Headteacher ‘thrilled’ as Chesterfield school given ‘good’ Ofsted rating

Whittington Moor Infant and Nursery Academy received the rating by education watchdog Ofsted across for education quality, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management and early years provision, giving an overall effectiveness of ‘good’.

It was its first inspection since joining becoming an academy, having last received a full inspection as Gilbert Heathcote Nursery and Infant School in 2010.

For headteacher Lauren Kay, the glowing report is the result of hard work and reflects how the school has worked to build relationships with its community, expand its enrichment programme and develop a learning environment that meets the needs of all 87 pupils on roll.

She said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have been given such a positive report from inspectors, particularly given the challenges we have all faced over the last couple of years due to the pandemic.

“I am so proud of the school team and our wonderful pupils, who are kind, caring and keen to learn. They are inquisitive, happy and creative and I am over the moon.”

The school council was given extra praise by Ofsted, who also made a note of Whittington Moor’s ‘well planned and sequenced’ curriculum and pupils’ love of reading.

Inspectors said that ‘over time, pupils develop a passion for reading’ and become ‘fluent’ readers with ‘access to a wide range of texts and genres’.

“The books that our pupils read are closely matched to the sounds that they have been learning in phonics,” Miss Kay added.

“We want our children to develop a life-long love of reading and as a school we have invested in a wide variety of reading books for the library to promote reading for pleasure. – The children love the introduction of an electronic system for scanning books in and out.”

Commenting on improvements, inspectors highlighted ‘some minor inconsistencies’ in how effectively teachers deliver the curriculum and said that ‘teachers expect pupils to achieve too much, too quickly’ in a small number of cases.

They also noted how the curriculum prepares children for Key Stage 1 and beyond, but said leaders have ‘not thought about the curriculum in as much detail’ for children who join the setting from age two.

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