A Chesterfield school has been praised by for its ‘nurturing’ environment and the way it ‘prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain’ by Government inspectors during a recent inspection.
Whittington Moor Infant and Nursery Academy -part of the Cavendish Learning Trust – was also given top marks by Ofsted for its ‘caring and ambitious’ staff team whose vision is to ‘create an environment where pupils are nurtured so that they can thrive and blossom’.
For head teacher Lauren Kay, the glowing report is the result of lots of hard work and the school has worked tirelessly 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.
“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,” said Miss Kay.
“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.”
Headteacher Lauren Kay with pupils from the school.
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,” added Miss Kay.
“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.”
Whittington Moor Infant and Nursery School have recently finished their nurture room, known as ‘The Saplings’. Formerly an unused classroom, the room has been transformed into a home-from-home by nurture lead, Amanda Cheffings.
The brand-new nurture room, complete with sofa purchased from Tesco Community Grant.
Complete with snuggly chairs, a family dining table and a brand-new squishy sofa – thanks to a community grant from supermarket Tesco – the nurture room provides support on a one-to-one or small group basis to those children who may need support with the development of the social and emotional aspects of the curriculum.
Miss Kay added: “The pandemic has led to an increase in the need for such a room in school; children’s social skills and behaviour has been affected during the subsequent lockdowns. It’s hard to believe that this academic year is the first full one that we’ve had in two years.
“The Saplings promotes and can assist with improving communication skills and is a fabulous and much-needed resource for our school.
“We’re very keen to provide a broad and varied curriculum here at our school. Children love our Forest School provision. They have enjoyed making dens, trips to the theatre and to the seaside and it has been wonderful to see the joy on their faces.
“School should be a magical time for children and I’m delighted that our approach to learning has been officially recognised with such a glowing Ofsted report.”
