With your leadership team, you have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Scawsby Saltersgate Infant School is a school where pupils feel safe, and where parents and carers believe that their children are safe and happy. You arrived in the school in September 2017, and parents have recognised the positive changes you have made to ensure that the school continues to be good. This has also been recognised by governors. Pupils and parents report that very positive behaviour is a strength of the school, and bullying is rare. This means that pupils feel safe and well settled at school. They also report that you are visible around school and very approachable. This means that if they raise a concern with you, or have a question, you are quick to respond and take effective action. Teachers and other adults are also approachable and pupils appreciate the care and kindness shown by all adults. This means that they feel confident to share any worries or concerns they may have. Teaching is good and this leads to strong progress and attainment for pupils. Teachers largely have high expectations of pupils and, in return, pupils work hard, helping them to achieve well. At times, expectations of pupils’ handwriting are not high enough and this can lead to weak handwriting. Pupils generally take pride in their learning, but they need more support from an early age to write neatly. Similarly, teachers’ checks on pupils’ spelling are not always robust enough and therefore spelling errors can persist. However, overall, teachers plan engaging and interesting lessons that meet different groups of pupils’ needs well. For example, in science, pupils learn about the world around them. They have regular opportunities to take their learning outside and to research facts. As well as enjoying their learning, pupils use their reading, writing and mathematical skills in science in an imaginative way, which supports the high standards they reach in these areas. At the last inspection, inspectors identified two main areas for improvement, the first of which was to improve the teaching of phonics and reading, to ensure that outcomes improved in these areas. These areas were also areas I wanted to look at throughout the inspection. Progress in these areas looked less strong in 2017 than in mathematics and writing. I am pleased to report that teaching in these areas has improved this year and pupils are doing better, ensuring that they acquire phonics knowledge quickly and securely. This, in turn, has supported pupils’ overall reading skills and outcomes. The second area for improvement, identified at the last inspection, was to improve governors’ effectiveness. This was specifically to provide them with the skills to challenge and question school leaders appropriately and, therefore, to contribute positively to the school. Governors have taken this recommendation very seriously. For example, they have audited their skills, as well as their ability to support the school. Where there have been gaps, they have worked hard to make improvements. For example, they have appointed new governors with useful skills, and undertaken training to ensure that they understand all the information you and other leaders provide. As a result, they understand how well pupils at this school do when compared with pupils nationally. This has led to more purposeful work from the governors, who are supportive of leaders and who also challenge leaders where necessary. Since you arrived, you have been very mindful of the need to develop your leadership team so that all of its members are able to contribute positively to school life. You have implemented rigorous monitoring of teaching and are already supporting middle leaders to do this in a robust and accurate way. Consequently, they understand the strengths and areas for development in their areas of provision. As you acknowledge, more training is needed, but already leadership capacity has grown since the start of the year. Furthermore, you have worked effectively to improve the site of the school, so that it is safer for pupils and it is fit for purpose. You have also acquired extra funding to make further improvements in this regard. Parents acknowledge this and appreciate that the learning environment, as well as the safety of the site, are now better. Since the last inspection, attendance has declined, although it remains above average. The level of persistent absenteeism for different groups of pupils has risen since the last inspection. You have worked successfully to tackle these issues. You have worked with the local junior and secondary school to identify a common policy that is much clearer for parents. You implement this in a consistent way so that parents are fully aware of potential issues with their children’s attendance. This has supported significant improvements in pupils’ attendance and the reduction of persistent absenteeism. However, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils is still too low. This is due to a small, but not insignificant, proportion of these pupils who are persistently absent. While you are working hard to make improvements in this area, more needs to be done to ensure that these pupils’ attendance improves which, in turn, will support their overall achievement in school.