempted by law from routine inspection, so there has been a longer gap than usual between inspections.

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Judgements in this report are based on the current inspection framework and also reflect changes that may have happened at any point since the last inspection. 23 and 24 November 2021

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and safe at school. They are articulate and confident to chat with each other and with visitors. Pupils follow the school’s values by treating each other kindly and showing respect to staff members. Most pupils are keen to learn. They enjoy having extra responsibilities, such as being a school councillor.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders expect pupils to achieve well. However, some pupils do not achieve as well as they should. This is particularly true for some pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), and for children in the early years.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Most pupils play happily at breaktimes. They said that they have lots of friends. They celebrate diversity. Pupils told inspectors that everyone is ‘different and beautiful in their own way’.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils tell adults about their worries and feelings. Staff know their pupils well. They provide reassurance and emotional support so that pupils grow in confidence. Pupils eagerly await the restart of the full programme of extra-curricular activities.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Overall, pupils behave well. They understand that bullying is not acceptable. Leaders deal with incidents of bullying effectively.

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better?

In key stage 1, leaders have developed an ambitious and well-organised curriculum that is designed to help pupils to build up their knowledge over time. The curriculum includes the key vocabulary and knowledge required to prepare pupils for the demands of the key stage 2 curriculum. However, teachers do not deliver the curriculum equally well in all subjects. Consequently, some pupils in key stage 1 are not able to recall their learning in different subjects. Furthermore, children in the early years do not achieve as well as they should. This is because leaders are still developing the early years curriculum.

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better?

Despite the weaknesses in the curriculum, leaders have recently taken some effective action to improve the reading curriculum across the school. Children begin to learn phonics as soon as they are ready in the early years. Pupils who fall behind receive additional support to help them to catch-up. Pupils at the early stages of reading benefit from practising their reading with books that match the sounds that they have learned. Even so, leaders have recognised that the school’s phonics programme does not meet the needs of all pupils. They are in the process of choosing a new one.

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better?

Leaders provide high-quality books to supplement pupils’ learning. From the early years, children become familiar with a wide range of books. These books help children to broaden their understanding of the world. Sharing books together in this way has inspired older pupils to read more widely. Pupils are challenging themselves 23 and 24 November 2021

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to become more accomplished readers. All pupils said that they love to listen to the carefully chosen stories that their teachers read to them.

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Leaders are restarting enrichment activities following the temporary pause due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. These activities include sessions to help pupils to make healthy lifestyle choices. Leaders also provide activities that help pupils to build up their resilience and confidence in learning. Pupils enjoy working together. They reflect on different points of view. They understand the need to listen to each other and take turns.

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Most pupils behave well and are focused on their learning in lessons. They attend school regularly. Some pupils, and their parents and carers, feel that incidents of poor behaviour and bullying are not dealt with as well as they should be. Inspectors found that these incidents, including bullying, are investigated and followed up diligently.

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Leaders are helping teachers to make better use of what they know about their pupils to plan the next steps in learning and to provide additional support. This work is starting to have an impact. In some classes, pupils with SEND are having their individual needs met, but this is not the case for all pupils with SEND. As a result, some pupils with SEND do not progress through the curriculum as well as they should. In addition, leaders have not provided enough training for the staff who support the small number of pupils with SEND who struggle to manage their own behaviour.

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Leaders and governors have ensured that staff and pupils’ well-being has remained a high priority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Pupils across the school, including children in the early years, benefit from the high level of care that staff provide.

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Governors are holding leaders more fully to account. However, they do not have enough information about how well the curriculum is being delivered and the impact that it is having on pupils’ achievement.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

All staff and governors are well trained in safeguarding. Staff are vigilant in relation to pupils’ safety and well-being. They take swift action to effectively manage potential safeguarding risks.

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Safeguarding

Leaders ensure that pupils know how to keep themselves safe. Pupils understand about ‘stranger danger’, fire and road safety. They learn about how to keep themselves safe when they are online.

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Safeguarding

Leaders keep detailed records of the most vulnerable pupils at the school. They liaise well with other agencies to make sure that these pupils are supported well. 23 and 24 November 2021

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Governors do not have enough information about how well the curriculum is delivered and the impact that it has on pupils’ achievement. This includes pupils with SEND. This stops them from gaining a clear and accurate view about the quality of education across the school. Governors must ensure that they have the information that they need to hold leaders to account for the quality of education that the school provides to pupils.  The curriculum in the early years is at the very early stages of development. Leaders have not ensured that all staff are clear about what key knowledge children should have at different points in the Nursery and Reception years. Children across the early years are not achieving as well as they should. Leaders need to make sure that the early years curriculum is fully in place so that staff have clear guidance about what children need to learn.  The current phonics programme is not working well for some pupils. It does not

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

provide sufficient support for pupils who find it harder to learn to read. Leaders should implement a more suitable phonics programme and train staff so that they deliver it to a consistently high standard.  Teachers do not implement the curriculum consistently well across subjects in key stage 1. Subsequently, pupils do not learn and remember subject knowledge as well as they should. Leaders need to ensure that staff deliver the curriculum consistently well across subjects.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View 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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How can I feed back my views?

If you are the school and you are not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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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 pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 23 and 24 November 2021

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School details

Inspection number 10199367 Type of school Infant

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.greatmoor-inf.stockport.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 12 and 13 February 2007, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Since the previous inspection, there have been several changes to the leadership arrangements, including the appointment of a substantive headteacher and a new chair of governors. There has also been a restructuring of the senior leadership team. There have also been other key appointments, including a new special needs coordinator (SENCo) and a new leader for the early years.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection that the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The impact of the pandemic was discussed with school leaders. This was taken into account by inspectors in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors spoke with the headteacher and other leaders in the school, including the SENCo. Inspectors spoke with a group of governors, including the chair of the governing body. 23 and 24 November 2021

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 Inspectors looked at a range of documentation for safeguarding, including: the school’s central record of staff and visitors; staff training records; records of safeguarding; and samples of the records kept on individual pupils.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics, design and technology, physical education and history. They talked with the curriculum leaders of these subject areas. Inspectors also visited lessons, looked at examples of pupils’ work, held discussions with teachers and talked with pupils. Inspectors looked at curriculum plans and samples of work from other areas of the curriculum, including art and design, science, geography and personal, social, health and economic education.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour at breaktimes and lunchtimes. They watched pupils as they moved around the school.  Inspectors spoke with groups of pupils about their experiences at school.

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 Inspectors considered the responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, and the free-text responses from parents to find out their views of the school. They also spoke with parents as they dropped their children off at school.  Inspectors considered the responses to the Ofsted’s staff and pupil surveys.

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Inspection team

Claire Cropper, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Steve Kirkpatrick Ofsted Inspector 23 and 24 November 2021

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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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