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Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Catherine Dennison Executive Headteacher Millom Infant School Lapstone Road Millom Cumbria LA18 4LP

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Millom Infant School

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection that took place on 11 and 12 March 2025, on behalf of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005 and was the second monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require special measures following the graded (section 5) inspection that took place in June 2023.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Millom Infant School

The purpose of a monitoring inspection is not to grade the school’s key and (where applicable) provision judgements, but to identify and report on the school’s progress. It is to highlight to the school and parents any improvements that school leaders have made since the school’s previous graded inspection.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Millom Infant School

During the inspection, I discussed with you and other senior leaders, governors and the local authority the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection. We also discussed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I made visits to some lessons and observed some pupils read to staff. I met with a group of pupils and looked at examples of pupils’ work. I reviewed some of the school’s documentation. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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Leaders have made progress to improve the school, but more work is

necessary for the school to no longer be judged as requiring special measures.

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The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be

considered again during any monitoring inspection we carry out.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

Since the previous inspection, a new executive headteacher has become responsible for this school and one other. An experienced leader from another school has been appointed as a phase leader at Millom until the end of the summer term 2025.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

The school has acted carefully to revise and improve the content of the school’s curriculum. Pupils increasingly enjoy their learning and gain more secure subject knowledge. They remember and understand some important subject vocabulary, such as the word ‘habitat’ in science. Pupils increasingly remember some key facts that they have learned, for instance from history about the Great Fire of London. The school works with greater rigour to implement its mathematics curriculum effectively. For example, pupils can explain their mathematical thinking using suitable words.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

The school has increased the involvement of parents and carers of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in key decisions about their children’s education. It has taken decisive action to identify and support the needs of pupils with SEND with greater accuracy. Mostly, these pupils now learn curriculum content more successfully than in the past. Nevertheless, the school does not help some pupils with SEND to learn well enough. This holds them back from achieving as much as they should.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

Pupils’ learning of phonics has improved. This is because the school makes better use of its chosen phonics programme. Staff now use reading books that match the sounds that pupils know. The expertise of teachers and teaching assistants has grown because of the training and support that they receive. Recently, the school has increased the opportunities that staff give to weaker readers to practise and consolidate their phonics knowledge. However, it is too soon to see the impact of this change on pupils’ learning. Some pupils struggle to read because of large gaps in their knowledge, caused by previous weaknesses in the school’s delivery of its phonics curriculum. There has been an improvement in how well staff select stories to read to children in the early years and pupils in key stage 1. Pupils have better knowledge of stories that leaders and staff read to them.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

The school is now a much calmer place than at the time of the first monitoring inspection eight months ago. The school has taken effective steps to help pupils to understand the school’s expectations of their behaviour. Pupils’ behaviour is now more sensible, including at lunchtimes. However, some pupils still talk about the negative behaviours of other pupils that they have seen at the school. Sometimes, staff do not help pupils to sit properly, pay attention and concentrate well in lessons. This means that some pupils do not develop the positive attitudes to learning that they need to succeed at school.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

There has been notable progress to improve the work of the governing body. Governors now check on the school’s improvement more carefully. They challenge and review what they have read, seen and been told by the school, parents and pupils diligently. An external review of governance has been completed recently. Governors have taken the first steps to use the review to improve the work of the governing body further.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

The school makes much better use of the advice from education experts from outside the school. This includes the support that has been provided in relation to phonics, SEND and the wider organisation of teaching the curriculum. In addition, more effective links have been forged with other schools. Staff understand better how their work can connect with that of other education professionals.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of governors, the Department for Education’s regional director and the director of children’s services for Cumberland. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

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