Raglan Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Raglan Infant School continues to be a good school. There is enough evidence of improved performance to suggest that the school could be judged outstanding if we were to carry out a graded (section 5) inspection now. The school's next inspection will be a graded inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils greatly enjoy attending this school. They said that their teachers care for them and that their classmates are kind. From the moment they arrive in the early years, children are taught how to behave well.

For example, staff read and discuss with them 'Hands are Made for Helping'. Staff establish clear routines. They use multiple opportunities to reinforce the school'...s values.

Staff reward pupils for their excellent behaviours and their efforts. As a result, there is a calm and purposeful atmosphere throughout the day. Pupils are safe, and reported incidents of bullying are extremely rare.

Leaders keep the curriculum under constant review. They strive to ensure that all pupils thrive across the broad range of subjects on offer. This means that children in Reception are extremely well prepared for Year 1, and Year 2 pupils equally so for entering junior school.

Leaders provide pupils with many clubs and enrichment opportunities. These include cheerleading and football for Nursery, yoga in the Reception class, and choirs in Years 1 and 2. The uptake of these opportunities is very high.

Leaders have a staunch commitment to inclusion. They allocate funded places at clubs, for example, for all disadvantaged pupils. Leaders also ensure that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) can participate equally in all activities on offer.

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

Leaders have established a highly ambitious curriculum. They ensure that staff have the requisite subject expertise to teach the subjects effectively. As a result, children in the early years and pupils in the infant classes gain plentiful knowledge and understanding across the subjects.

Leaders have established curriculum teams for subjects, with each team including a member of staff representing early years, one for the infant school and some from the adjacent federated junior school. This means that in all subjects, leaders think about and plan carefully for a seamless sequential curriculum. It builds knowledge systematically from Nursery onwards.

In Nursery, for example, children work with wood. They are taught how to hammer in nails and use screwdrivers, saws and drills. This helps children to develop fine-motor skills and sets the foundations for future design and technology studies.

Subject teams liaise with counterparts in other schools. They learn from and share effective practices. They also deliver quality training to teachers and support staff.

As a result, staff keep up to date with the subjects that they teach. They hone their skills in delivering new knowledge clearly. Staff build retrieval exercises into their lessons.

This helps pupils to embed core knowledge in their long-term memories. Teachers check pupils' work often. They use the information well to address misconceptions and help those who fall behind to catch up.

There are well-established systems in place to identify pupils with SEND. Teachers and support staff are given regular training to understand a range of SEND needs. With the help of SEND leaders, they plan adaptations to their teaching and resources.

This means that all pupils can access the same key knowledge.

Leaders place the teaching of reading at the front and centre of their work. Expert staff teach the school's phonics programme effectively.

Daily extra sessions help pupils to keep up, should they fall behind. Staff run several workshops for parents and carers. They read well-selected books across a range of genres to pupils for enjoyment.

Families bring in books that they have finished reading and swap them with each other. Pupils are very well supported to expand their vocabulary and become confident and fluent readers.

Children in early years are very attentive during taught sessions.

In Years 1 and 2, pupils are very keen to learn, and low-level disruption is rare. This means that teaching goes ahead uninterrupted, contributing to pupils' high achievements.

The curriculum is augmented with many visits.

In early years, children visit local shops to experience buying and selling. Pupils visit the National Gallery and the Tower of London, for example. Staff promote pupils' character development.

In a sportsmanship assembly, for instance, pupils were told how to work as part of a team. They were taught how to cope with defeat and how to be gracious winners. Pupils have opportunities to take part in many sporting activities.

Some also take part in inter-school gymnastics events and run in the London mini marathon for schools. Pupils are taught about diversity, different types of families and how to respect others.

Staff morale is high.

They said that their workload is manageable. Staff appreciate the dedicated time that they get to plan lessons together with their colleagues. They welcome the opportunities organised by leaders for supportive peer-to-peer feedback.

Staff spoke about how these experiences help them to enhance their practice. They also value regular staff well-being social events.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Through regular training and updates, staff are well aware of how to identify pupils who may be displaying worrying signs of a potential safeguarding or welfare nature. The large safeguarding leadership team keeps a sharp eye on, and monitors closely, all incidents that staff report. Leaders act quickly to secure the help that vulnerable pupils need, including from external agencies.

Pupils are taught about risk, like inappropriate touching, and how to seek help.

There are suitable recruitment procedures in place for checking the suitability of applicants to work with pupils.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually, this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we the school to be good in July 2014.