Farnborough Grange Nursery & Infant Community School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy to come to school and they feel safe. However, they are not learning important knowledge and skills in the right order. This is confusing and hinders their progress through the curriculum.

Too many staff do not have the knowledge required to help pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils who are struggling to learn to read do not get the help that they need.

Leaders get to know individual families well and provide them with additional support when needed.

Their ambition is for pupils to become 'champion learners' who can achieve their full potential and become positive role models. Leaders understand the importa...nce of providing wider learning experiences. Children enjoy caring for the school rabbit and learning about different countries.

Some pupils go to a range of clubs that help them stay active and develop their interests.

The youngest children have started to learn school routines and most have settled well. Pupils are learning how to get along with each other and how to make positive behaviour choices.

Some are not confident about how to keep themselves safe, including when online. Pupils understand what bullying is. They are adamant that teachers would sort out any concerns quickly.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Trust and school leaders have an overly positive view of the quality of education at the school. As part of the multi-academy trust (MAT) normal support arrangements, reviews of leaders' work have taken place. However, leaders have not acted on concerns rightly raised in these reviews with enough urgency.

Importantly, the very recent staff training sessions were not sufficient to ensure that staff have the secure knowledge required to support pupils with SEND and pupils who struggle to learn to read.

The school's curriculum is incomplete and does not ensure that pupils can secure the knowledge that they need in every subject. Leaders introduced a new approach to teaching reading last year but not all current staff are confident to deliver this properly.

Consequently, it is not effective. Learning is often too challenging for pupils, particularly those who already find reading difficult. The books they read are too hard and they are not heard to read often enough.

In all year groups, there has been a focus on reading for pleasure; teachers model this well using good-quality books.

Many of the subject leaders are new to their role. They are not equipped with the necessary knowledge to develop their subject.

Leaders have not ensured that the curriculum is always well sequenced and covers the requirements of the national curriculum, as MAT leaders intend. Pupils struggle to build on previous learning and find it hard to remember what they have learned. Teachers' subject knowledge is variable and teaching lacks consistency.

Not all staff in the early years understand how young children learn and what they need to learn.

Leaders have started to introduce assessment processes across the school so that teachers can identify what pupils know and can do, and what they need to learn next. However, these checks are not used as consistently as leaders intend.

Teachers do not use them to plan future teaching or to ensure that pupils know more and can remember more. Many pupils produce work of poor quality, and they are not helped to make improvements.

The school's SEND leader is new to the school and has started to identify extensive gaps in process, provision and staff knowledge about how to best support pupils with SEND.

Parents and carers have not been properly involved in identifying pupils' needs and staff have not been given the information that they need to adapt their teaching effectively. Plans to support pupils are weak and the provision for SEND does not meet pupils' individual needs.

On the whole, adults maintain warm and caring relationships with pupils.

However, the school's behaviour management policy is not understood and implemented consistently by all adults. As a result, the quality of pupils' behaviour varies across the school. On occasion, poor behaviour disrupts learning for some pupils.

Pupils understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle but they are not supported well enough with their personal development. Their understanding of what it means to live in modern Britain is limited. Pupils show resilience in learning and will keep going, even if a task is a bit tricky.

They enjoy their visits to the woodland and were excited to share their adventures at Marwell Zoo. Leaders have not yet put in place a wide range of experiences and opportunities across all year groups.

Despite the challenges staff face, they remain positive about the school and are supportive of leaders.

The pastoral care provided for both pupils and staff is a strength of the school. Parents appreciate the way in which the school welcomes everyone.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders give safeguarding a high priority and have recently revisited their approach to ensure that all staff know what to look out for and how to record it. This has created a culture of safeguarding, but some staff are not yet secure when adding detail to the concerns they record.

Leaders work well with outside agencies to ensure that pupils get the help that they need quickly.

Those with responsibility for governance monitor and challenge the school's safeguarding leaders well, including regarding the safer recruitment of appropriate adults. Safeguarding records are, on the whole, well organised and leaders know which areas to strengthen.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Those responsible for governance know that aspects of the school, such as the curriculum and provision for pupils with SEND, need to improve but have not acted with enough urgency.

Leaders need to ensure that curriculum planning is clearly thought through, understood by all in the school and meets the standards set out by the MAT. They should also ensure that proper processes to meet the needs of pupils with SEND are followed so that parents are fully involved, and staff know how to meet these pupils' needs and do so. ? Too many pupils do not get off to a good start when learning to read.

They do not build the knowledge to become confident, fluent readers. Leaders should ensure that all staff are expertly trained, that books are well matched to the sounds that pupils have learned and that weaker readers have the time and practice to support them to keep up. ? Staff knowledge of the early years curriculum and how children learn is weak.

The youngest children, particularly those who have additional needs, are not building the necessary foundations for future learning. Leaders should create an early years environment, with secure staff knowledge and appropriate resources, that can meet all the children's needs and promote learning. ? Leaders have not implemented a consistent approach to assessment.

Teachers and staff do not consistently check pupils' understanding and work out what pupils need to learn next. Leaders should ensure that teachers use these checks as planned to inform teaching and to help pupils embed key concepts and develop their understanding. ? Leaders have not ensured that all staff promote high standards of behaviour across the school.

Pupils' behaviour towards each other in lessons does not meet leaders' ambition and can disrupt learning. Leaders should continue to raise staff expectations in this area and ensure a consistent approach.Having considered the evidence, we strongly recommend that leaders and those responsible for governance do not seek to appoint early career teachers.