Glowing Ofsted report for 'joyful and nurturing' Southwell primary school

Holy Trinity Infant School on Westgate, which is part of Minster Trust for Education (MITRE), was rated ‘outstanding’ for behaviour and attitudes, personal development and early years provision, and ‘good’ for quality of education and leadership and management.

Ofsted inspectors said: “This is a joyful, nurturing school, pupils are very happy and feel safe.

"They describe the school as, ‘a school where everyone cares about you’.

Marie Thompson, head teacher, said: "We are incredibly proud that Ofsted has recognised the warm, caring, and ambitious environment that our dedicated staff team work so hard to create at Holy Trinity.

"Providing a vibrant curriculum, and with a strong emphasis on personal development, it was wonderful to see the enthusiasm, maturity and kindness of our pupils highlighted in the report.

"In line with our school vision and values, we will continue to strive for excellence as we serve our school and local community , with a deep appreciation of the ongoing support from our parents/carers, governing body and trust.”

In their report, inspectors said children ‘get off to an exceptional start in the early years and are extremely well prepared for key stage one’.

They continued: "There is a strong reading culture at the school.

"Phonics lessons support pupils to quickly learn how to identify sounds and blend them to decode unfamiliar words.

"The reading books that pupils take home are carefully matched to the sounds they already know.

"This supports the development of pupils’ reading fluency and a high percentage of pupils achieve the expected standard in the phonics screening check.

"Maths lessons provide pupils with daily opportunities to practise their mathematical fluency.

"Pupils show determination when problem solving and are not put off if they find something difficult.

"The school’s wider curriculum focuses on exploration and investigation and pupils enjoy learning about subjects through the vehicle of an overarching topic.

"Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary, they carry themselves with a respectful confidence.

"This is the result of clear and robust systems and expectations and the school’s values are at the core of this highly effective work.

“The school’s personal development offer is exceptional and provides rich experiences which go beyond the classroom.

"This includes ‘outdoor learning Friday’ where pupils explore and investigate in the school’s nature garden.

"The trust’s workload charter is well established in the school and staff feel highly valued.

"The online survey, Parent View, shows that 100 per cent of parents would recommend the school to others.”

On what the school can do to further improve, inspectors said: “In a small number of subjects, the curriculum does not identify clearly enough the important knowledge that pupils should learn.

"As a result, teachers are not always sure what knowledge they should be checking pupils are remembering to help build their knowledge over time.

"The school should ensure that the curriculum makes clear to teachers what the important knowledge is that pupils should embed into their long-term memory and ensure that teachers accurately check whether pupils have acquired it.”