Kilburn Infant and Nursery School

Inspection Report Kilburn Infant and Nursery School

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112577 Unique Reference Number DERBYSHIRE Local Authority 289334 Inspection number 3 °4 October 2006 Inspection dates Sue Hall Reporting inspector

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

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The Flat School address Infant Type of school Kilburn, Kilburn Maintained School category Belper, Derbyshire DE56 0LA 3 °7 Age range of pupils

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01332 880449 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01332 881573 Fax number 177 Number on roll (school) Mr G Tymon Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs J Sadler Headteacher 5 October 2001 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 289334 3 °4 October 2006 3°7 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 two Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

This is a broadly average sized school serving a large village in mid-Derbyshire. There are fewer children eligible for free school meals than average. The proportion which has learning difficulties and/or disabilities is below the national picture. Although there is a range of attainment on entry to the school, standards are generally average. The large majority of children are from white British backgrounds. There have been a number of temporary staff employed at the school and at the time of the inspection an acting headteacher was in post.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Kilburn Infant and Nursery School, 3 °4 October 2006

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Grade: 2

Kilburn Infant and Nursery school provides a good quality of education and this judgement matches the school's self-evaluation. Children enjoy their time here with one parent noting her child, 'hated the six weeks holidays and wanted school to start again'. Parents are confident that the school successfully prepares their children for their future well-being. The school is a happy place in which children's personal development is good as is their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Staff provide lots of opportunities for children to take on responsibilities within the school community including acting as 'lunchtime friends' and being part of the school council. Children are enthusiastic about staying fit and healthy, enjoy using the good variety of active play equipment and know how to keep themselves safe. Teaching and learning are good. When children enter the school their standards are generally average.

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Grade: 2

Teaching is good in the Nursery and satisfactory in Reception which enables children to enter Year 1 having met the targets expected for their age. There is good teaching in Years 1 and 2. While national test results and assessments at the age of seven indicate that overall standards have dipped very slightly in each of the last five years, inspection findings confirm that standards at the end of Year 2 remain above average. Children make good overall progress and achieve well although this is not as consistent in Reception as in other parts of the school. The curriculum is good. The school cares for the children well, quickly recognising when they are unhappy and need support. As one parent says, 'my children are very happy, settled and confident due to the fantastic teaching staff they are supported by'. The checks and tracking of children's progress are satisfactory but not all staff are aware of the full range of data available.

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Grade: 2

Therefore, they do not make best use of information to provide the highest level of challenge, including at the beginning of the school year. Leadership and management of the school are good as is governance. The headteacher and acting head, who worked in school together during the inspection, work effectively with the whole staff team. All are enthusiastic and supportive of changes since the last inspection. Because the school recognises its strengths and weaknesses well there is good capacity to continue to improve. A small number of parents note with slight concern that the school has recently had several part-time and temporary staff including periods with an acting headteacher. The school has managed these many unforeseen changes as well as it could and provides good value for money.

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What the school should do to improve further

- Ensure that the information available from the checks of children's progress is used by all staff to provide the highest level of challenge. - Improve the quality of teaching for children in Reception. 2 Inspection Report: Kilburn Infant and Nursery School, 3 °4 October 2006

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Grade: 2

With the closure of the village pre-school group some children have little formal pre-school education. They start Nursery with skills that are very wide ranging and whilst average overall there are sometimes weaknesses in the development of speaking and listening skills. Children settle quickly and immediately start to grow in confidence with one parent noting, 'I couldn't wish for a more fun, caring and educational environment for her foundation years in school'. While provision in Reception is not as effective as in the Nursery, overall, children do well in the Foundation Stage and enter Year 1 having achieved the targets expected of them. National test data shows that over the last five years standards have dipped slightly but remain above national expectations. Whilst tests indicate that boys have sometimes not done as well as girls there appear to be no school based reasons for this. Inspection findings confirm overall

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Grade: 2

standards are above average. Children of all abilities make good progress and achieve well.

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Grade: 2

Personal development is good. Children are well behaved, friendly towards visitors and positive about school. Through the school council they make decisions, such as helping to decide school rules. Children are well prepared for their future with strong foundations in literacy and numeracy. There are exciting opportunities to care for others through the playtime and lunchtime friends' scheme and book sharing all of which raise children's self-confidence. Attendance is average. Moral and social development is particularly strong so that children respect and value others. Their good cultural development includes interesting art work and days when the children enjoy dance or visit local places of interest. Their spiritual development is satisfactory, with suitable opportunities to reflect on important issues.

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Grade: 2

Teaching in the Nursery is good and provides children with an enjoyable start to their education. There is no full-time teacher in the Nursery and the skilled team of assistants provide good support for the learning of the children. Teaching in Reception is satisfactory but children sometimes have to watch and listen to others for too long and there is not a clear enough focus on child chosen activities to ensure these are fully effective. Teaching in Years 1 and 2 is good. Staff organise literacy and numeracy lessons for sets of children based on their abilities which ensures an appropriate match of task to their understanding. Staff make clear to children their expectation of good 3 Inspection Report: Kilburn Infant and Nursery School, 3 °4 October 2006 behaviour and of what to do to improve their work. Because they are keen to live up to the expectations of the adults around them, children learn well.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum has improved since the last inspection and is now good with a strong focus on the development of literacy and numeracy skills. Resources for information and communication technology (ICT) have been increased to allow children to use appropriate skills in other subjects. Additionally the curriculum plans for the Reception year have been made more suitable for young children. The school is aware that reception children need to benefit from speedy implementation of the new plans. After-school sport, visits and visitors to the school that support pupils' cultural development all make a lively contribution, so that learners enjoy school

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Grade: 2

The care, guidance and support for children are good. Adults are particularly successful in ensuring that children feel safe and secure, notably by raising their self-esteem. As a result learners achieve well. Support staff, including those at mid-day, care for children well, for instance, by helping them to develop better table manners. The school works well with outside agencies ensuring that those with learning difficulties make good progress. There are effective arrangements for safeguarding children. The systematic arrangements for child protection are regularly reviewed and risk assessments carefully attended to. Although satisfactory, the arrangements for checking what individual children can and cannot do are not as detailed as they might be, including those for ICT. This restricts teachers in their efforts to plan what each child needs to learn next, particularly at the start of the school year.

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Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good overall. The acting headteacher works particularly effectively with staff and governors. As a result the school is well led by a young and enthusiastic senior management team. They provide a good steer to improvement planning which, with the willing support of staff and governors, enables the school to accurately identify what works well and where improvements are needed. Provision in Reception was an issue identified in the last inspection but the many staffing changes, limited financial resources and the move to a base adjoining the Nursery, although well considered, have all slowed what the school had intended to achieve. The well advanced plans for the Foundation Stage leader to resume teaching in Reception places the school in a good position to bring about further improvements. Whilst subject leadership is satisfactory some coordinators are not yet making best

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Grade: 2

use of the full range of information available to them to bring about improvements to the work of the school. 4 Inspection Report: Kilburn Infant and Nursery School, 3 °4 October 2006 .

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Grade: 2

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 5 Inspection Report: Kilburn Infant and Nursery School, 3 °4 October 2006

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Inspection judgements

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

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Overall effectiveness

How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 2 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

2 How well do learners achieve? 2 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 2 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 2 The behaviour of learners 3 The attendance of learners 2 How well learners enjoy their education 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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and interests of learners?

2 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average to below average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low. 6 Inspection Report: Kilburn Infant and Nursery School, 3 °4 October 2006

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and supporting all learners?

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities Yes Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? No Does this school require special measures? No Does this school require a notice to improve? 7 Inspection Report: Kilburn Infant and Nursery School, 3 °4 October 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

5 October 2006 Dear Children Kilburn Nursery and Infant School, The Flat, Kilburn, Belper, Derbyshire, DE56 0LA Firstly thank you very much for looking after us when we visited your school recently. We enjoyed speaking to several of you in lessons, at lunchtime, in the playground and when one of us talked to the school council. We were interested to hear that you enjoy nearly all the things you do. These are the things that we found are best about your school - - You enjoy coming to school and behave well. - You try hard and do well in your work. - You know how to be healthy and enjoy lots of activities at playtime. These are the things that we think could be improved - - When teachers check your progress they could use what they find out to help you do even better. - The lessons in Reception could be more exciting. Thank you again for being so helpful and friendly when we came to see you. Remember that you can do

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

a lot to help your school improve by trying really hard all the time. Yours sincerely Sue Hall Lead inspector 8 Inspection Report: Kilburn Infant and Nursery School, 3 °4 October 2006

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