Springfield Infant School and Nursery

Inspection of Springfield Infant School and Nursery Sackville Road, Worthing, West Sussex BN14 8BQ

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Inspection dates: 14 and 15 January 2025

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The quality of education Outstanding Behaviour and attitudes Outstanding Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Outstanding Early years provision Outstanding Previous inspection grade Good 14 and 15 January 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Springfield really does give its pupils ‘the wings to fly and space to grow’. Pupils receive a truly excellent start to their education in every aspect of school life. The school focuses on building strong relationships with pupils and their families from the outset. All staff are unwavering in their determination for every pupil to succeed. Staff get to know pupils quickly and show them great warmth and care. From the first day in Nursery, teachers carefully build pupils’ learning and experiences. As a result, pupils flourish, are happy and achieve highly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. They clearly strive to fulfil the school’s ‘I can’ values. Pupils understand what it means to be inclusive, creative, ambitious and nurturing. Pupils of all ages are well mannered and show high levels of respect and self-control. Pupils know about keeping safe and looking after each other. They know staff are always on hand if they need support or have a worry.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils relish the wide range of opportunities the school provides. During the inspection, Year 2 pupils loved visiting Chichester Theatre, which left them wanting to learn to play orchestral instruments. Pupils are proud to be junior governors and enjoy participating in a wide range of clubs, such as karate, yoga and virtual games.

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

Children get off to a great start in the early years. Staff build a comprehensive picture of each child, ensuring that the correct provision is in place from day one. Children benefit from a vocabulary-rich setting that develops their early language and communication skills successfully. As a result, children are well prepared for the Year 1 curriculum.

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

The school has developed an ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum, which is delivered with great expertise across the school. The curriculum details the precise knowledge, skills and vocabulary pupils need to learn in all subjects. Pupils remember and build on prior learning effectively and produce high-quality work. Pupils learn early mathematics exceptionally well. The curriculum enhances pupils’ knowledge and skills in wider curriculum subjects, such as history, art and religious education. For example, pupils had a confident understanding of explorers and the achievements of Nelson Mandela.

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

The school’s assessment systems, such as the ‘Pen Portraits’, work very well. Teachers use the information they collect to plan activities that deepen and build on pupils’ growing understanding. Pupils who may need additional help are identified quickly and receive excellent support, which enables them to access the full curriculum offer. Staff have been very well trained in how to support pupils with additional needs and adapt activities successfully. As a result, pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities achieve exceptionally well.

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

All staff are determined that pupils learn to read well. Staff ensure pupils read regularly at home and at school. Staff deliver the school’s phonics programme expertly. This begins in the early years when children learn to read their first words using their growing 14 and 15 January 2025

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knowledge of the sounds letters make. The teaching of phonics is precise and accurate. If any pupils struggle to read fluently, staff waste no time in giving them highly effective extra support. Teachers make sure that the books pupils read are well matched to their reading ability. Story time is a joyous part of the day. Pupils listen eagerly to the very well- chosen texts. All of this means that children quickly gain the knowledge and skills they need to become confident, fluent readers.

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Pupils demonstrate splendid attitudes to their work. They listen carefully to the adults and are polite and helpful. During lessons, pupils work hard and are keen to learn. Pupils learn about the ‘Colour Monster’ to help them identify their feelings and communicate these appropriately. If pupils find it harder to control their behaviour, adults’ effective care and support help them make long-term improvements. Pupils’ attendance and punctuality are very strong. The school has worked very successfully with parents to raise attendance rates.

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Pupils benefit greatly from the impressive personal development programme. They learn how to be good friends and identify potentially risky situations. They are also taught how to be physically healthy, for example, taking part in ‘daily stride’ and team sports. Specialist staff provide additional help for pupils who need more support for their physical development. Special curriculum weeks deepen and enrich pupils’ learning in a wide range of subjects.

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The staff are a harmonious team. They love coming to work and everyone knows the part that they play. Leaders treat staff with consideration and are mindful of workload. All staff receive excellent training, which develops a genuine drive to raise performance even further. Parents sincerely appreciate the school’s efforts to ensure their children flourish. As one put it, ‘Springfield is a gem of a school, full of warm, caring and dedicated staff.’

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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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 14 and 15 January 2025

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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). 14 and 15 January 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Richard O’Callaghan

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School details

Date of previous inspection 5 February 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school currently uses one unregistered 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. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 14 and 15 January 2025

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 Inspectors held meetings with a range of leaders, including the headteacher and senior leaders, subject leaders, pastoral leaders and the special educational needs coordinator. They also met with members of the governing body.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, history and mathematics. For each deep dive, inspectors 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. Inspectors also spoke to leaders, visited lessons and looked at samples of pupils’ work in some other subjects.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors 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.

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 In addition, inspectors considered a range of information including the school’s plans for improvement and behaviour records.  Inspectors considered the views of members of staff who responded to Ofsted’s online staff survey. The views of parents were taken into account from the responses to the Ofsted Parent View survey and free-text responses. Inspectors met with groups of pupils formally and informally to discuss their views of the school.

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Inspection team

Mark Bagust, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Lesley Fisher-Pink Ofsted Inspector 14 and 15 January 2025

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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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