The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your team have created a harmonious school where pupils are well cared for and enjoy their learning. Pupils described the school to me as ‘amazing, caring and happy’. They felt that the school ‘pushed them to their limits’ and expected them to work hard. Consequently, pupils are happy in school and their attendance is very good. The school is a warm and friendly place. Pupils are taught to respect adults and each other. Pupils have a good understanding of the different cultures and religions that make up modern Britain. They are clear that all people should be treated well. Pupils were able to explain to me that anyone who comes to Lantern Lane Primary and Nursery School will be looked after. Pupils behave well and concentrate in lessons. Pupils told me that incidents of bullying are rare and they were confident that they could talk to staff if they experience any problems. You and your staff work well together with the common purpose of achieving the best possible outcomes for pupils. You are supported by an effective governing body, which has a sound knowledge of the strengths of the school and the areas that require further work. You are held in high regard by your staff, governors and parents. Your leaders said they felt ‘empowered’ to lead and you enable them to do their job. You do this well, because you provide guidance, support and challenge. As a result, your staff are motivated and dedicated in their drive to raise standards for all pupils. Leaders and governors work together to produce plans for school improvement that are sharply focused on the strengths and areas of development for the school. You carefully track the attainment and progress of all pupils. Additional support is given to pupils, including those who are disadvantaged and those with low prior attainment, when necessary. You are developing classroom practice and providing effective training to teachers, linked to your school priorities, to ensure that achievement remains good and is improving. You recognised that achievement in writing needed to improve. You ensure that pupils read texts with greater challenge; this is to improve their vocabulary, to help them with their writing. Your English leader has provided effective guidance for staff to help them accurately assess pupils’ achievements in writing. As a result, teachers are confident in their judgements and use their assessments to correctly identify pupils’ next steps in learning. While work in pupils’ books evidences that standards in writing are good, pupils need more opportunities to develop their skills further through extended pieces of writing. Published information about pupils indicates that, for pupils who are disadvantaged and for those with low prior attainment, achievement has not been high enough. You and your team have researched into the effective use of the pupil premium funding to support these pupils. As a result, teaching practice has changed and pupils make better progress. While work in pupils’ books evidences the good progress most pupils make, some pupils are given work that is too easy for them. Furthermore, in key stage 1, pupils are not given enough opportunity to develop reasoning skills in mathematics, or apply their skills to solve problems that are more complex. At the last inspection, the inspector asked you to ensure that the additional support for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is carefully monitored. Leaders regularly check on the impact of support for these pupils and make changes if the support is not proving effective. As a result, these pupils make good gains in their learning. However, leaders still need some clarity on what constitutes good and better progress to ensure that pupils make the progress of which they are capable. Safeguarding is effective. Your staff have a clear understanding of their responsibility to report to you or your deputy headteacher any concerns they have about a pupil’s safety. Staff and governors receive regular and up-to-date training. You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. You work actively with external agencies and refer your concerns in a timely manner. You are aware of your responsibility to follow up and escalate concerns if necessary. Pupils are safe and happy in school. Pupils are taught how to stay safe, including how to use the internet safely. Parents’ views are very positive. Almost all parents 2 who responded to the online survey agree that pupils are safe and well cared for. Furthermore, parents agree that the school deals effectively with bullying and leaders make sure pupils are well behaved. Inspection findings Leaders have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and areas for development. Actions to tackle weaknesses are already under way and plans are sharply focused on raising achievement. The governing body has a good understanding of the school’s performance. Governors provide you with effective support and challenge and are committed to improving the school further. Teachers and teaching assistants provide pupils with the support they need to make good progress. The school’s tracking system provides information to staff to help them check that pupils are making the progress they expect of them. Additional support is given to pupils who are falling behind, to ensure that they ‘get back on track’. Parents agree that the school keeps them well informed about the progress their child is making. However, leaders are considering ways parents can be further involved in their child’s education, especially parents of those pupils who are disadvantaged. Your plans for improvement are focused on raising standards in writing. You have provided staff with training on how to assess pupils’ work and how to plan the next steps in learning. In addition, you identified that to improve pupils’ writing, their vocabulary needs to improve. Therefore, you have also focused on raising standards in reading. Work in pupils’ books evidences that this has been successful. School performance information for current pupils shows that the large majority of pupils are working at the level expected for their age. Boys do not achieve as well as girls in the early years foundation stage and this has been a pattern over time. You have identified this and your early years leader has put plans in place to develop a provision across the early years foundation stage to provide a rich learning environment for boys. Staff change learning to follow boys’ interests. For example, staff changed a planned topic to ‘Formula One’, after they noticed that boys had a particular interest in racing cars. As a result, boys were enthused and motivated to learn and staff recorded a positive impact on boys’ writing. You have researched into the effective use of the pupil premium funding to support disadvantaged pupils, to ensure that these pupils make good progress and attain well when compared with others nationally. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: all teachers raise their expectations of what disadvantaged pupils and those with low prior attainment can do, to ensure that they make rapid progress and catch up with their peers 3 pupils in key stage 1 are given more frequent opportunities to develop their reasoning and problem-solving skills in mathematics teachers in the early years foundation stage raise their expectations of what boys can do, so that boys’ and girls’ attainment are similar in all areas of learning pupils are given more frequent opportunities to write at length, to develop their skills in writing. 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. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Helen Richardson Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I met with you and other school leaders and spoke to the majority of your staff. I spoke to pupils informally in lessons and in a meeting. They shared their views about their school with me and were delightful to talk to. I met with four governors, including the chair of the governing body. I considered the 92 responses of parents to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View. We visited classrooms together and we looked at a range of pupils’ work in writing and mathematics. I considered a range of school information, including your self-evaluation and your current action plans. We discussed your assessments of pupils’ progress across the school. I evaluated safeguarding procedures, including the school’s single central register (the school’s record of safeguarding recruitment checks on staff) and the records you keep of any concerns raised about pupils’ safety.