Shadsworth Infant School

Inspection of Shadsworth Infant School Rothesay Road, Blackburn, Lancashire BB1 2EL

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The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Good 25 and 26 March 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and settled at this vibrant infant school. They enjoy their learning and look forward to exciting activities, including when they are outdoors. Pupils particularly relish lunchtime. They know that staff care about them and will help if they have any worries.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is aspirational for pupils’ academic achievement and social development. This includes for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who are disadvantaged. Pupils typically achieve well across a range of subjects.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils generally behave positively during lessons and at social times. Lessons are typically calm and orderly, which helps pupils to focus on the task at hand. While pupils told inspectors that some behaviour disrupts their learning at times, teachers do sort this out quickly. Pupils understand why it is important to follow the school’s rules and values, such as respect.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school provides pupils with experiences that they might not otherwise have. Trips are planned to complement the curriculum, such as to museums, farms, beaches, places of worship and an airport. Visitors to school, including firefighters and dentists, also enhance pupils’ learning. Pupils vote for clubs that they would like, such as clubs for sewing, sports, books and art. These are included during the school day and beyond so that pupils benefit fully.

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

The school’s curriculum is broad and balanced. Since the previous inspection, the school has redeveloped subject curriculums. This was to make sure that the knowledge that pupils should learn is identified clearly and ordered logically, so that they can build secure understanding over time. However, this is not the case for some subjects and areas of learning in the early years. In these subjects and areas of learning, knowledge is not as clearly determined.

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

Teachers access appropriate training and support, which helps them to develop their subject expertise. Staff typically implement the curriculum well, such as by providing pupils with clear explanations during lessons. They use a range of strategies well to check how successfully pupils progress through the curriculum. However, some learning activities that teachers design are not well chosen to deliver the intended content, particularly in subjects that require some further refinements. This means that pupils do not learn as well as they could, resulting in some gaps in their knowledge.

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

The school’s provision for pupils with SEND is a strength. This is especially true in the school’s designated special educational needs (SEN) unit, which caters for pupils with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs. Pupils’ additional needs are identified early, and effective support ensures that these pupils are ready to learn. 25 and 26 March 2025

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Reading is a priority. Pupils’ love of reading is fostered in several ways. For example, pupils visit the school’s inviting library and can attend a library club each week. The school helps reading times to be fun occasions, such as by reading by torchlight on a weekly basis. Some pupils read stories to the school’s resident guinea pigs.

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Children in the early years hear many stories, rhymes and songs. They spend time thinking about books and retelling the main events. Well-trained staff deliver the phonics programme from the start of the Reception Year. They provide children with books that match children’s current phonics knowledge. Staff provide extra support for children, and older pupils in key stage 1, who struggle with their reading. This helps pupils to practise their reading successfully. Most pupils develop into confident and fluent readers by the time they leave the school.

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Most pupils are kind and courteous. They understand that they need to be in school to receive the education that they deserve. Nevertheless, attendance continues to be a focus for the school. Strategies are in place to help pupils to secure positive attendance. While many pupils attend school regularly and on time, this is not the case for a number of others. Too many pupils do not attend school regularly enough. Their high absence levels mean that they frequently miss out on important learning and wider experiences.

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The school has tailored its offer for pupils’ personal development by taking account of the local area and what pupils should know to stay safe. For example, older pupils learn to swim due to the school’s proximity to open water. Pupils develop a sense of community by raising money for charities and writing to children from a contrasting school. They enjoy taking on responsibilities as school councillors and librarians. In their roles as well-being ambassadors, pupils facilitate a termly breakfast for staff.

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The governing body shares in the school’s vision to provide the best for pupils. It fulfils its statutory duties well and provides the school with effective challenge and support. Staff are positive about working at the school. They value the supportive culture and teamwork approach, which helps them to fulfil their roles well.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some subjects, and some areas of learning in the early years, the school has not pinpointed the important knowledge that pupils should learn. This hinders teachers from designing learning that enables pupils to learn all that they could. The school should refine its curriculum thinking in these subjects and support staff in selecting appropriate learning activities, so that pupils know and remember more. 25 and 26 March 2025

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 Too many pupils are persistently absent from school. This limits how well these pupils achieve, and it restricts them from benefiting from the wider experiences that the school offers. The school should build on its work with parents and carers and bolster its approach to ensure that pupils attend school more regularly.

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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 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). 25 and 26 March 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 3 and 4 December 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school has a SEN unit for up to 10 pupils with SEMH needs. Places are commissioned by the local authority. There are currently 12 pupils who attend this provision, between the ages of four and 10 years old.  Since the previous inspection, the school has increased its age range so that it can cater for pupils up to the age of 11 years in the SEN unit.  The school does not make use of alternative provision.  The school provides a breakfast club for pupils.

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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). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade. 25 and 26 March 2025

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 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection that 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.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and history. In each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders and visited a sample of lessons. They spoke with teachers and with some pupils about their learning. Inspectors looked at samples of pupils’ work. They also considered the curriculum in some other subjects.  The lead inspector observed some pupils from Years 1 and 2 read to a familiar adult. He discussed reading with a group of pupils.  Inspectors met with the headteacher and other school leaders. The lead inspector met

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with representatives of the governing body, including the chair of governors. He also spoke with a representative of the local authority and the school’s improvement partner.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour during lessons and around school, including at breakfast, at playtime and during lunchtime. They spoke with several groups of pupils about their experiences at school and considered the responses to Ofsted’s online pupil survey.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors reviewed the single central record and took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils. They considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation documents, improvement plans, minutes of governing body meetings and documents pertaining to pupils’ behaviour and levels of attendance.

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 Inspectors spoke with staff about their workload and their well-being. They considered the responses to Ofsted’s online survey for staff.  Inspectors took account of the responses to Ofsted’s online survey for parents, Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments. They also considered the information from the school’s own questionnaire for parents. An inspector met with some parents at the start of the school day.

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Inspection team

David Lobodzinski, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Julie Brown Ofsted Inspector 25 and 26 March 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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