Queen's Drive Infant School

Inspection of Queen’s Drive Infant School Queen’s Drive West, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire PE1 2UU

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good 7 and 8 February 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Queen’s Drive Infant School is a caring community. A parent told the inspectors that ‘My daughter loves the school and is very happy there.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is a harmonious and calm environment. Pupils are kind to each other and work well together. Lunchtimes are well organised, and there is much for the pupils to do. The provision for early years has clearly established routines, and children are polite. Children cooperate well with each other.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils like learning and concentrate in class. They love the challenge of topics such as ‘hard maths’ and multiplication tables. Pupils respond well to staff. This helps to prepare pupils, by Year 2, for the next stages of their education. However, in the early years, children do not learn as well as they should. This is because leaders and teachers are not certain what they want children to learn or how they will learn it.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are safe in school. They behave well at playtimes and lunchtimes. They are confident to go to staff if any incidents of bullying occur. Pupils know that teachers will deal with any problems quickly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy the range of activities that they can join in with. This includes singing and music clubs, as well as sports, gym, science and art activities. Pupils also appreciate the many trips that the school organises to different places.

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better?

Leaders have created a well-considered curriculum for the older pupils. Subject leaders take care when thinking about what pupils need to know and how to revisit it over time. In science, for example, children look at different types of materials in early years and learn about their properties in Year 1. This building of knowledge allows Year 2 pupils to make a good choice of material for a particular product. This approach to planning the curriculum helps pupils to learn and remember more over time.

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better?

The curriculum is not as well considered in the early years. Many activities are available for the children in each classroom but, too often, they do not have an explicit purpose. This is because teachers are not clear about what they want children to learn. This has the further consequence of teachers not being able to check accurately for, and to plan effectively to address, gaps in children’s knowledge. This stops children from developing their knowledge in a systematic way.

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better?

Teachers check older pupils’ understanding. They make good use of quizzes, assessment and questioning in class to assess what pupils have learned. This enables staff to build pupils’ knowledge over time and to address any 7 and 8 February 2023

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misunderstandings. In addition, it allows staff to give extra help to pupils who are struggling so that they can keep up with their peers.

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The school prioritises the teaching of early reading. The reading curriculum is well planned and taught. Children in early years and older pupils develop confidence as readers in their daily sessions. Pupils in key stage 1 could explain to inspectors in an age-appropriate way how their knowledge of reading has been built over time. Books used for practise match the sounds or words they know. Rigorous assessments allow teachers to check all pupils’ reading abilities. This enables the school to give any pupils who have fallen behind the support they need to become fluent readers.

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Leaders have a clear ambition for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This ambition is a strength of the school. There are clear processes for identifying needs. Staff work well with external agencies to put in place suitable support. The school adapts the curriculum to ensure pupils’ needs are met. This includes providing individualised physiotherapy and sensory circuit sessions.

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Pupils’ personal development is well promoted. It is part of school life, through the assembly programme and in personal, social and health education lessons. The curriculum allows pupils to develop British values, such as respect for diversity. The school offers many opportunities for them to help others. These range from food bank collections during Ramadan to singing to older people. Pupils like to go on visits, including to places of worship, such as local churches and mosques. Pupils learn how to keep safe, including through internet safety days and a safety week in the autumn term.

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Leaders have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour. Pupils behave well, and there is a calm, orderly atmosphere in the school. Pupils are comfortable listening to others’ ideas and sharing their own views. Effective systems for monitoring attendance mean that it is starting to improve after the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Governors visit to check the quality of provision. They identify areas for improvement accurately. However, they do not always follow up to check that leaders have acted upon the weaknesses they highlight.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

While pupils are safe, leaders have not always followed statutory guidance when recruiting new staff. Consequently, some important information was not retained after completing the required checks. Leaders did not act when governors highlighted this issue previously, and governors did not check to see if leaders had acted on their findings. The school rectified this shortfall by the end of the inspection. 7 and 8 February 2023

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Leaders have a clear system for recording safeguarding concerns. They respond swiftly to keep pupils safe, working closely with external agencies when they have concerns.

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Pupils feel safe in school. They can explain what they should do to keep themselves safe, including online.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders, and other relevant staff, do not have a clear understanding of the statutory guidance around the information a school must retain when employing new staff. As a result, they were unaware of the weaknesses in the retention of staff recruitment, selection and vetting information. Leaders should ensure that they, and other staff who need to, complete further training. This should ensure that they are clear about the statutory requirements and have appropriate systems in place to make sure they are always met.  Governors’ monitoring and follow-up checks are not secure. Consequently, some of the weaknesses they highlight are not acted on quickly. Governors should ensure that their monitoring systems are effective in holding leaders to account for any improvement actions needed. They must check systematically to see that required actions are swiftly implemented and that actions are leading to the

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

necessary improvements.  The curriculum in early years does not have a clear focus on the detail of the specific content children will need to learn through the activities planned. This means that children are not undertaking activities that develop their knowledge well enough. Leaders need to ensure that there is a clear purpose to all activities to allow the children to systematically develop disciplinary and substantive knowledge.

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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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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school. 7 and 8 February 2023

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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. 7 and 8 February 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10255064 Type of school Infant

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.queensdriveinfantschool.co.uk/

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School details

Date of previous inspection 14 September 2017, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Leaders do not currently use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

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

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with school leaders and have taken this into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with senior leaders, subject leaders, other members of staff and members of the governing body. Inspectors spoke with two representatives from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics, religious education and science. For each deep dive, inspectors met with subject leaders, 7 and 8 February 2023

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visited a sample of lessons, spoke with pupils about their learning, looked at samples of pupils’ work and spoke with teachers.  The lead inspector listened to pupils reading with a familiar adult.  Inspectors considered a range of documents to evaluate safeguarding arrangements. Inspectors met with leaders and staff. The school’s record of staff recruitment was scrutinised.  Inspectors spoke with pupils during lunchtimes and observed their behaviour during these times.  Inspectors had informal conversations with parents at the end of the school day.  Inspectors analysed the responses to Ofsted’s questionnaire for school staff. They also considered the responses and free-text comments to Ofsted’s questionnaire for parents, Parent View.

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Inspection team

James Adkins, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Nicola Shadbolt Ofsted Inspector 7 and 8 February 2023

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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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