Banstead Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Children and pupils that attend Banstead Infants understandably love coming to school. The school excels at harnessing pupils' curiosity and enthusiasm.

The strong ethos and curriculum successfully encourage positive attitudes and qualities that help pupils learn well. This is one important feature of the school's outstanding promotion of pupils' personal development and welfare. The care and nurture of all pupils are high priorities at different levels across the school.

Pupils exude confidence. Their self-esteem grows and their personalities flourish. Their behaviour is good.

Pupils achieve well across the curriculum. Their lea...rning in reading, writing and mathematics prepares the large majority very well for their next schools. The most able pupils are challenged and enabled to deepen their understanding, or to work at a higher standard.

Teachers are successful in their aim to balance making lessons exciting or fun, with helpful repetition of important learning points to help make learning memorable. Adults check carefully in lessons whether pupils understand, including by asking effective questions. Children settle remarkably quickly in Reception so that no time is wasted in beginning the good progress they make in early years.

While most pupils learn to read by the time they leave, the quality and consistency of phonics teaching is not strong enough to help pupils who are struggling. It also does not equip many pupils to spell as well as they should. Knowledge and expectations of how quickly pupils can master phonics are not high enough.

Pupils' reading books do not match their capabilities well enough, particularly at the early stages of learning to read. Leaders have not established clearly the responsibility and accountability for the achievement of pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. These pupils do not consistently make as much progress as they could.

Daily lessons do not meet their needs consistently well enough. It is early days following the recent promotions within the senior leadership team. However, in their previous roles, existing leaders have contributed well to the strengths in curriculum, teaching and outcomes.

Governance is critically strengthened by the support that the trust buys in from another multi-academy trust. The resulting potential benefits of links with other schools have not yet been fully used.

Information about this school

This school is similar in size to the average primary school, despite only having infant classes.

There are three classes in each year group from Reception to Year 2. In April 2014, the school converted to become an academy. Because its predecessor school was judged to be outstanding, the new school continued to be exempt from routine inspection.

Consequently, this is the school's first inspection since becoming an academy. The school is part of a very small multi-academy trust (MAT), Oaks Academy Trust. As well as the trust members and a board of directors, there is a local governing body.

The Oaks Academy Trust buys in additional support from a larger MAT, GLF Schools. The chief executive officer of Oaks Academy Trust reports to both the local governing body and the trust. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is considerably lower than the national average.

There is a much higher proportion of pupils who have been identified as having SEN and/or disabilities than in most other schools nationally. The headteacher, deputy headteacher and SENCo all took up post at the start of the current term. All previously had other roles within the school.

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