Sun Hill Infant and Preschool

Sun Hill Infant and Preschool

Address: Sun Lane, Alresford, Alresford, Hampshire, SO24 9NB Unique reference number (URN): 115992

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, pupils are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect schools for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The school has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. All legal requirements are met. Not met: The school has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Attendance and behaviour Strong standard

Rates of attendance for all pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those from other disadvantaged groups, are high. This is because leaders prioritise attendance. They are rigorous in the ways they promote the importance of attendance. Leaders work tenaciously to ensure pupils attend regularly and punctually. If pupils struggle to attend school regularly, leaders work closely with families to understand the barriers they face before putting in place successful support. This improves attendance quickly. The school's high rate of attendance ensures that pupils have every opportunity to learn and achieve well.

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Attendance and behaviour Strong standard

Pupils' behaviour is impeccable. Staff ensure that pupils follow consistent routines right from the start of early years. In lessons, pupils demonstrate high levels of concentration. They listen attentively and engage well in their learning, including when they work with their peers. They follow instructions consistently well. Pupils take time to help their peers to do the right thing. Invariably, they do this in a kind and patient manner. Bullying or unkind behaviour is rare at this school. If it does happen, the school deals with incidents quickly and effectively.

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Early years Strong standard

Leaders have implemented a carefully constructed and highly ambitious curriculum that clearly identifies the important knowledge and skills children need to learn in order to be ready for key stage 1. Expertly designed activities enable children to learn the intended curriculum successfully and securely. High-quality, carefully focused interactions between adults and children ensure that children’s thinking is developed deeply. For example, when playing with ice, pre-school children are supported effectively to understand that ice forms when water freezes. In addition, adults routinely develop children’s ability to communicate effectively by demonstrating how to speak in full sentences and modelling role-play conversations.

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Early years Strong standard

The school prioritises reading. Children in Reception secure phonics knowledge, which they apply successfully in their reading. They are well prepared for the demands of Year 1.

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Early years Strong standard

Staff in the early years have a relentless focus on identifying what children know and can do at each stage of their learning. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged children. Staff identify and address any gaps in children’s understanding swiftly. Consequently, children make rapid progress from their starting points and achieve highly.

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Early years Strong standard

Leaders provide early years staff with high-quality training. This ensures that staff have the knowledge and skills they need to support children to learn well.

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Inclusion Strong standard

At Sun Hill, inclusion is a priority. It is everyone's responsibility. Leaders are determined that all pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils have every opportunity to thrive. Sharply focused policies, processes and systems ensure that all staff know what they need to do to provide the very best for pupils so that they can overcome any barriers to their learning or wellbeing. The school has robust systems in place to identify pupils' additional needs swiftly and precisely. Leaders ensure that those pupils who need additional help to learn the curriculum receive highly appropriate, individualised support that is closely matched to their needs.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders keep a keen and regular oversight of inclusion. They track pupils' progress rigorously and they review the impact of the support that they put in place. Anything that is not working for pupils is changed swiftly. Leaders provide staff with ongoing, high-quality training. This provides staff with the expertise they need to support pupils with SEND and those from other disadvantaged groups. Leaders make effective use of additional funding, such as the pupil premium grant. They use this to provide additional services and provision to meet pupils' academic and broader needs.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

The school's thoughtful and carefully considered programme for pupils' personal development is a real strength. Pupils develop a detailed understanding of respect, equalities and how to keep themselves safe. They explain their understanding of these concepts eloquently. They also show their understanding in an impressive manner through their considerate actions towards each other and their respectful conduct around the school. The school's relationships and sex education and health curriculum is highly effective. Pupils secure detailed, age-appropriate knowledge about healthy relationships and keeping physically fit. Leaders keep the school's personal development curriculum under continual review. They make informed and well-timed adaptations to the curriculum when necessary to meet pupils' emerging needs. For example, leaders identified that many pupils spend significant amounts of time online. In response, they changed the school's approach to

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

teaching online safety, providing more frequent opportunities for pupils to learn about how to stay safe online.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

The school has a highly effective approach to supporting pupils' social and emotional development. Pupils develop the skills they need to enable them to learn well and lead successful and fulfilling lives. For example, pupils learn to use a range of successful strategies to help them to manage their emotions and stay calm. This has a positive impact on pupils' resilience and their ability to maintain concentration. For pupils who need additional help to manage their emotions, the school provides effective individual support. The positive impact of this is clear around the school as pupils invariably demonstrate highly positive attitudes to learning and consistent levels of kindness and respect.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Pupils enjoy a wide range of highly inclusive opportunities. For example, opportunities in drama, music, outdoor pursuits and coding help pupils to develop their interests, try new things and broaden their horizons.

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Achievement Expected standard

Generally, pupils achieve well. By the end of Year 1, most pupils have age-appropriate phonics knowledge. Typically, in other subjects, pupils learn an age-appropriate curriculum and achieve well. In some subjects, for example in art and design and physical education, pupils achieve highly. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those from other disadvantaged groups. Across the curriculum, pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils make suitable progress from their starting points and achieve well.

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Achievement Expected standard

The school ensures that all pupils are supported well to learn the basic skills they need to be ready for the next phase of their education. Recent work on improving pupils' spelling and handwriting is having a positive impact on the quality of pupils' written work.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The school's curriculum clearly identifies the important knowledge and skills that pupils need to learn and when they will learn them. Where curriculum design is most effective, it supports teachers to deliver new content well. Staff check pupils' understanding thoroughly. As a result, teachers typically design activities that help pupils to secure detailed understanding of important concepts. However, very occasionally, this is not the case. In such cases, the curriculum content is not quite as carefully identified as it could be.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The teaching of mathematics and reading is effective. Pupils love to read and learn to read swiftly. Pupils at the earliest stages of learning to read receive expert support from suitably trained staff. Recently, leaders have identified that pupils' spelling and handwriting need to improve further. Leaders have adopted appropriate strategies and ensured that staff have received focused training to develop this aspect of the school's work. Staff use these strategies consistently well. However, this work is not fully embedded consistently, so its full impact is not realised.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers ensure that there are appropriate and effective adaptations to the curriculum to support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and other disadvantaged groups of pupils. These enable pupils to learn effectively and achieve well.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have a clear vision for their school. They want all pupils to achieve their very best. They clearly prioritise inclusion and make decisions that are in pupils' best interests. Leaders make sure that children in the early years get off to a great start in their education in the school's highly effective early years provision. Leaders, including those responsible for governance, have an accurate understanding of the school's strengths and the appropriate areas that will make the school even better. They are implementing these well. Recent improvements, for example in developing the teaching of spelling and writing, are already having a positive impact on pupils. Staff enjoy working at the school. They value the supportive culture where everyone works together for the benefit of the pupils. Leaders ensure that staff benefit from a carefully planned, research-informed programme of professional development. This enables staff to

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

continually develop up-to-date expertise. Staff are positive that the quality of this training enables them to do the very best for the pupils.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Governors know the school well. They provide appropriate levels of support and challenge. They understand their role, take their responsibilities seriously and carry out their duties effectively.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils love their school. They feel happy and secure in this highly supportive and nurturing community. Strong, caring relationships abound. Pupils know that staff truly care about them as individuals. Staff make sure that they get to know all pupils well. They do everything possible to ensure that pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those from other disadvantaged groups, have a positive experience at school and thrive. If pupils face barriers to their learning or wellbeing, the school quickly establishes what these are. It works effectively to support pupils to overcome these challenges and to succeed. High rates of attendance reflect pupils' positive attitudes to school.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Leaders are ambitious for all pupils to achieve their very best. Pupils learn a broad, engaging curriculum. Effective teaching enables them to achieve well. There is a positive culture in school that is highly conducive to learning. This enables pupils to flourish academically, socially and emotionally.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils' behaviour is impressive. They respond well to leaders' high expectations. Kindness prevails. Bullying or unkind behaviour is incredibly rare. Pupils have great social skills. They learn how to behave appropriately in different social situations. For example, all pupils in Year 2 learn how to speak confidently with visitors and conduct well-informed guided tours at open events. At break times, pupils play harmoniously together. They routinely treat their peers with high levels of respect, including when reminding them about the school rules.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils are very proud of their school. All pupils are given the chance to develop their leadership responsibilities and to make a positive contribution to their school. This reinforces pupils' distinct sense of belonging. Pupils learn how to be effective citizens through carrying out projects to improve their school. For example, some pupils recently led an initiative to improve safety at playtimes by developing playground zones and raised money for additional play equipment.

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Next steps

• Leaders should develop the curriculum and teaching to enable pupils to secure consistently deep and detailed understanding in all subjects so that they can achieve highly

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The data was used by the inspector(s) during the inspection. More recent data may have been published since the inspection took place.

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131

Below average across the curriculum. • Leaders should continue to embed their work to improve pupils' spelling and handwriting fully so that these improvements are reflected consistently and securely in the quality of pupils' writing.

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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Mrs Rosemary Waring Green.

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About this inspection

Inspectors carried out this full inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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About this inspection

Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspection activities: Inspectors spoke with the headteacher, other senior leaders and 5 members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. The lead inspector also met with an officer from the local authority.

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About this inspection

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school: The school uses no alternative provision.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils currently at this school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils who can attend the school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan. This covers pupils with more support than is available through special educational needs support.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with reported special educational support needs at the school.

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What does this mean?

Based on the English Indices of Deprivation (2019) and the school's location, we have calculated whether the school is located in a more or less deprived area.

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What does this mean?

Whether school has Resourced Provision or SEND unit (if applicable).

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Overall absence

The percentage of all possible mornings and afternoons missed due to absence from school (for whatever reason, whether authorised or unauthorised) across all pupils.

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national average

2023/24 (3 term) 5.1% 5.5% Close to average

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national average

2022/23 (3 term) 5.4% 5.9% Close to average

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Persistent absence

The percentage of pupils missing 10% or more of their possible mornings and afternoons.

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national average

2024/25 (2 term) 12.3% 13.3% Close to average

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national average

2022/23 (3 term) 12.4% 16.2% Close to average

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other schools can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The school reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The school is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The school needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care. services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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

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