Portway Infant School
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Click the link below to read our Ofsted article in the Andover Advertiser.
Outstanding Ofsted rating awarded to Portway Infant School | Andover Advertiser
On Saturday Portway welcomed Year R families for some fun and exploring time in our wonderful woodland and grounds.
As always we start with a safety briefing, our Portway children are experts at this as our very first session in Year R is around safety and hazards. After our safety briefing families were free to explore and take part in some woodland crafts. We were able to offer Hapa Zome, clay imprinting using the natural flora that we have on site and autumn mobiles. Our children were very excited to show their parents around the forest school site enjoying den building and bug hunting together. Towards the end of the session we gave everybody an opportunity to toast crumpets or brioche rolls on the fire.
Miss Birmingham
Forest School Lead
Dear Parents,
We received the final copy yesterday and are now permitted to share with you the outcome of our long awaited two day inspection that took place on 14th & 15th May 2024. The report will be published on the Ofsted website within five working days.
The inspectors concluded that Portway Infant School is Outstanding in all areas – Quality of Education, Behaviour & Attitudes, Personal Development, Leadership and Management and Early Years, resulting in an Overall Effectiveness of Outstanding for the school.
We are delighted to have retained our ‘Outstanding’ grade and thrilled the hard work, dedication and professional standards of the Portway team, and the unwavering support and commitment from the Portway community, have been validated through an extremely rigorous process.
Over the last 10 years only 28% of previously Outstanding schools retained their Outstanding rating. Overall the number of schools with an Outstanding grade is falling as those previously exempt, as we were, are inspected for the first time in more than a decade. Current Ofsted data shows the number of Outstanding Primary schools nationally has dropped to 12% and this is expected to fall further as more exempt schools are inspected. I share this data to emphasise what an achievement it is to maintain such high standards consistently year on year and achieve a second Outstanding judgement, in every area, particularly at a time when the benchmark for ‘outstanding’ is at the highest level it has ever been. We are immensely proud of our achievement.
The final report is attached and you will see it opens with a quote from a parent. We were so pleased to see this because it reflects the much valued partnerships we have with parents.
Please take some time to read the report, it reflects our whole school community working together to give our children the education they deserve.
We are delighted with the inspection outcome, however, please be reassured we will continue looking for areas to improve - as recognised in the report, “…(Portway) are unwavering in their determination to provide the very best education to all pupils.”
May I again take this opportunity to thank you all, not just for your support with the inspection but your continued support. So proud to be Portway!
You can view our latest Ofsted report by clicking here: Ofsted Report - May 2024
On Saturday some of our year R families visited our Forest School site for some fun and woodland crafts. We were lucky with the weather as it was slightly overcast but dry.
Our morning started with a brief introduction into Forest School and a safety brief, all of our Portway children knew the rules. The first demonstration was Hapa Zome which is a Japanese ancient art form of leaf bashing. We talked a lot about knowing what we are picking and identifying leaves and flowers before we pick them. We also talked about not picking wild flowers as in some cases they are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside act. Families also had the opportunity to make spring mobiles and clay flower prints.
Our final activity was toasting brioche buns (link to Paris Olympics 2024) on the open fire. They were enjoyed by all, along with a hot chocolate!
Miss Birmingham
Forest School Lead
Today 12 Year 1 children had a fabulous walk to Charlton Lakes. We took a moment to enjoy a game of pooh sticks on the bridge before walking around to the pontoon. Using our bird identification sheets and binoculars we spotted some coots and moorhens. Whilst we were there we were lucky enough to spot two adult swans along with their 6 tiny, grey, fluffy cygnets, which made everyone smile. We stopped at the basketball court for our mindfulness activity before heading back to school.
Some of our Year 1 families joined us on Saturday to enjoy a morning of fun in our Forest School site.
We started our morning with our safety brief and a demonstration on how to make our woodland crafts. We used drills, secateurs and vegetable peelers to make an African hand drum and nails, pliers and hammers to make string nail art. Some of us even made jewellery using elder beads.
Everyone enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and some toast cooked on the fire.
Miss Birmingham
Forest School Lead
Forest School took 12 Year R children to the lakes today. We were lucky enough to have beautiful sunshine for our walk. On the way we stopped on the bridge for a quick game of pooh sticks. We had time stop on the pontoon to use our binoculars to discover what birds were living on the lake. We spotted mallard ducks, elegant swans and coots. On the way back to school we took a moment to practise our mindfulness and our breathing exercises. Everyone had a fabulous time.
On Thursday 29th February, our School Council organised a Pyjama Day, and asked for donations for their Pop Up Food Bank after carrying out some research into local charities that they wished to support. They were overwhelmed with the generous donations that were brought in!
The Year 1 councillors spent a long time organising the donations into boxes ready for delivery. This was a tricky job as they had to make sure they made the boxes roughly the same weight.
On Friday 1st March, the Year 2 councillors took all of the donations to Andover Food Bank. The volunteers were so welcoming to the School Council and gave them a tour of the Food Bank while the donations were being unloaded. We found out that the Food Bank supported over 8,000 families last year!
The warehouse is carefully organised and we had a look around. The councillors asked lots of good questions about what the Food Bank needs the most of, to help us to plan any future events.
We then found out that Portway families had donated a fantastic 196kg of food!
Thank you to everyone for donating, and watch this space for more School Council-organised events coming soon!
On Saturday we hosted a number of our Year 2 families at our Forest School site. With all the rain we have had the site is very muddy but everyone came equipped and had a great time.
Our children enjoyed showing their parents around the site and took them to their favourite activity, for some it was the very muddy digging spot! Everyone had the chance to take part in string art using hammers, nails and wool. They were also able to make Easter patterns on wooden cookies cut in the shape of eggs. The children drilled holes in to the cookies so that they could thread raffia through the hole to make a hanging decoration.
Finally everyone came together to whittle a toasting stick for toast and jam or a hot cross bun. They were enjoyed with a cup of warming hot chocolate.
Miss Birmingham
Forest School Leader
Please click the link below to go to our New Entrants 2024 page and book your place at one of our open days.