Bramble Infant School and Nursery

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Bramble Infant School and Nursery Bramble Road, Southsea, Hampshire PO4 0DT

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Inspection dates: 11 and 12 February 2025

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Outcome

Bramble Infant School and Nursery has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Many ingredients make up what one parent captured perfectly as the ‘nurturing, supportive and creative environment, where staff have a genuine care for the children’s well-being, growth and education’. The incredibly strong partnership with parents rubs off on pupils, who are happily settled in school and attend well. They are appreciative of their teachers. The diversity of the school community and the many home languages are widely celebrated. Parents welcome the workshops and invitations into the classroom so that they can be, as one described it, ‘united in our children’s education’.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Fostering pupils’ personal development and well-being is at the heart of the school’s success. Careful consideration of the care and development needs of the youngest children in Nursery sets the scene. The school’s ‘STAR’ values and high expectations are part and parcel of everyday life. Pupils work hard, so they are ‘successful’, can ‘think’ carefully about their learning and be ‘aspirational’ and ‘respectful’. They treat each other kindly and learn how to manage their own feelings.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils’ enthusiasm for learning and curiosity is infectious. The skilfully designed curriculum ensures that they learn much more than the basics of reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils excitedly share the important knowledge they have learned as, for example, geographers, scientists or artists.

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

The school knows itself inside out. It is, rightly, proud of its many strengths and just as honest about what could be even better. Everything is centred on pupils, staff and leaders ‘growing, caring and learning’. Plans for further improving the school’s work are carefully considered. As one parent observed, developments are ‘all designed with thought to how 11 and 12 February 2025

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the children will experience it and what messages they will take away, including about themselves’. Testament to this is the laser-like focus on pupils’ learning in recent years and the improvements that has brought across the curriculum.

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Most pupils acquire the early reading skills they need by the end of Year 1. The foundations are laid in Nursery, where children enjoy stories, songs and rhymes. Phonics teaching starts as soon as children are settled in Reception. It is proficient and precise. Staff make sure that pupils who are not keeping up get the extra support they need. Equally, pupils’ mathematical understanding and thinking are developed well. The school has pinpointed why standards in writing are not as strong. Work with staff is strengthening the teaching of writing. The focus on explicitly supporting pupils to rehearse verbally what they want to say is already evident, as is reinforcing the correct use of punctuation whenever they write.

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Teaching is typically skilful. The Nursery team are adept at promoting the learning and development of the children in their key groups. The ‘Bramble stepping stones’ keep key developmental milestones in their mind as they take account of the children’s interests and needs. Elsewhere, staff have good knowledge of the many subjects they teach. Training to enhance teaching means that it now builds pupils’ learning systematically. Mostly, teachers move from explaining, through the class having a go together and on to pupils practising to consolidate their learning. Checks on what pupils understand and remember are focused. Thorough oversight picks up pupils who need extra help. Staff are well trained to adapt activities or provide additional support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The same is true for those who are at an early stage of learning English.

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In other subjects, the projects pupils explore fuels their thirst for learning and equips them with important information. Meticulous curriculum design ensures teachers know what essential knowledge, skills and vocabulary pupils should learn and remember in each subject. Collaborative working makes the most of staff’s experience and expertise. The projects capture pupils’ interest and imagination. Well-judged use of visits to the local area and beyond enrich learning. Pupils talk with confidence, for example, about the geography of their city, having experienced the aerial view from the top of the Spinnaker Tower. ‘Project outcome’ sessions are much anticipated and well-attended highlights in the school calendar. Armed with prompts from staff, there is a tangible buzz as parents encourage their children to talk about their learning.

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Pupils develop a mature sense of themselves and their place in the world. Sensitive care in Nursery helps children to settle and feel secure. Sensibly placed projects with an emphasis on pupils’ emotional well-being and social skills help them to settle at the start of the school year. Thereafter, pupils’ personal development is woven systematically through the curriculum and assemblies, with extra support for pupils who need it. The ‘Bramble Bookshelves’ feature carefully chosen books that are popular with pupils and cultivate their understanding of important matters, such as sustainability and diversity. 11 and 12 February 2025

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The focus on improving the teaching of writing is fairly recent. Pupils’ attainment in writing is still not as high as it is in reading and mathematics. The school should ensure that it keeps a close eye on the implementation of its plans to enhance pupils’ oracy and composition skills, checking on the impact on their writing and making adjustments as needed.

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Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted’s website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

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Background

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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’s work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in March 2019.

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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. 11 and 12 February 2025

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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 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). 11 and 12 February 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 12 and 13 March 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school has four nursery rooms catering for children from six months of age upwards. Provision for the 146 two- to three-year-olds and three- to four-year olds on roll was included in this inspection. The registered childcare for under twos is inspected separately. At the time of the inspection, the deputy nursery manager was acting manager pending the recruitment of a new leader.  In a change since the last inspection, there are now separate special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinators for the Nursery and school. Both have taken up post in the last 18 months.  The school manages its own breakfast and after-school clubs and provides wraparound care in Nursery from 7.30 am to 5.30pm.  The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language has increased in recent years and is now much higher than in most schools nationally. Over 30 different languages are spoken. Pupils’ proficiency in English ranges from those who are new to

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Information about this school

English through to those who are fluent English speakers.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision. 11 and 12 February 2025

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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. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and has taken that into account in her evaluation of the school.  Meetings were held with the headteacher and other school leaders, as well as the chair and other members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.  The inspector visited a sample of lessons, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. She also listened to some pupils read to a familiar adult.  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

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Information about this inspection

safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Staff and parent views were gathered using Ofsted’s surveys. There were no responses to the pupil survey, but the inspector met with pupils as well as staff during the inspection. She also talked to pupils around school and outside at breaktime, and with staff as they went about their work.

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Inspection team

Alison Bradley, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 11 and 12 February 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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