Shelton Infant School

112745 Unique Reference Number City of Derby LA Local Authority 310994 Inspection number 11 October 2007 Inspection date Martin Newell 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 3 °7 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 254 School The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Anita Bates Chair Mr Anthony Leigh Headteacher 20 September 2004 Date of previous school inspection Carlton Avenue School address Shelton Lock Derby Derbyshire DE24 9EJ 01332 700 353 Telephone number 01332 700 353 Fax number

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3-7 Age group 11 October 2007 Inspection date 310994 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: achievement and standards, teaching and learning, the curriculum, care, guidance and support and leadership and management. Evidence was gathered from lesson observations, sampling of pupils' work, assessment and target-setting information, extensive portfolios of the work of the school and discussions with pupils, key members of staff and governors. 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 detailed in its self-evaluation, were not justified, and these have been included where appropriate in this report.

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Description of the school

Shelton Infants is an average sized school. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is above the national average. The percentage of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is a little below the national average as is the number of pupils with a statement of special educational need. Most pupils are from White British backgrounds and of the small number of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds only a small percentage are at an early stage of acquiring English. Over half of the pupils live outside the school's catchment area. The school has gained the Basic Skills Quality mark three times, Investors in People in 2006, Artsmark Gold in 2004 and in 2007, Activemark in 2004, six Health Promoting Schools awards (2001 - 2005), the National Healthy School Standard in 2006 and the prestigious ECO School's Green Flag Award in 2007.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 10 Inspection Report: Shelton Infant School, 11 October 2007

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Grade: 1

Shelton is an outstanding school that provides excellent value for money and fully deserves the high regard in which it is held in the locality and beyond. Parents are overwhelmingly positive and appreciative of the quality of education that the school provides. Many parents wrote highly supportive comments about the school which are best summarised by one parent who wrote, 'A first rate school that provides a marvellous learning environment.' When pupils start at the school attainment is below national expectations and for a good percentage, it is well below. When pupils leave at the end of Year 2, standards are significantly above the national average. For the 2007 cohort of leavers, standards were not quite as high as in previous years but this was due to the lower starting points of many of these pupils. However, the school's impressive assessment and tracking data clearly shows that pupils of all

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Grade: 1

abilities and ethnicities never make less than good progress in any class and for many pupils their progress and achievement is exceptional. At the heart of this lies outstanding teaching. Teachers and the very good support staff go the extra mile to make learning exciting, challenging and fun. Teachers plan a plethora of opportunities for pupils to learn through practical, investigative tasks alongside the very good teaching of key basic skills. Tasks challenge and enthuse pupils in equal measure. High quality and imaginative resources help learning spring to life. Computers are constantly in use with programs that support and enhance the learning intention of the lesson. Displays in classes and around the school are a riot of colour and interest but also act as valuable learning prompts. The majority of lessons are packed with pace and incisive questioning but just occasionally these features are not present and the rate of learning

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Grade: 1

drops. Assessment procedures are excellent. Pupils are constantly set challenging targets in reading, writing, and mathematics and progress towards them is reviewed regularly. The headteacher meets with teachers to discuss pupils' progress and to ensure that pupils achieve as well as they can. Good procedures are also in place for assessing and tracking pupils' progress in the foundation subjects. This is because the school is committed to providing a rich tapestry of experiences across all subjects. This commitment is why the curriculum is outstanding, innovative and exciting. The school ensures that all subjects are covered in depth and that provision made for developing literacy, numeracy and computer skills is excellent. The school does so much more. It runs environmental, numeracy and healthy living weeks as well as many themed days. Pupils have worked with sculptors, creative play practitioners and TV producers, to name but

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Grade: 1

a few. The school even arranged for a spaceship-type sculpture to appear in the playground. The astonished pupils then embarked on activities that explored their responses through creative writing, role-play, making short films, and writing newspaper reports. They also produced replica clay models, which were fired overnight in a kiln they had built. Added to all of these activities is the school's excellent provision for helping pupils to live healthy and safe lives, to contribute significantly to the local community and the impressive provision, support and challenge for pupils of all abilities and ethnicities. Equally good is the number of visits and visitors and the clubs, which include French, gardening, computing, art and many musical and sporting activities. There is little doubt that the school's many strengths contribute significantly to pupils' achievement but the pupils play their part to the full in making the school what it is. Their

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Grade: 1

personal development is outstanding. Pupils' behaviour is excellent and they love every minute of their time at school, encapsulated by one pupil that said,' We love school that much we want to stay all night.' This is not always reflected in the satisfactory attendance rate, which despite 4 of 10 Inspection Report: Shelton Infant School, 11 October 2007 the concerted efforts of the school, is lowered by parents taking their children on holiday in term time. Pupils' knowledge of what is needed to keep fit, healthy and safe is excellent. Their contribution to the school and wider community through the school council, the ECO committee, ' Little Rotters' composting crew, running recycling schemes, participation in local and city events and the many other jobs they carry out around the school are just some examples. Pupils have a real say in decision-making and know they do. They are very caring, reflective individuals

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Grade: 1

who already have a good understanding of cultural diversity and an excellent awareness of how their actions can affect others. They show a maturity and sense of responsibility that belies their age. Underpinning pupils' personal development is the outstanding care, guidance and support on offer. Pastoral care is excellent. All staff know pupils and their needs exceedingly well and the individuality of all pupils is recognised and celebrated. Help is always on hand for pupils experiencing any form of difficulty, whether it be through the very effective links with outside support agencies and other schools or the school's own excellent support mechanisms, such as the learning mentor. These factors, together with the robust systems for the safeguarding of pupils help them feel valued, respected and filled to the brim with self-confidence and esteem. Very good academic guidance is provided through the challenging target-setting and

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Grade: 1

increasing use of incisive marking to give pupils pointers for improvement. Less well developed is how pupils appraise their own work and set their own targets for improvement. Key to the success of the school is outstanding leadership and management. The highly innovative headteacher leads the school with vision and energy. He has played a pivotal role in the continued development of the school since its last successful inspection. There has been no resting on laurels or any sense of complacency. Instead, there is a determined and shared commitment to make the quality of education even better and more vibrant. Alongside this, there is a rigour through robust tracking of pupil progress, challenging target-setting, tackling of any weaknesses swiftly and effectively and through the very good procedures for monitoring and then improving teaching. The headteacher is the first to recognise that this is a team effort.

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Grade: 1

He benefits from excellent support from the deputy-headteacher, the senior management team, subject leaders and all other staff, who contribute much to the success of the school and to the highly effective self-evaluation. Governors play their part too. They know the school well, are most supportive but also play a very influential role in holding the school to account. Leaders at all levels form a winning combination. Together they ensure that the school is exceptionally well placed to continue helping pupils thrive both academically and socially so that they leave the school with skills and qualities that equip them extremely well for their future lives.

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Grade: 1

Children get off to a flying start in the Foundation Stage. The progress they make is never less than good and at times it is outstanding, enabling them to reach standards that are close to national expectations by the end of the Reception year. Much of this is due to the good and often outstanding teaching. Learning activities are very well planned and resourced and lessons are a hive of excitement, interest and fun. An excellent balance is struck between activities where children are directly taught key skills and those where they are encouraged to explore, investigate and find things out for themselves, and how well they respond! They become engrossed in their work and play, behave extremely well and show a real sense of perseverance even when they find things difficult, Just occasionally, staff miss opportunities to develop 5 of 10 Inspection Report: Shelton Infant School, 11 October 2007 childrens' language skills further because of using closed rather than open ended questioning.

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Grade: 1

Assessment is very good and used on a daily and ongoing basis to see how well children are progressing. Good use is made of the outdoor accommodation to provide a range of different learning experiences. The provision is very well managed. Excellent induction procedures help children settle quickly into school routines. Links with parents are also excellent and lay the foundations for a strong and effective partnership that continues when children move into the main school.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Develop pupils' ability to play a greater role in their own learning through assessing and appraising the quality of their work and setting and reviewing their own targets for improvement. ■ Work closely with parents to raise levels of attendance. 6 of 10 Inspection Report: Shelton Infant School, 11 October 2007 .

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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. 7 of 10 Inspection Report: Shelton Infant School, 11 October 2007

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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? 2 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. 8 of 10 Inspection Report: Shelton Infant School, 11 October 2007

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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? 9 of 10 Inspection Report: Shelton Infant School, 11 October 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

12 October 2007 Dear Children Inspection of Shelton Infant School, Shelton Lock, Derby, DE24 9EJ You will probably remember that I visited your school not too long ago and I am now writing to let you know what I found out. Before I do, I would first of all like to say thank you for making me feel so welcome and making my visit one that I will remember for a long time. I have told your teachers how you were all so helpful and polite. Through my discussions with you it was great to hear how much you love coming to school and how exciting you find all the activities. It was also good to hear about how safe you feel in school, that bullying is not an issue and that there is always someone to talk to if you are worried. I found so many wonderful and impressive things about Shelton Infant School that I have decided it is an outstanding school! Teachers and other staff make teaching and learning tremendous fun, exciting and challenging and help you to achieve exceptionally well. The

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

curriculum, the clubs, the visits and visitors are really impressive. The ways in which the school helps you to keep safe and healthy and how it cares and supports you are all excellent. Mr Leigh is an outstanding headteacher and together with all the staff and governors, makes the school such a great place to learn. There is another tremendous strength of the school that I have not mentioned yet. That is you - the children - what great ambassadors for the school you are! I was so impressed with your behaviour and your enthusiasm. You know so much about keeping healthy, and the way that you make a difference in school through the school council, ECO committee,' Little Rotters' and many other examples is just tremendous. Well done! Even outstanding schools like yours can improve. Your teachers are going to help you to decide how you can make your work better by setting yourself targets. I have also asked the school

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

to work closely with your parents to make sure you come to school as often as possible. Mr Leigh, the staff and governors want the school to continue to be as successful and I know you will play your part by continuing to behave well and work hard. I wish you every success in your future. It was a pleasure and privilege to meet you. Martin Newell Additional Inspector 10 of 10 Inspection Report: Shelton Infant School, 11 October 2007

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