Our School Ethos, Values and Aims

At Solent, we have a relentless drive for improvement, excellence and equity. We strongly believe in quality first education for all. We know that every child has unique characteristics and we shape our provision to support every child. We are incredibly proud of our teaching team, and also our learning support team, and invest enormously in high quality recruitment, retention and development of these teams.
Our aim is that all children and staff:
Learn and thrive within an environment of aspiration, equity and justice for all, through high challenge and low threat.

Our values for the whole school community:

• Responsibility
• Friendship
• Respect
• Perseverance
• Aspiration
• Teamwork

We share our trust vision of promoting high aspirations and achieving excellent outcomes for all children; our schools are inclusive and exist to serve the children who live in the locality. We believe that the school learning environment should deliver a vibrant, creative and relevant education for all pupils; fostering a love of learning is central to what we do.

The School and the Surrounding Area

Solent Infant School converted to academy status on April 1st 2017 as part of The De Curci Trust (A Multi Academy Trust). There are currently two other schools in the trust, Solent Junior School and Springfield Secondary School. The CEO for the trust is Mrs Sara Spivey who is currently the Headteacher at Springfield.

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.

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.

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, four Admin offices, Headteacher’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 learning environment. The outdoor environment is well planned and offers extensive opportunities to learn outside of the classroom.

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 quarters, some Housing Association and Local Authority housing and a very wide range of private housing. The children are happy, consistently motivated and engaged in their learning. The school consistently achieves well above national expectation.

Staffing

Currently, the staffing is a Head of School, an Executive Headteacher (who works across the two Solent Schools), eight full time and four part-time teachers. Two classes have a job share operating. There are eleven classroom assistants (LSAs) who cover early years, special needs and classroom duties. There is also an IT Network Manager (who also works across the two Solent Schools). The whole staff form a cohesive and extremely hardworking team who recognise and support each other's 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. The staff plan and work in year groups and share some central equipment such as cookers. The school is very well resourced with Windows computers in each classroom together with CD recorders, digital cameras, construction equipment and a range of other exciting resources. Each class also has its own small library and access to the main library which is staffed by volunteers. The last Ofsted Inspection was in February 2020, a copy of which can be found HERE

Parents and Community

Parents are very supportive both of the individual child and the school. Many regularly volunteer to help in the classrooms and/or library every week, and others help as the need arises or their time commitments allow.

The Friends of the Solent Schools

The Friends of the Solent Schools 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. FSS contributions include, The Adventure Playground, Lunchtime Zoning Equipment, Benches for the Playground amongst many other exciting resources.

Executive Headteacher: Mrs L Wilby