The Nettleham Infant and Nursery School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 6 December 2023

The school has a kind and respectful ethos. Pupils enjoy coming to this school and attend regularly. They are caring and well mannered. Pupils benefit from warm, positive relationships with staff and each other. Pupils are taught by committed and passionate staff. The school is ambitious for all pupils. Pupils achieve well, particularly in phonics. The school is calm and orderly. Pupils behave well. Staff have high expectations for all pupils' behaviour. Pupils rise to these expectations and appreciate the celebrations of their success. Pupils confidently talk about their emotions using the 'colour monsters' to help them articulate their feelings. The 'Little Leaders' engage with the views of their peers, including how safe they feel. Pupils say they feel safe in school and know there are trusted adults to whom they can talk. Pupils enjoy attending 'The Treehouse' and the wide range of extra-curricular opportunities available to them, such as Aikido and street dance. The vast majority of parents and carers are full of praise for the school, with one comment typical of many: 'My child has thrived and excelled in school. They are happy, confident and love coming into school every morning.'

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, checks on how well pupils are retaining key knowledge over time are not as well developed as in others. This means the school does not have a sufficiently accurate picture of how securely pupils are learning the whole curriculum in the detail intended. The school needs to adapt and strengthen assessment processes in these subjects to identify any gaps in pupils' learning and plan future curriculum adaptions to ensure that pupils learn well across the full range of subjects.
• The monitoring of some subjects is not yet as effective as it could be. The effectiveness of the curriculum is not routinely checked by all leaders. This means the school cannot be sure staff are delivering the intended curriculum in all subjects as well as they could. The school should support all subject leaders to monitor and evaluate their subjects skilfully.
• The EYFS curriculum is new and is embedding. The environment in the nursery is not yet as rich as it could be to support children's learning and their experience of this new curriculum. The school should ensure that staff create an environment in the nursery that supports the intent of this ambitious, coherently planned and sequenced curriculum.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)