Radcliffe-on-Trent Infant and Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Radcliffe-on-Trent Infant and Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 24 April 2018, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings.

The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in September 2014. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

You are ambitious for the school and strive to improve teaching so that pupils are supported to achieve the best possible outcomes. You have led a wide range of change which has enabled the school to successfully adap...t to changing national expectations. You have a detailed understanding of the school and the strengths of its staff.

You have provided effective training to both experienced and new leaders. The leadership team is well placed to build on improvements, with conscientious staff to continue to move the school forward. Governors are well informed.

You ensure that they have an accurate understanding of the school. They check what is reported to them. They use their skills effectively to challenge and support you and other leaders who have responsibility.

At the time of the previous inspection, leaders were asked to improve some aspects of teaching and learning further. You have provided staff with effective training and resources. Teachers regularly work with colleagues from other schools to compare approaches and share good practice.

You have successfully sustained good teaching across the school. The school has high attainment over time, particularly in reading and mathematics. Writing has been a weaker area, although pupils' outcomes have been close to national averages.

This is a high priority in the school's improvement plan. Pupils' good behaviour and attitudes have been maintained and indeed built upon. Pupils are proud of their school, particularly the fact that everybody is friendly and caring.

They enjoy learning through interesting topics. For example, Year 2 pupils were keen to demonstrate their counting to 10 in Chinese. Pupils enjoy taking on responsibilities such as sports leaders, pupil councillors and lunchtime 'family feast' servers.

Your chosen approach to the curriculum is ensuring that pupils' attitudes and approaches to tackling learning are also developed. Pupils told me about using their 'learning powers' from their 'Rainbow Rules' to help them to reach their targets. Revised assessment procedures are improving the identification of pupils' needs.

You are determined that assessment should be used well to identify what pupils need to learn next, as is evident in the school's improvement plan. Parents and carers I spoke to and the vast majority of parents who responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View, agreed that their children are happy and safe. They value the 'village feel', the responsive teachers and the wide range of opportunities provided by the school.

They are highly positive about the careful induction for their children as they join the school, which ensures that they make a confident start. Parents appreciate the before- and after-school childcare provided by the school. Pupils enjoy the activities and additional time with friends.

Most parents have a very high level of confidence in the school. However, a minority of parents do not feel changes or decisions have been well communicated. Evidence gathered during the inspection showed that you and your leaders had consistently drawn on a range of views and information to make considered decisions.

You are mindful that you should continue to find ways to ensure that all parents feel equally well informed. You ensure that pupils and parents are reminded of the importance of attendance. As a consequence, rates of attendance are at least in line with national averages.

You have stringent procedures to follow up absences and support is put in place where appropriate. Safeguarding is effective. You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

You make sure that appropriate vetting checks take place before an adult starts working at the school and that staff receive up-to-date training in keeping children safe. The well-organised school business manager provides effective support. Staff are clear about how to report a concern about a child's welfare should one arise.

Governors receive appropriate training and regularly check school procedures. You keep detailed safeguarding records securely. The inclusion manager is trusted by the families she works with.

She is quick to seek support from other agencies to ensure that pupils and their families get help when they need it. You and your staff regularly discuss matters of safeguarding and pupils' welfare, keeping this important aspect of the school's work at the forefront of everyone's mind. Pupils said that behaviour is good in school.

On the rare occasions when there is inappropriate behaviour, pupils trust adults to help them deal with it. Pupils are taught about different aspects of safety, such as keeping themselves safe online, fire safety and personal safety. Inspection findings ? At the start of the inspection, we agreed the aspects of the school's work that I would consider closely.

We looked together at how effectively writing is being taught. You reviewed the approach to teaching phonics and effective training has ensured that this is well taught across classes. Teachers are now consistently ensuring that phonics is used well in writing as well as reading.

In line with school policy, teachers are developing pupils' physical skills to support effective handwriting. We saw in books and displays that pupils take pride in the presentation of their work across the curriculum. ? In line with the school's chosen approach to writing, teachers use interesting texts or stimuli, linked to topics, to encourage pupil discussion to shape and extend writing.

For example, Year 1 pupils used a mysterious painting of a cloaked archer to generate ideas about historic detail for writing their Robin Hood 'wanted' posters. Pupils can also confidently explain how they are using grammar skills in their writing. For example, Year 2 pupils accurately told me about using contractions, commas and conjunctions.

• You and your leaders have identified the need for children in the Reception Year to increase their stamina to move on more quickly to writing sentences. Teachers' planning now includes adult-led sessions that focus on sentence writing. However, opportunities to encourage less-confident children to participate in a wider range of writing activities are missed.

• You identified that assessment for tracking pupils' ongoing progress was not helping teachers to identify effectively what pupils needed to learn next to secure rapid progress for all. You have recently introduced a new system for tracking. Information on the tracking system is accurate and consistent with the evidence in pupils' books.

Teachers are more confident in using this improved information to identify what pupils need to learn next and are confident about age expectations. This year, they have improved their understanding of how the progress of pupils within their class fits into overall school outcomes. ? You are working closely with middle leaders to analyse the barriers to learning for less-confident pupils and those who have more complex needs.

This is starting to improve the accuracy and impact of adjustments to teaching for these pupils, although you recognise that there is more to be done to accelerate progress. ? You ensure that interesting topics are used effectively to link learning across subjects. Pupils particularly commented about the interesting questions that challenge them to think about their learning, for example 'How are plants like people?' Teachers carefully plan learning experiences to develop pupils' problem-solving and collaboration, in line with the school's curriculum policy, such as a whole-school 'construction day'.

However, you recognise that the overall framework of knowledge and concepts which you want pupils to learn is not as well developed as it is in English and mathematics. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? teachers use assessment and tracking information to improve the precision of planning for pupils' progress ? teachers increase the opportunities for less-confident Reception children to participate in a wider range of writing activities ? the knowledge and concepts to be taught across the school for other subjects are mapped out as clearly as those in English and mathematics. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Nottinghamshire County Council.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Mandy Wilding Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I met with you and shared my lines of enquiry. I met with the deputy headteacher, who has responsibility for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

I also met with other staff with leadership responsibilities, including those in charge of inclusion, English and assessment. I met with the chair of governors and other governors. The local authority declined a discussion.

I spoke with pupils informally in class and held a more formal meeting with pupils from Year 2. We jointly visited classes to observe pupils' learning, to speak with them and to look at their books. We examined a range of pupils' books from across the school.

I reviewed a range of documents, including leaders' evaluation of the school's current performance and its plans for further improvement. I considered a number of policy documents, including those for safeguarding. I examined the school's website and checked on the publication of specified information.

I spoke to parents at the beginning of the school day and considered the responses of 77 parents to Ofsted's online survey, Parent View, and 74 free-text responses. I also considered the 10 responses to Ofsted's online staff survey. There were no responses to Ofsted's online pupils' survey.

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