Meath Green Infant School

Meath Green Infant School Inspection report

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125083 Unique Reference Number Surrey Local Authority 293189 Inspection number 15 January 2008 Inspection date Wendy Simmons 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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Infant Type of school Community School category 4 °7 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 209 School The governing body Appropriate authority Mr M Lister Chair Mrs S Jones Headteacher 20 January 2003 Date of previous school inspection Kiln Lane School address Meath Green Horley RH6 8JG 01293 772708 Telephone number 01293 822358 Fax number

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4-7 Age group 15 January 2008 Inspection date 293189 Inspection number .

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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 an Additional Inspector. The inspector evaluated the overall effectiveness of the school and investigated the following issues.

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Introduction

■ Children's academic and personal achievement.

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Introduction

■ The accuracy of leaders' self-evaluation of the school.

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Introduction

■ The progress being made by pupils in writing.

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Introduction

Other aspects of the school's work were not investigated in detail, but the inspector found no evidence to suggest that the school's own assessments, as given in its self-evaluation, were not justified. These have been included where appropriate in this report. Evidence was gained from lessons and the school's own evaluations of its work. Discussions were held with staff and pupils and a range of documentation was evaluated. Pupils' work was scrutinised, especially in their writing. The views of parents were gathered from questionnaires.

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Description of the school

Meath Green is an average sized and highly over subscribed school. The school serves a mixed community that includes generally little social deprivation. Almost all pupils come from White British backgrounds, although a few come from Black African, Asian and other White heritages. The school has an average proportion of pupils with learning difficulties or disabilities. The school has gained the Healthy School Award, Investors in People and, the Quality Mark for standards.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 9 Inspection Report: Meath Green Infant School, 15 January 2008

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Grade: 1

Meath Green Infant School is an outstanding school, where pupils are happy and thrive academically and socially. Pupils are seen as individuals and benefit from exceptionally strong care, guidance and support. Very high quality teaching and learning help pupils to reach exceptional skills. Parents and the inspector agree that pupils are very well prepared for their future lives and almost all achieve exceptionally well. Pupils enjoy coming to school and say that staff are kind to them and they have plenty of friends. 'The school is my children's second home' noted one parent. The school deserves its high reputation in the local community and almost all parents confirm that the school provides an excellent education. The only aspect where a few parents were unhappy linked to not having enough information about the organisation and provision in mixed aged. Leaders recognised this and this was addressed

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Grade: 1

through a series of meetings with parents, as a group and individually. At the core of this successful school is an impressive leadership team and very professional staff. All staff and governors share the same vision; for pupils to do as well as possible whatever their ability or background. The headteacher drives the work of the school exceptionally well. The inspector agrees with parents when one commented that she is, 'First class'. At the centre of her work lie the children for whom she has endless time. She has superb vision, high expectations and commitment to helping staff to develop. For example, staff have been involved in several research projects and they work very closely with the Horley Confederation of schools in their drive to share best practice and develop their skills. The headteacher will be retiring in the summer of 2008. The school has a good capacity to improve rather than outstanding as

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Grade: 1

there will be a period of transition and settling down as a new headteacher takes over. The school's evaluation of its work, as conducted by all leaders including governors, is very good. The quality of teaching and learning is checked thoroughly. Staff and governors know exactly how well pupils are doing. Teachers give pupils excellent targets for their individual improvement. Pupils' targets are written in such as way as to make it easy for young children to read and understand. Teachers regularly check that pupils are working on their targets, which aids speedy progress. The school has maintained outstandingly high standards since 2005. From pupils' broadly average staring point, their progress is exceptional in reading, writing and mathematics. In particular, a very high proportion of pupils gain the higher Level 3 in reading and mathematics. Pupils do especially well in reading because of very good teaching of phonics, regular

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Grade: 1

assessments and, plenty of opportunities for them to discuss books. The recent 'Dads and Lads' event is a super initiative, which is enhancing boys' enjoyment of reading with their fathers. In mathematics, the rigorous focus on basic calculation skills and plenty of thinking, talking and problem solving aids attainment. Since 2004, the proportion gaining a Level 3 in writing has doubled but pupils' performance is not as exceptional at this level as is evident in reading and mathematics. New projects, such as 'Big Write', are helping to raise standards still further. Leaders have set very challenging end of year targets for improvement in reading and mathematics but the target for writing, although good, is not as ambitious. This is why target setting is good rather than outstanding. The attainment of pupils with learning difficulties is also exceptionally good. These pupils mostly have specific learning difficulties or speech and communication difficulties. As one

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Grade: 1

4 of 9 Inspection Report: Meath Green Infant School, 15 January 2008 parent commented, 'Very supportive staff, giving the help that is needed'. This enables their child to make outstanding progress. The combination of ability group teaching, excellent focus on basic skills and superb relationships helps pupils to learn quickly. Lessons are well planned and pupils are encouraged to think and explain their ideas well. The work by skilled teaching assistants aids pupils' learning. Pupils develop confidence and self esteem. As one pupil said, 'Teachers sometimes ask really hard questions but it doesn't matter if you get it wrong-you just have to try'. Learning is supported by a variety of interesting activities, visits and extra clubs. Pupils' enjoyment is good but not yet outstanding. This is because although the curriculum is good, it is not as lively and exciting as it could be. Leaders have started to introduce more drama and role play to help with this

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Grade: 1

and pupils say that they would like more. They commented that this helps them with their writing and inspectors agree. For example, it helps to enliven pupils' vocabulary and descriptions of characters, moods and settings in stories and poetry. As one teacher put it, 'Technically, the teaching and learning is very good but we need to look harder still at bringing out the sparkle'. Links with parents and the community enrich learning and the curriculum very well. Pupils show respect for others. They follow rules well and almost all pupils behave outstandingly well. Pupils make a good contribution to the community through singing at local residential homes and by participating in local competitions and through fund raising for charities. Their awareness of different religions and beliefs is developing suitably for the age of the pupils. Leaders are correctly working to help pupils to appreciate that Britain is a very multicultural

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Grade: 1

society. Pupils develop an excellent awareness of how to be fit and healthy through such initiatives as 'Whole School Health Days' visits to the 'Life Education Bus' and by taking regular exercise.

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Grade: 2

When children join the school, their skills are broadly in line with what is usually expected. Children make good overall progress. Many reach high levels in their skills and knowledge by the time they are ready to join Year 1. Children quickly learn to work collaboratively, talk about their learning, follow the school rules and show their initiative. There is a good balance between direct teaching, independent activities and learning through play. This ensures that children enjoy school and achieve well. Leaders are correctly working to enliven learning to aid further enjoyment and develop greater creativity. Parents are happy with links with home, as one parent put it, 'I am impressed by the communication about the curriculum being taught and teaching methods...it helps parents to support their children effectively at home'.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Provide more creativity and fun activities to enliven the curriculum and learning, especially in writing. 5 of 9 Inspection Report: Meath Green Infant School, 15 January 2008 .

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What the school should do to improve further

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 of 9 Inspection Report: Meath Green Infant School, 15 January 2008

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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? Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 2 The effectiveness of the Foundation Stage 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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Achievement and standards

1 How well do learners achieve? 1 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 1 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 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 1 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 How well learners enjoy their education 2 The attendance of learners 1 The behaviour of learners 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?

1 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. 7 of 9 Inspection Report: Meath Green Infant School, 15 January 2008

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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 2 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 1 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 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? 8 of 9 Inspection Report: Meath Green Infant School, 15 January 2008

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

25 January 2008 Dear Children Inspection of Meath Green Infant School,Horley,RH6 8JG You may remember that a school inspector came to your school recently. Thank you for being so friendly. I am writing to let you know what I found out. Your school is outstanding, which means that it does many things fantastically. There is not much to be done to improve your school. This is because all of the adults are working amazingly well to make the school special for you. In return, you work hard and behave very well. Congratulations for this. Your teachers make sure that you learn new things quickly. You clearly enjoy coming to school. I especially enjoyed talking to you and seeing your writing work. I agree with you that it would be fun to do even more drama and role-play. I also agree with you that this helps you with your writing. The teachers were very interested to hear this, as they are all busy working to plan more of this. I agree that the adults are caring and help you to do well.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

You do very well in all of your subjects and this means that you learn important skills for the future. Your teachers make sure that you are doing much better than many other children in other schools, so remember to say thank you to them for this. Your mums and dads also like the school. I was thrilled to hear about the 'Dads and Lads' reading activities. All of you do especially well in reading and mathematics. Well done for trying so hard to be healthy and working so hard on your targets. I have asked your headteacher and all of the adults to:

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ make activities even more fun for you all, especially so that you can get more exciting ideas for your writing. Keep up the excellent work and well done! Yours faithfully Wendy Simmons Lead Inspector 9 of 9 Inspection Report: Meath Green Infant School, 15 January 2008

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