Butler's Hill Infant and Nursery School is a GOOD school - OFSTED March 2023.

It provides high quality education and pastoral support for children aged 3 - 7 years on a modern, well equiped site with well maintained, up to date facilities.

Our new 78 place Nursery serves up to 39 children, aged 3 -4 years, each morning and afternoon. The children have the opportunity to take part in a wide range of learning activities, inside and outdoors, planned in accordance with the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.

Children join the new F2 Unit in the September after their fourth birthday. In school they experience a topic based curriculum, which ensures coverage of all areas of learning, whilst providing opportunities to; develop speaking and listening, English, Maths and ICT skills and to give children the chance to learn outside the classroom as often as possible.

On completion of Year 2 most children transfer to Broomhill Junior School. We have close links with Broomhill and are on the same campus.

Mrs Hallam

Head Teacher

We recently had a visit from DoodleBug company who worked with both children and staff on Growth Mindset. The children had art lessons and were taught strategies on dealing with challenges in life. This is a passion of ours here at Butlers. We believe strongly on teaching our children it is not.... 'we can't do it, it's we can't do it YET!!'

Here is Ian's testamonial after his visit.......

Dear Mrs Hallam,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for booking my workshop sessions this week, I witnessed and observed several impressive attributes and elements during my time at your school.

Having worked at over four hundred and thirty different schools nationwide, this allows me to provide feedback with regards to how pupils work in my sessions compared to other schools at which I have delivered the workshops.

With this being the case, I thought you may find the following feedback, informative and insightful.

The resilience levels in all six of the classrooms that I worked in this week at your school were excellent, nobody gave up, there was very few tears and even when there were, those children bounced back well and I heard hardly any fixed terminology from your pupils.

These observations highlight and reflect that the resilience building strategies and methods which you are implementing at your school are certainly paying large dividends.

Besides being impressed with the resilience of your pupils, the fact that I was impressed in each of your respective classrooms, indicates that the excellent strategies and methods which you are using, are consistent and effective as this was a continual narrative over both days.

The completed pictures that your pupils produced were impressive, in all six of the classrooms, there were examples of work that I would usually associate with children older than their actual ages so that highlights how well they worked with me with regards to effort and their excellent attitudes to learning.

The vocabularies and word knowledge of your pupils were of a good standard, which is not always the case at every school I visit and especially since the last lockdowns which have had an impact on both vocabularies and noise levels at many schools I have worked at recently.

However, that is certainly not the case with regards to the noise levels in your classrooms, the noise levels in your Year 1 classrooms were generally very good and much better than average but when I worked in your Year 2 classrooms, I was so impressed with those learning environments.

It is no exaggeration to say that I could ‘hear a pin drop’ for virtually all those sessions, classes who work with me at the end of the day draw a shorter straw as they are tiring anyway by then which can understandably affect focus levels and be detrimental to the noise levels.

However, not only were those sessions at the end of the day but also in warm and humid conditions due to the recent heatwave, so for your Year 2 pupils to keep the noise levels down as impressively as they did, was outstanding to be fair.

I was not just impressed with regards to how your pupils worked with me but also by their conduct both in and out of their respective classrooms.

Many of them thanked me for teaching them, they were always very respectful to me and judging by how many of them were constantly smiling, I genuinely believe that you have both a warm and stimulating environment which is ideal for children to learn and thrive in.

I was impressed by the manners and behaviour of your pupils, and I found both of those elements to be always exemplary during the entire time I spent at your school.

I do not believe that pupils can work as well with me as they did this week without having excellent adult role models.

Every adult I encountered at your school impressed me with their enthusiasm and they were all keen to participate, I can assure you that this is not always the case at every school I visit.

At some schools I come across adults who are simply going through the motions, do not exude positive body language or have no interest in participating in the sessions themselves.

This was certainly not the case at your school, your staff were keen to discuss the pictures that their pupils had produced and hear my feedback both during and after the sessions.

All the positive elements of this letter are as a direct result of not only your teaching strategies and methods but also because of your excellent staff members.

I genuinely believe that without the combination of those two elements that pupils can not impress me as much as your pupils have done during my visit, so your staff deserve great credit for not only how well your pupils worked with me but the excellent and impressive way in which they conduct themselves both in and out of their respective classrooms.

All six of your classes have several different and impressive elements and attributes, but an extremely impressive narrative also came to my attention.

There is a natural progression as I worked my way through your classes and that is not always the case at every school which I visit.

To elaborate on that statement further, at some schools for example their Year 2 pupils impress me more than their Year 4 pupils, it could be for resilience reasons or vocabularies or relating to the completed picture quality.

However, that is not the case at your school in my humble opinion, every class is much better than average for their respective age group and for a wide range of attributes and elements but as the pupils move up through your school their progress continues on an upward curve.

I appreciate that may seem like I am stating the obvious, but I can assure you that at some schools I see a regression rather than a progression as I work with the older children.

From my perspective, that emphasizes that your methods, strategies, and teaching staff are continually and consistently building on the already impressive attributes that your pupils possess as they go from their respective year group to the next one and as they move through your school.

Having witnessed that natural progression, seen firsthand the impressive attributes that your pupils possess and noticed how enthusiastic and dedicated your staff are and not only the class teachers but your support staff as well, I believe that your pupils are benefitting immensely.

In my humble opinion, your school is a fantastic learning environment, and you are giving your pupils excellent foundations on which to build in preparation for their Key Stage Two education.

On the welcome page on your website, you mention that “your staff work hard to provide a secure and happy atmosphere in which children can grow and learn.”

Based on my observations this week, that is certainly the case at your school as it was visibly obvious that your pupils enjoy being at your school, I lost count of how many smiling faces I encountered.

With regards to the grow and learn aspect of that sentence, the natural progression I mentioned above is a great reflection of that as well.

From the moment I entered your school until the moment I left the car park on both days, I was made to feel very welcome, not just by your pupils and teaching staff but even by your excellent admin team and I have nothing but positive things to say about your pupils, staff, and school in general.

Keep up the fantastic work and thank you again for booking my services, it was a genuine pleasure and privilege to visit you and work with everyone and that relates to both pupils and staff.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Brealey