Stanton Community Primary School and Nursery achieves the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
Welcoming, Warm, and Supportive Setting
Stanton Community Primary School is a very welcoming, warm, and supportive setting, which prides itself on being a professional learning community with inclusion at its heart. There is a culture of mutual respect and positive relationships where everyone in the school community is valued and diversity is actively taught, promoted and celebrated. Given the school’s context, staff are very aware that children in the school may not be exposed to as much diversity as others nationally and so they work especially hard to provide them with opportunities to learn about and discuss the difficulties some groups of people may experience around inclusion.
Last year the school participated in an Education Endowment Fund project focussing on rural disadvantage. This enabled staff to really consider what being disadvantaged means and how adults in school can provide additional support and improve provision for all children. The Headteacher has made it a priority to ensure that staff understand that disadvantaged is more than the group of children receiving pupil premium but also includes rural disadvantage, Forces’ children, children who are experiencing family trauma and so on. Staff clearly believe that, despite levels of disadvantage, all their pupils are capable of achieving and making progress.
The school achieved ‘Good’ at the last OFSTED inspection in 2019 and it was noted then that the school “invests in staff who support the learning of the individual, children enjoy coming to school and children achieve well in school.” The Leadership Team and Governors have high expectations about every aspect of school life and recognise the unique characteristics of the community that the school serves. This is reflected in the school’s family values and strong ethos of respect which permeates throughout.
All children on the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) register have access to in-house expertise as well as expertise from external agencies who can offer support to parents and their children. Our Assessor heard from a member of the Specialist Education Services’ team how well the school utilises the services of external agencies and how knowledge is cascaded to school staff in order to continually upskill them. Early identification of needs is a real strength and starts from the moment children join the school.
Individual Needs are Well Met
Identification being timely and accurate means that individual needs are well met at the first possible opportunity, and this was more than evident in discussions with the Early Years Lead. High inclusion standards at Stanton Community Primary are widely acknowledged by the Local Authority and the school is held up as an example of good practice in the area whilst always being keen to work with a wider group of schools to learn from their experiences and further develop practice. 
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Co-ordinator (SENDCo) and Assistant SENDCo make a strong team, having the relevant qualifications, expertise, knowledge and experience of what works, all of which are essential for the ongoing pursuit of good practice in relation to early identification of needs, assessment and appropriate provision.
The experienced Emotional Support Worker also works closely with key staff in the school to provide support for children and families needing intervention.
It was clear from discussions with the Early Years Lead that a finger is most definitely on the pulse regarding the importance of screening and good knowledge of SEND and this gives children a very robust start and supports the school’s belief that children should “start their learning journey the right way”. In staff meetings and IN–SErvice Training (INSET) sessions, the Headteacher (a local leader in education) and Deputy Headteacher (a Maths specialist teacher) promote universal, targeted and individualised best practice provision as part of a graduated response. Staff are supported with advice and guidance on best practice and class teachers are accountable for the progress of every child they teach, regardless of any SEND or other need. All teachers complete a provision map at the start of each term and then update it with data at the end of each term to see the progress children have made as a result of planned interventions. This information is fed back to parents at termly meetings.
Working Together
Along with experienced and knowledgeable Governors (the Chair of Governors was previously a Headteacher), invaluable expertise is available to all.
Good quality Continuous Professional Development (CPD) has played a central role and has led to improved pedagogical knowledge in every subject. There are regular revisits of policy and practice which focus on what is working well and what might need to be adapted to work for the children and families at the school. The school call this ‘Stantonising’!
Our Assessor heard from the Chair of Governors how the Headteacher for example will thoroughly explore and research new initiatives before introducing them and then ‘Stantonising’ them, collaborating with the staff team, to provide a truly bespoke offer.
Our Assessor heard evidence from staff of an environment where the whole-school team are willing and feel confident to give things a try, feedback, ask questions, give their opinions and work hard to support each other and all children. Working together, adults are committed to making sure children leave the school at the end of Key Stage 2 (KS2) as confident, well-rounded learners who have the drive and determination to succeed.
Key Life Skills
A particular highlight of the visit was hearing about how reading and writing are acknowledged as key life skills for the children at Stanton. Staff are dedicated to enabling pupils to become lifelong readers and writers and the teaching and learning of reading and the use of high quality, age-appropriate texts are at the heart of the curriculum (the school has an amazing library and parents are also able to use this to support their own reading). The school’s investment in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics programme supports children to develop their independent reading skills; reading books that are closely matched to their phonics knowledge with a focus on decoding, fluency, expression and comprehension.
It was wonderful to hear from a range of parents about the faith and confidence they have in the school which is due to the positive relationships that have been created over time and the way their children are nurtured and celebrated.
Our Assessor heard about the excellent communication that exists between home and school and how all adults in school always go the extra mile (including lunch staff who know, for example, what individual children like/dislike and what they can and cannot eat).
There is also a strong sense of Pupil Voice within the school that has been built upon by the introduction of the Oracy work and every child has an opinion initiative (a whole-school council) that the school has embarked upon.
Stanton Community Primary School is a calm, happy, supportive and safe place where adults’ wellbeing is prioritised and pupils are nurtured. The whole staff team work hard to ensure that children’s learning, physical and emotional needs are catered for.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.
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