Elmwood Infant School

Inspection of a good school: Elmwood Infant School Lodge Road, Croydon, Surrey CR0 2PL

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Outcome

Elmwood Infant School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and proud members of the Elmwood community. Each pupil’s uniqueness is valued. Diversity is celebrated throughout the school. Pupils feel safe here and are kept safe. This is because of the warm and nurturing relationships between staff and pupils.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is ambitious for what pupils can achieve. Leaders and staff have sharply focused on ensuring that all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well across the curriculum. This work is effective overall. Additionally, the school’s ’10 super skills’ are well embedded throughout the curriculum and other aspects of school life. These are designed to support pupils to be successful learners and develop skills for the future.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Expectations for pupils’ behaviour are clear and understood by all. Pupils are polite and respectful. In lessons, they are typically focused and enthusiastically engaged in their learning. Pupils enjoy the social times that they have at break and lunch times.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils’ wider development is supported through special events and celebrations in school. For example, pupils enjoy the learning and experiences provided by ‘achievers week’, ‘refugee week’ and ‘the pride of Elmwood’ celebration. Educational visits, such as to Crystal Palace Park and the local library, enrich the taught curriculum. Pupils have opportunities to contribute their ideas to the school community through being part of the school council.

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

Starting in early years, the school’s curriculum identifies and clearly sets out the key knowledge and skills that pupils need to learn. Leaders have also begun work on identifying and mapping out essential subject-related vocabulary across the curriculum. Teachers explain new learning clearly. Lessons typically provide pupils with purposeful opportunities to revisit and recap their prior learning. 16 and 17 July 2024

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However, across the curriculum, the school’s intent and expectations for subjects are, in a few instances, not fully realised. For example, on occasions, the activities that pupils complete are not as sharply linked to the intended learning as they could be. In addition, checks of what pupils know and can remember are, at times, not ensuring that errors and misconceptions in learning are consistently identified and addressed.

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Reading is prioritised. Teachers and staff deliver consistently high-quality phonics sessions. In these sessions pupils are engaged, focused and on task. Pupils have many opportunities for rehearsal and to practise reading words. Pupils’ phonics knowledge is purposefully tracked and monitored so that any gaps are quickly identified and addressed. Effective catch-up and keep-up sessions help those pupils who are falling behind. Pupils have books matched to their stage of reading, which promotes well-focused practice in using decoding to read unknown words. However, when reading with pupils, there are times when adults’ support is not focused sharply on developing pupils’ fluency in reading. For the weaker readers in particular, this reduces the quality time that they have to practise using their phonics knowldege.

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A love for reading is promoted through regular opportunities to read for pleasure and daily story times. These are supplemented by a range of additional experiences, including, book fairs, library visits, a half-termly author focus and celebrating events such as World Book Day.

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The school has effective systems in place to identify pupils’ additional needs. Staff receive training to be able to meet pupils’ needs and support them to access the curriculum alongside their peers. In English and mathematics, learning is routinely adapted to meet the needs of pupils with SEND in a highly effective manner. Effective adaptations to learning are less established in other subject areas. Leaders have begun work on ensuring effective adaptations are also consistently in place across the wider curriculum. A small number of pupils with SEND benefit from a personalised curriculum to meet their complex needs.

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Improving attendance is a priority for the school. There are clear procedures in place to track and monitor pupils’ attendance. Effective action is taken when a pupil’s attendance becomes a concern.

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Promoting pupil’s personal development, in particular building their awareness of their rights and responsibilities, is threaded through all aspects of school life. Pupils are taught how to look after themselves both emotionally and physically. They develop an understanding of healthy relationships at an age-appropriate level. Pupils also learn about different beliefs and cultures.

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Staff enjoy working at this school. They feel well supported and that their workload is taken into account. The governing body, although relatively new, know the school well. This helps it to hold leaders to account while also providing support.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 16 and 17 July 2024

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders’ clear vision for pupils’ learning is not fully realised through the delivery of a few aspects of the curriculum. Sometimes, the activities in lessons are not sharply focused on the expected learning, and across the wider curriculum, there are occasions where adaptations to help pupils with SEND are not consistently in place. In addition, reading practice for weaker readers is, in a few instances, not giving sharp emphasis to developing their fluency. These things all reduce the quality of pupils’ learning. The school needs to continue to develop staff expertise to address these aspects, including through the provision of further training for staff where needed.  Some checks on what pupils know and understand are not robust enough. This means that, sometimes, pupils’ misconceptions or gaps in their understanding are not picked up. The school needs to ensure that pupils’ understanding is routinely checked across

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

the curriculum, and that teaching addresses any gaps.

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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 an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in September 2014.

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How can I feed back my views?

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' is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and 16 and 17 July 2024

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protection; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school's pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 16 and 17 July 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 10 July 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school uses one registered alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspector met with the headteacher, deputy and assistant headteachers, subject leaders, teachers, governors, including the chair of governors, and a representative from the local authority.  The inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and geography. For each deep dive, the inspector held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The inspector also discussed the curriculum in some other subjects. 16 and 17 July 2024

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 To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  The inspector also considered staff’s responses to Ofsted’s survey.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school.

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Inspection team

Julie Wright, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector 16 and 17 July 2024

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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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T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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