St James Infant School
Catchment Area, Reviews and Key Information

Primary
PUPILS
199
AGES
5 - 7
GENDER
Mixed
TYPE
Academy converter
SCHOOL GUIDE RATING
Not Rated

Can I Get My Child Into This School?

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This pupil heat map shows where pupils currently attending the school live.
The concentration of pupils shows likelihood of admission based on distance criteria

Source: All attending pupils National School Census Data, ONS
0300 126 1000

This School Guide heat map has been plotted using official pupil data taken from the last School Census collected by the Department for Education. It is a visualisation of where pupils lived at the time of the annual School Census.

Our heat maps use groups of postcodes, not individual postcodes, and have naturally soft edges. All pupils are included in the mapping (i.e. children with siblings already at the school, high priority pupils and selective and/or religious admissions) but we may have removed statistical ‘outliers’ with more remote postcodes that do not reflect majority admissions.

For some schools, the heat map may be a useful indicator of the catchment area but our heat maps are not the same as catchment area maps. Catchment area maps, published by the school or local authority, are based on geographical admissions criteria and show actual cut-off distances and pre-defined catchment areas for a single admission year.

This information is provided as a guide only. The criteria in which schools use to allocate places in the event that they are oversubscribed can and do vary between schools and over time. These criteria can include distance from the school and sometimes specific catchment areas but can also include, amongst others, priority for siblings, children of a particular faith or specific feeder schools. Living in an area where children have previously attended a school does not guarantee admission to the school in future years. Always check with the school’s own admission authority for the current admission arrangements.

3 steps to help parents gather catchment information for a school:

  1. Look at our school catchment area guide for more information on heat maps. They give a useful indicator of the general areas that admit pupils to the school. This visualisation is based on all attending pupils present at the time of the annual School Census.
  2. Use the link to the Local Authority Contact (above) to find catchment area information based on a single admission year. This is very important if you are considering applying to a school.
  3. On each school page, use the link to visit the school website and find information on individual school admissions criteria. Geographical criteria are only applied after pupils have been admitted on higher priority criteria such as Looked After Children, SEN, siblings, etc.

How Does The School Perform?

Good
NATIONAL AVG. 2.09
Ofsted Inspection
(05/07/2022)
Full Report - All Reports



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90 St James Street
Daventry
NN11 4AG
01327702783

School Description

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. This is a school where children and their well-being are at the heart of its organisation. Parents, pupils and staff are proud of their school and its caring approach. Parents speak highly of the school and many outline the excellent support they and their family have received. You realised that, in recent years, children were starting in Reception with increasingly lower skills for their age. The positive impact of the pre-school on standards are evident. These high standards are now showing through the school as those pupils who have attended the pre-school move from one year group to another. The early years is a strength, with significant improvements in the past three years in children’s outcomes at the end of Reception. These are now in line with national averages. You and your leadership team know the school well and work to ensure that any identified weaknesses are addressed effectively. You have made improvements to behaviour in lessons and around school by ensuring that it is managed consistently. Work to help pupils to take responsibility for their own actions has had a positive impact on their understanding of what good behaviour really means. There is effective support for pupils who find managing their own behaviour a challenge. The school’s mascot, ‘Spencer’, and the ‘Value Bears’ ensure that pupils’ personal and social development are in a language that all can relate to, focusing on cooperation, teamwork, fairness, honesty, caring and independence. You have successfully extended the role of these bears to help pupils to understand British values. All groups of pupils, including those who are disadvantaged or vulnerable, make good progress. Many pupils benefit from the breakfast club and the after-school club. A broad and engaging curriculum, supported by a good range of out-of-school clubs, ensures that pupils enjoy school and achieve well. Governors show a good understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development and ensure that challenge and support are well-balanced. They monitor important aspects of the school’s leadership, such as the use of the pupil premium funding. The governing body has recently undergone a series of changes in personnel and organisation and the new team knows it can be even more effective. There are good plans in place to ensure this. You have responded effectively to the recommendations for improvement from your last inspection, resulting in reading now being a strength across the school. You and your staff have ensured that initiatives to improve reading have been introduced, monitored and refined. These have led to improvements in how phonics and reading comprehension are taught and an increased focus on pupils reading independently. Teaching in all subjects has improved partly due to good coaching, with teachers having the opportunity to teach and learn alongside your job-share co-headteacher. You acknowledge that although much work has been undertaken to improve pupils’ vocabulary in writing, there is still some inconsistency in how well writing is being taught in key stage 1. Some pupils are having too few opportunities to develop their ideas at length. We also discussed the weaker presentation of some pupils’ work in Year 2, which is neither neat nor well laid out. Pupils’ handwriting in Year 2 was also an area we discussed, as too few are choosing to join their letters in everyday handwriting. In mathematics, good progress has been made in developing pupils’ understanding of new concepts. However, pupils are still not always given good opportunities to develop their problem-solving and reasoning skills. Safeguarding is effective. You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. Staff are highly trained and you have created an ethos where everyone believes that safeguarding is their responsibility and a key priority. Safeguarding is very well organised and monitored. You provide regular weekly staff updates and have led staff in reviews of serious case studies to determine what lessons can be learned. Leaders’ meticulous records for child protection ensure that all actions are followed up efficiently and tenaciously. Staff liaise well with external agencies when additional support is needed to help vulnerable pupils. Discussions between staff take place regularly, including the sharing of information to ensure that 2 vulnerable pupils are supported well. You have sought external monitoring to ensure that your safeguarding is effective and you have acted on all recommendations to strengthen your procedures still further. Inspection findings You and your staff have continued to make improvements to the teaching of phonics. This has included further training for staff and workshops for parents so they can better support their children at home. A new reward system to encourage home reading and an increase in one-to-one reading at school have improved pupils’ progress. Pupils of all abilities use their phonics skills well in their reading to help them to sound out unknown words. I listened to a number of pupils read and all talked animatedly about the book they were reading and their enjoyment of reading generally. New training for staff has ensured that higher-level reading skills, including those of inference, are taught more systematically. Significant professional development has taken place this year to improve the teaching of mathematics. Teachers now take a much more practical approach to teaching pupils new concepts. Regular short check-ups are used by teachers to ensure that pupils have understood new learning and one-to-one or small-group interventions are in place to support those who require further guidance. There is still evidence of some girls progressing less well in mathematics. However, this is being addressed successfully, through individual and group support. All pupils, including girls, are now much more confident in using and choosing appropriate equipment to help them with their number work and problem solving. Increased mixed-ability group and paired work have encouraged pupils to talk about their mathematics and what they are learning. This has helped to improve pupils’ vocabulary and ability to explain their thinking and strategies. However, some teachers still limit pupils’ opportunities to develop their problem-solving and reasoning skills by giving pupils activities in some lessons that simply cover skills pupils have already mastered. Yourself and the other school leaders have continually monitored and evaluated the impact of the use of the pupil premium funding. The pupils who are eligible for this grant are making good progress. They benefit from targeted help with reading, writing and mathematics and, where necessary, support to help them overcome individual specific barriers to learning. This includes help for pupils to manage their own behaviour and to have access to all areas of the school’s rich curriculum. Governors monitor the school’s spending of the pupil premium funding and receive regular reports detailing the impact of the school’s various initiatives. This has ensured that they are in a good position to ask probing questions to ensure that best value for money is achieved. 3 The attendance of disadvantaged pupils has historically been an area for improvement. The appointment of a parent support worker has greatly improved attendance and punctuality of all pupils at the school, including disadvantaged pupils. Ensuring that parents understand the importance of regular attendance, following up all absences and drawing up contracts with some parents have all helped to improve attendance. During the inspection, it became evident that there were some improvements still required to raise attainment and to improve progress and attainment in writing in key stage 1. You agreed that more consistency in the effectiveness of teaching of writing was needed. Initiatives this year have improved pupils’ vocabulary and many pupils now write more imaginatively, choosing a range of interesting words. However, in some classes, pupils have too few opportunities to develop their ideas at length. In Year 2, you had already identified that pupils’ presentation of their work was an area for action. Significant improvements have been made to support the physical development and letter formation for the younger pupils, so these pupils demonstrate good standards of handwriting. However, pupils’ joined writing in Year 2 is not as fully developed as it could be, with too many pupils still choosing to print, except when specifically practising their joined writing. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: the consistency in the teaching of writing is improved, so that pupils have better opportunities to develop their ideas at length in Year 2, pupils’ presentation and joined handwriting are improved pupils have more frequent opportunities to develop their mathematical skills of problem solving and reasoning. I am copying this letter to the co-chairs of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Northamptonshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Angela Kirk Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I held meetings with you and Gail Gynn, who is the acting headteacher two days a week as part of your phased retirement. I also met with other senior leaders, your parent support worker and designated safeguarding lead. I talked to several parents at the start of the school day and analysed Ofsted’s 4 surveys completed by parents (Parent View), staff and pupils. I visited all classes with you and Gail Gynn to see what pupils were learning in lessons, and we carried out extensive surveys of pupils’ work to see what progress they were making. I listened to a sample of pupils read and talked with many informally. We also discussed the school’s assessment information showing pupils’ attainment and progress. I reviewed records of attendance and safeguarding and also read various documents evaluating the school’s progress. I held a discussion with four members of the governing body, including both co-chairs.

St James Infant School Parent Reviews



unlock % Parents Recommend This School
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>75, "agree"=>25, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>75, "agree"=>19, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>6} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>50, "agree"=>44, "disagree"=>6, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
My Child Has Not Been Bullied Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"my_child_has_not_been_bullied"=>56, "strongly_agree"=>13, "agree"=>19, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>13} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>88, "agree"=>6, "disagree"=>6, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
I Have Not Raised Any Concerns Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"i_have_not_raised_any_concerns"=>38, "strongly_agree"=>31, "agree"=>31, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>100, "agree"=>0, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 10 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>44, "agree"=>38, "disagree"=>13, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>6} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>69, "agree"=>31, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>69, "agree"=>25, "disagree"=>6, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>63, "agree"=>25, "disagree"=>6, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>6} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>56, "agree"=>19, "disagree"=>6, "strongly_disagree"=>6, "dont_know"=>13} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>75, "agree"=>13, "disagree"=>6, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>6} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024
Yes No {"yes"=>94, "no"=>6} UNLOCK Figures based on 16 responses up to 26-03-2024

Responses taken from Ofsted Parent View

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