Crawley Green Infant School

Crawley Green Infant School Inspection report

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109702 Unique Reference Number LUTON LA Local Authority 310072 Inspection number 23 January 2008 Inspection date 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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Infant Type of school Foundation School category 4 °7 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 254 School The governing body Appropriate authority Mr S. C. Stephens Chair Mrs Gillian Major Headteacher 16 June 2003 Date of previous school inspection Beaconsfield School address Luton Bedfordshire LU2 0RW 01582 724267 Telephone number 01582 487908 Fax number

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4-7 Age group 23 January 2008 Inspection date 310072 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 inspection evaluated the overall effectiveness of the school and investigated the following issues: the achievement of children especially in mathematics, whether teachers use assessment well enough to challenge all abilities and if the monitoring and evaluation of the work of the school is rigorous enough to identify areas for further improvement. Evidence was gathered from discussions with staff, governors and children, brief lesson observations, a scrutiny of documentation and samples of children's work. Other aspects of the school's work were not investigated in as much detail, but the inspection found no evidence to suggest that the school's own assessments, as given its self-evaluation, were not justified, and these have been included where appropriate in this report.

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Description of the school

This is a larger than average sized infant school on the outer edge of Luton. Half the children attend from outside the local area because many town schools are at capacity. The proportion entitled to free school meals is above the average. While the majority of children are from White British backgrounds, the proportion from minority ethnic groups is above average as is the number at the early stages of learning English. The proportion with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is average. The school has achieved the Green Flag, a top award in the Eco Schools Programme. The school also has Healthy School status, has accreditation for Healthy Eating, is part of Luton Sports Partnership and holds Activemark and Investors in People awards.

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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: Crawley Green Infant School, 23 January 2008

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Grade: 1

This is an outstanding school. Children really enjoy learning and very much benefit from the excellent range of activities provided particularly in environmental matters. Parents are generally delighted with the quality of education provided and as one notes her child 'is being taught by enthusiastic, motivating and imaginative staff. I have nothing but praise for this lovely school'. Children enter the Foundation Stage with very wide ranging early experiences, and with skills that, whilst mixed, are average overall. Very good progress is made in Reception so that when they enter Year 1 most children meet, and many exceed, the targets expected for their age. Assessment at the end of Year 2 shows that all children do exceptionally well in English. Standards in reading and writing are well above average. Reading is a real strength because the staff put a lot of time and effort, as part of various projects, into developing systems where

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Grade: 1

children read individually on a regular basis. For instance, the development of Reading Champions to encourage boys as readers is so successful that girls want to be involved too! Excellent support, including with phonics, enables many children to become confident and fluent readers, which equips them very well for their later life. Standards in mathematics are above average but over several years have not been quite as high as in English. This is partly because children do not have very well developed mathematical vocabulary or the confidence to tackle problems by using what they already know. Overall children's achievement from a modest start is outstanding. Children of all abilities, including those with learning difficulties and those speaking English as an additional language really grow in confidence and make excellent progress. A major reason why children do so well is the outstanding quality of the curriculum. It is

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Grade: 1

imaginative and exciting and provides children with the opportunity to develop empathy for the environment. This is epitomised in the central courtyard of the school inhabited by a flock of chickens, which provides a theme for many activities including the school's excellent website, which informs parents and the community well. Activities provide many 'real life' opportunities to develop a range of skills including writing to famous people such as Prince William and the Prime Minister. Teaching is outstanding overall because it is at least good in all respects. Teachers have high expectations of the children and bring the curriculum alive. This enables learners to thrive and make exceptionally good progress. Very effective use is made of support staff including those with bi-lingual skills, which enables those at the early stages of English to make outstanding progress, which equips them extremely well for their next stage of

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Grade: 1

education. Children's personal development is outstanding. They really enjoy school, shown in how keen Year 2 children are to tell others the fun they had in that days 'Gloop and Slime' science workshop activities. Behaviour is usually excellent. There are outstanding opportunities for extra-curricular activities including sport, which help children develop healthy lifestyles. They enjoy active playtimes and have a very good understanding of how to stay safe including through Pedestrian Training. The school promotes social and emotional aspects of learning very effectively. Parents are particularly appreciative of the support provided by the Family Worker who is highly effective in encouraging children and parents to develop their skills including access to English tuition. Opportunities to take on responsibilities in and around the school are outstanding. The Eco-Schools Action Team leads projects on recycling and energy

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Grade: 1

saving and children are currently involved in local debate about the school's application to have 4 of 9 Inspection Report: Crawley Green Infant School, 23 January 2008 a wind-turbine. While attendance is satisfactory, overall the school does much to encourage and support families including those who struggle to transport their children across the town. The care, guidance and support of children is outstanding and another clear strength of the school. Staff know the children and recognise their needs very well. For example, the nurturing groups working with the behaviour support assistant present their own puppet show to a local pre-school group, which raises their self-esteem. There are appropriate systems for Child Protection and to check all those who help in school. A key feature of academic guidance is how well staff check the progress children make and use this information to track progress carefully in order to identify where additional support may be needed. This information is then

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Grade: 1

used very effectively to ensure a high level of challenge in subsequent work. The school is very well led and managed and has an outstanding capacity to continue to improve because the whole staff work very effectively as a team. The headteacher, senior staff and indeed everyone connected to the school share a determination that they will not be complacent and rest on their laurels. The school is regularly involved in local and national projects continually seeking further improvement. There are very effective systems to monitor and evaluate the quality of planning, teaching and learning and the schools self-evaluation correctly identifies strengths and most areas for improvement. Governance of the school is good. While governors are immensely proud of the school, at times they do not make best use of data to recognise areas for further improvement.

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Grade: 1

Children enter the Foundation Stage having often attended a local nursery or pre-school group, which means many have slightly higher-level skills on admission than seen in the previous inspection. However, children have a particularly wide range of skills. For instance, some of the small but growing number of children arriving from Eastern Europe and others of Asian backgrounds have little or no English. The school is very good at identifying children's specific needs at an early stage and providing high quality pastoral and educational support. Most make considerable gains in their learning so that when they enter Year 1 attainment is at least average and many children achieve above average standards. There are very well planned activities that encourage reading and writing including the opportunity at the end of their time in Reception for the children to write a letter to their new teacher about themselves, which the staff reply

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Grade: 1

to individually. Children enjoy the excellent range of practical learning activities including the effective balance of child-chosen and adult-directed tasks. Staff work very well as a team across the three parallel reception classes and share planning to ensure all children have equal access to all learning opportunities.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Improve pupils' mathematical vocabulary and their ability to solve problems in order to raise standards in mathematics to match those in English. 5 of 9 Inspection Report: Crawley Green Infant School, 23 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: Crawley Green Infant School, 23 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? 1 The effectiveness of the Foundation Stage 1 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?

1 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 1 How well learners enjoy their education 3 The attendance of learners 1 The behaviour of learners 1 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: Crawley Green Infant School, 23 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 1 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: Crawley Green Infant School, 23 January 2008

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

24 January 2008 Dear Children Inspection of Crawley Green Infant School, Luton LU2 0RW Thank you very much for looking after me when I visited your school recently. I really enjoyed meeting you in lessons, when we had lunch and when I chatted with the Eco-schools group. I think the school provides an outstanding quality of education for you. Well done everyone! These are some of the best things I found about your school.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ You really like school, behave very well and try hard.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ There are some really interesting and exciting things for you to find out about especially about the environment. ■ You make excellent progress in reading and writing.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Teachers check what you are doing very carefully so they know just how hard to make your work. ■ The staff care for you very well and give you lots of help when you need it.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ All the staff work really well together and are very keen that the school keeps on improving.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

This is what that I think could be improved.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Teachers could help you to develop more confidence when solving mathematical problems.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

To help your school, please try to make sure you attend regularly. Remember to keep looking after your hens and chicks and continue to do everything you can to protect your environment. Yours sincerely Sue Hall Lead inspector 9 of 9 Inspection Report: Crawley Green Infant School, 23 January 2008

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