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The School and the Surrounding Area.

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Solent Infant School is sited on the southern slopes of Portsdown Hill, to the North of the City of Portsmouth, in the Drayton and Farlington Ward. (How to Find Us)

It is a purpose built three form entry Infant School, in an exciting, but highly practical building which opened in October 1994 and won the best new building in Portsmouth award in 1995.  The site is self-contained with open parkland to the north and private residential property surrounding it.
Click here for catchment map.

The school consists of three units of three classrooms each having access to a south facing decking area.  The classrooms lead off from a wide corridor which has separate toilet facilities for each year group, small shared areas and playground access.  A large hall, music room, computer suite, conference room, staffroom, medical room, two Admin offices, Head teacher’s office and the usual caretaking/boiler rooms and a kitchen servery complete the facilities.

The building is bright and airy and provides a very pleasant working environment.  There is an adventure playground with seating and planting areas around the playground.  The pond was refurbished in January 2009.

Although the main entrance and children’s tunnel entry have flights of steps there is wheelchair and pushchair access at the top of the drive and from Evelegh Road via a ramp to the office main entrance.

The school serves a very mixed catchment area including Tri-service officer’s quarters, some Housing Association and Local Authority housing and a very wide range of private housing.  The children are happy, well behaved and well motivated and achieve high standards compared to national statistics.

Staffing

Currently, the staffing is Headteacher, eight full time and six part-time teachers.  Two classes have job shares operating.  There are eleven classroom assistants (LSA’s) who cover early years, special needs, information and communication technology (ICT) and classroom duties.  There is also an ICT Technical Manager.  There are at present five other LSA’s supporting children with specific needs.  The whole staff form a cohesive and extremely hardworking team who recognise and support each others unique input for the good of the children and the school as a whole.

Organisation

There are three mixed ability classes in each of the age groups – Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.  Class sizes are limited to 30.  The staff plan and work in year groups and share some central equipment such as televisions and cookers.  The school is very well resourced with PC computers and laptops in each classroom together with CD recorders, digital cameras, construction equipment etc.  Each class also has its own small library and access to the main library which is staffed by parent volunteers.  The last Ofsted Inspection was in November 2010, a copy of which can be found on our information page

The Curriculum

The school provides a broad, balanced curriculum which encompasses the core and foundation subjects of the Foundation Stage and Key Stage I.  Some of the work is topic or module based according to the school’s Key Stage Plans which followed throughout the school.  Teachers use common formats to plan work collaboratively.  The School Improvement and Development Plans identify areas for development which become the focus for Curriculum Meetings, In-service Training Days and External Training.

Parents and Community

Parents are very supportive both of the individual child and the school.  There are many parents who work voluntarily in classes and the library every week many who help as the need arises or their time commitments allow

The Friends of Solent Infant School is very active and supports the school in a wide variety of ways including fund raising, holding events for the children and in partnership with the staff, holding a sports/fun day each year.  In the past few years they have bought Reception role play furniture, library books, interactive whiteboards and projectors, adventure play equipment, helped towards the cost of the pond refurbishment and also paid towards the cost of authors and other visitors.

Many of the staff live locally and know the area well; they form a hard working and mutually supportive team without hierarchical divisions.

The School Governors, are enthusiastic local residents, with many interests in school, they are supportive in all ways.  The Governors wish to encourage the development of the school and its personnel at all levels.

The School is very involved with the Community Improvement Partnership (CIP) which seeks to build/sponsor the various opportunities available for families, children and other residents in the area.

The Parents and Community together (PACT) group, concentrates on improving the school grounds and encouraging their use for other sectors such as playgroups and youth groups.  (Beavers etc)

Session Times