Tavistock Infant School

Inspection Report Tavistock Infant School

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116044 Unique Reference Number Hampshire LEA LEA 279730 Inspection number 25 April 2006 to 26 April 2006 Inspection dates Linda Kelsey Reporting inspector

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This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Broadacres School address Infant Type of school Calthorpe Park Community School category Fleet GU51 4EB 4 to 7 Age range of pupils 01252616778 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01252614345 Fax number 173 Number on roll Mr J Stocks Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs B A Eagle Headteacher 13 June 2000 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 279730 25 April 2006 - 4 to 7 26 April 2006 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied.

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors and an Additional Inspector.

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Description of the school

Tavistock Infants has six classes and slightly more boys than girls on roll. Most pupils come from advantaged backgrounds and are well prepared for starting school. The number of pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities is above average. Some of these pupils have behavioural problems and there has been one exclusion recently. The previous report judged the school to have high standards.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Tavistock Infant School, 25 April 2006 to 26 April 2006

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Grade: 2

This is an effective school which knows itself very well through good self evaluation. It strives for high standards and continuing improvement. Standards are above average and have been significantly higher than schools nationally for the last three years. Achievement is good overall. Through rigorous assessment procedures, teachers know the pupils very well and provide good activities for them. The provision in the Foundation Stage is good; pupils receive good quality teaching and as a result many children exceed the goals set for them. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities continues to grow because of the popularity of the school and its reputation for the very good support it provides. The personal development and well being of all pupils is outstanding. The excellent care guidance and support they receive ensures they are well prepared for their next school. Teaching is good. The curriculum is outstanding. The pupils participate in a wide range

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Grade: 2

of interesting and exciting activities in subjects. There is a very impressive system for monitoring and assessing pupils' achievement. The information it provides is used well to support low performing and average pupils, but it is not used as effectively to challenge pupils who are more able. The school recognises in its own self evaluation that this is an area for development. The headteacher provides very good leadership but has rightly recognised that the roles of the senior staff within the school are under-developed. The school provides good value for money and has the capacity to improve further.

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What the school should do to improve further

As identified in the school improvement plan focus on: andmiddot; Ensure more able pupils are challenged in all lessonsandmiddot; Create clear roles and responsibilities for senior staff in order to extend their effectiveness

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Grade: 2

Standards and achievement are good. Pupils come from advantaged homes and the social circumstances of most of them are very favourable. Pupils are keen to learn when they start school and this year over half will be working within the Key Stage 1 curriculum by the time they leave the reception class. Standards have risen over the last three years from a dip in 2001/2. The school rightly focused on staff professional development and as a result standards rose. In 2005, standards were above the national average in reading, well above in writing and broadly average in mathematics. The school exceeded its targets and boys' achievement was better than the school expected. The standards are likely to continue to rise again this year. The targets are challenging. Pupils make good progress overall although this varies slightly for different groups of pupils. Pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities and the few with behaviour

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Grade: 2

2 Inspection Report: Tavistock Infant School, 25 April 2006 to 26 April 2006 problems make outstanding progress. The nurture group is particularly effective in helping pupils to successfully re-integrate and work effectively with their peers. Lower and average attaining pupils make good progress. More able pupils are making satisfactory rather than rapid progress and not as many pupils reach the higher levels in national tests as would be expected.

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Grade: 1

Pupils' personal development and well being are excellent. They enjoy the range of activities provided by the school and consequently have very good attitudes to work and behave very well. The youngest children have settled well and enjoy school. Pupils' spiritual, social and cultural development is good and moral development is excellent. In discussions pupils said that they now behave better and have better attitudes to work as a result of this programme. Pupils get on well together and look after each other in the playground. Their views are valued and the school council feel that they set a good example to others. Attendance is good and pupils are very happy to come to school. Pupils have an outstanding knowledge of healthy life styles through their 'active kids' exercise class, science lessons, after school football and games clubs, healthy food choices at lunch time and 'fruit only' snacks. Through the very good 'rights, respect and responsibility' programme, pupils say that

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Grade: 1

they now behave better and have very positive attitudes to work. They also know a lot about children from other cultures and their way of life. They are very well prepared for their future economic well being.

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Grade: 2

Teaching is good, particularly in the Foundation Stage. Throughout the school teachers know their pupils well, assess them rigorously and plan tasks to suit most of their needs. Resources are used well to make lessons exciting and relevant. Good use is made of the outside area to extend the learning environment and pupils make good progress in becoming enthusiastic learners at an early age. Teaching in Years 1 and 2 is good overall but is more inconsistent with some outstanding and some satisfactory teaching. Where teaching is just satisfactory not all pupils make as good progress as they should. The members of staff are very enthusiastic about making changes for the better and as a result have recently introduced peer observation so they can raise the profile of their teaching. Pupils' work books are marked very well and marking opportunities are used to assess pupils' progress. This on-going assessment and record keeping of pupils' progress is

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Grade: 2

one of the strengths of the teaching in the school. Lessons are well planned and based on what pupils need to learn next. In the best lessons pace is fast, questions are 3 Inspection Report: Tavistock Infant School, 25 April 2006 to 26 April 2006 challenging and pupils are fully engaged in learning. Pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities are monitored and supported very well and their progress is outstanding. In the few satisfactory lessons, the pace is slower and more able pupils are not always rigorously challenged.

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Grade: 1

The curriculum is excellent. It provides a wide range of interesting activities and a good focus on creative thinking and problem solving as an aid to learning. The curriculum is enhanced very well through activities such as a day at the Victorian museum, Book week and French lessons. There is very good provision for lunch-time and after school clubs, which pupils are keen to attend and very much enjoy. All learning is relevant and purposeful and takes into account pupils' developing personal skills, for example, during the weekly afternoon of enrichment activities. Pupils say that they are always learning new and useful things. Provision for pupils with learning difficulties is particularly good. Provision for English, mathematics and information and communication technology ensures pupils make good progress in developing basic skills. Pupils make a good contribution to the community through, for example, singing at a local day centre and raising money for charity through their

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Grade: 1

Care, guidance and support are excellent. The school has a very good, caring ethos and provides a safe and supportive environment in which pupils can thrive. Child protection procedures are fully in place with regular staff up-dates, policy review and training. Comprehensive risk assessments are undertaken before all school trips to ensure pupil safety. Pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities are very well supported and good use is made of outside agencies to provide additional support or advice when needed. Pupils with behavioural difficulties are helped to deal with these through time spent in the very supportive nurture group. Pupils feel safe in school and say that although there is some bullying the school deals with it well as persistent offenders are 'shown the red card!' The monitoring of academic performance is outstanding. The school has exemplary procedures to monitor pupils' progress and set targets. Additionally, the school collects

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Grade: 1

a very good range of assessment information across the curriculum in order to monitor the effectiveness of the whole school provision.

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Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good. The headteacher provides very good leadership and a clear direction for the work of school. She knows what the school needs to do 4 Inspection Report: Tavistock Infant School, 25 April 2006 to 26 April 2006 to improve further and as a result the school has a good capacity to improve. All staff work well together as a team. However, while senior members of staff are supportive and active in securing school improvement, they do not have a clearly defined role. This inhibits opportunities to develop their skills further and restricts their overview of the standards across the school. Good use of self evaluation has enabled successful improvements in reading. As a result standards in reading are high. The school is now working hard to bring about improvements in mathematics and is aware of the need to challenge higher attaining pupils more. It is also working on a joint project with local schools to develop pupils'

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Grade: 2

problem solving skills. The school has instituted a 'raising standards' team who evaluate pupil performance within year groups and discuss ways of improving or changing class room practice in order to raise standards further. For example, by splitting Year 2 pupils into 3 groups for writing, in order to manage their learning better. The headteacher rigorously monitors teaching so that the quality of teaching continues to improve. Governors are very supportive of the school and handle the finances effectively. They have set up appropriate committees and regular visits to the school ensure that they are well informed about its work. Parents are very supportive of the school and their views are canvassed very well through the parent feedback group who have been involved in reviewing policies such as anti- bullying, child protection and attendance. 5 Inspection Report: Tavistock Infant School, 25 April 2006 to 26 April 2006

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set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s

website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Tavistock Infant School, 25 April 2006 to 26 April 2006

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Overall

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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learners?

NA 2 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? NA 2 The quality and standards in foundation stage NA 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation NA Yes The capacity to make any necessary improvements NA Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

NA 2 How well do learners achieve? NA 2 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 2 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners NA 1 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

NA 2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 2 The behaviour of learners NA 2 The attendance of learners NA 2 How well learners enjoy their education NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 2 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community NA 1 How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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needs and interests of learners?

NA 1 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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needs and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low.

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and supporting all learners?

NA 2 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 1 How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self-review NA 2 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can NA 2 How effectively and efficiently resources are deployed to achieve value for money NA 2 The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities NA Yes The adequacy and suitability of staff to ensure that learners are protected

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The extent to which schools enable learners to be healthy

Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to eat and drink healthily Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to take regular exercise Yes Learners are discouraged from smoking and substance abuse Yes Learners are educated about sexual health

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The extent to which providers ensure that learners stay safe

Yes Procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements Yes Risk assessment procedures and related staff training are in place Yes Action is taken to reduce anti-social behaviour, such as bullying and racism Yes Learners are taught about key risks and how to deal with them

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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution

Yes Learners are helped to develop stable, positive relationships Yes Learners, individually and collectively, participate in making decisions that affect them Yes Learners are encouraged to initiate, participate in and manage activities in school and the wider community

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The extent to which schools enable learners to achieve economic well-being

Yes There is provision to promote learners’ basic skills Yes Learners have opportunities to develop enterprise skills and work in teams NA Careers education and guidance is provided to all learners in key stage 3 and 4 and the sixth form NA Education for all learners aged 14–19 provides an understanding of employment and the economy

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Children You will remember that you had two visitors to your school recently to see how well you were all doing with your work. Many of you willingly chatted to us during our visit and we would like to thank you for being so polite and friendly towards us. You are obviously proud of your school and you are right in thinking that it is a good place to learn. As some of you said, 'We are always learning something new.' Your headteacher, teachers and other helpers work very hard to make sure that they know as much about your work as they can. As a result many of you do very well at the school and are ready to start junior school with good skills in reading, writing and ICT. Some of you who find work a little more difficult are helped to make sure that you do as well as you can. We have asked your teachers to make sure all of you work as hard as possible especially those who are capable of achieving high standards.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Your headteacher is good at making sure the school has all the best possible things so that it is a happy place for you all to learn in. Most of you enjoy coming to school and are there most days of the year. As your headteacher works so hard we have asked her to look into ways of sharing some of this responsibility with the other teachers.We wish you all the best for your future life, health and continuing happiness. Yours sincerely, Linda Kelsey Her Majesty's Inspector

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