Locks Heath Infant & Nursery School

Inspection of Locks Heath Infant School Warsash Road, Locks Heath, Southampton, Hampshire SO31 9NZ

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Good

This school was last inspected 13 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 Good

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. 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. 13 and 14 March 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

This school helps pupils get their education off to an excellent start. Pupils love coming to school every day and want to do their best. Adults know children and families well, treating them with great care. They work hard to give pupils a firm foundation on which to build their future learning. Consequently, pupils are prepared well, both academically and socially, for moving on to junior school at the end of Year 2.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents value how adults in school help their children to feel safe and nurtured. Instances of bullying and poor behaviour are rare. Pupils are kind to each other and respectful towards their teachers and other adults in the school. Those who need extra help to make the right choices are supported well. As a result, the atmosphere around the school is happy and calm.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s values are evident throughout. Leaders aspire for pupils to be curious, determined, respectful and collaborative. Staff constantly model the school’s values, setting a great example, which pupils follow. Pupils understand adults’ high expectations for their learning and wider development. They rise to meet the challenge set.

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better?

Throughout their time at the school, pupils experience a broad curriculum that prepares them successfully for key stage 2. Teachers know their subjects well, enabling them to plan useful learning for pupils. This learning begins in the early years, where children gain the language and skills they will need as they get older. In key stage 1, learning aligns more closely to specific subjects, with careful thought given to what pupils need to learn and when. Across all three years, reading, writing and mathematics are prioritised appropriately while still giving pupils the chance to gain vital early knowledge of other subjects.

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better?

Children’s learning journeys start well in the early years. Children participate in a range of useful activities that support their learning across the curriculum. The environment is safe and carefully managed, with the outside space used thoughtfully. Adults understand children’s needs and care for them sensitively. However, their knowledge of what children can and cannot do is not used as well as it could be to inform planning for future sessions. Nevertheless, children benefit from their early years experience.

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better?

Leaders are passionate about wanting pupils to become enthusiastic and capable readers. Their recent, useful work has reinvigorated the school’s approach to teaching pupils how to read, recognising that the previous approach was not meeting pupils’ needs well enough. Investments in staff training and resources are ensuring a clear and effective approach to teaching phonics, starting early on in the Reception Year. Pupils who need extra help to keep up with their peers are 13 and 14 March 2023

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supported well by knowledgeable adults. Consequently, pupils quickly learn to read accurately and fluently. Pupils enjoy reading with adults at home and experiencing a wide and carefully chosen range of stories during ‘book talk’ time at school.

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Pupils with identified special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported well. Where appropriate, they access the same broad curriculum as other pupils. Leaders proactively access help from beyond the school, where needed, such as speech and language therapy and support for behaviour. However, some other pupils have not had their special educational needs identified promptly and precisely enough. This limits the extra help beyond the school that they are able to access. Leaders have taken recent steps to improve the timeliness of how pupils’ additional needs are identified, but there is more to do.

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Pupils’ personal development is at the heart of the school’s work. Leaders have thought carefully about how the school’s values are lived and breathed, via the personal, social, and health education curriculum, assemblies and other deliberately planned learning experiences. Relevant topics, such as relationships and health education, are covered in a timely and meaningful way. Careful thought has been given to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development within the context of this infant school. ‘Book talk’ texts are deliberately chosen to promote cultural awareness and help pupils begin to understand their place in the world.

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Leaders hold an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. They look beyond the school to learn from the expertise and experiences of others. This helps them to reflect and adapt where aspects of the school are not as effective as they would like. Staff trust their senior leaders to consider their welfare while being uncompromising about their expectations for providing what pupils deserve.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Across the school, there is a culture of vigilance and support. Staff, leaders and governors are trained well to understand and carry out their respective safeguarding roles. Leaders prioritise giving pupils useful knowledge about understanding risk through the taught safety curriculum. This gives pupils the vocabulary and voice to tell adults when something ‘isn’t ok’. Rigorous systems help leaders keep a careful eye on any concerns that may arise, enabling them to act swiftly if they need to. Consequently, this is an environment where pupils feel safe with their trusted adults.

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 The special educational needs of some pupils are not formally identified quickly enough. Where this is the case, pupils’ needs are not always understood well enough or met precisely by the adults who work with them. Leaders need to ensure that pupils’ additional needs are identified and assessed promptly so that they are understood by all and so that appropriate support can be quickly put in place.  In the early years, some of what children need to learn is not identified clearly enough. Other than in literacy and mathematics, adults’ checks on what children have learned do not systematically influence what they learn next. As a result, adults do not plan precisely enough to meet children’s emerging needs across the wider curriculum. Leaders should make sure that learning in the early years builds precisely and deliberately on what children currently know and can do so that they are even better prepared for key stage 1.

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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.

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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. 13 and 14 March 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10256342 Type of school Infant

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 10 and 11 November 2009

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Information about this school

 This is a large infant school, with 4 classes in each year group. It is a community school, maintained by Hampshire local authority.  The headteacher joined the school in September 2017. The chair of governors took up their post in July 2019.  None of the pupils access any of their education via an alternative provider.

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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 leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 13 and 14 March 2023

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 Inspectors spoke to senior and middle leaders, staff and pupils. The lead inspector also met with representatives of the governing body and of the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics, art and history. This involved talking to leaders of those subjects, visiting a sample of lessons, talking to teachers and pupils and looking at a sample of pupils’ work.  The school’s safeguarding arrangements were scrutinised. Inspectors reviewed the single central record of recruitment checks on adults. They held meetings with the school’s designated safeguarding lead and considered relevant policies and safeguarding records.  Inspectors gathered a range of other relevant evidence relating to the school’s work. They spoke to parents at the start of the day and to pupils and staff during the inspection. The inspectors took account of the 45 responses to Ofsted’s staff

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questionnaire and the 200 responses to Ofsted’s parent questionnaire, Parent View.

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Inspection team

Kathryn Moles, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Alan Johnson Ofsted Inspector 13 and 14 March 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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