Hoyle Nursery School

Age group 3–5 Inspection date(s) 17–18 January 2012 Inspection number 377217 Unique Reference Number 105283 Local authority Bury Inspection number 377217 Inspection dates 17–18 January 2012 Lead inspector Tim Vaughan HMI

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. The registered childcare provision, managed by the governing body, was inspected under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006.

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Type of school Nursery School category Maintained Age range of pupils 3–5 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 103 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Trevor Holt Headteacher VA Kay Date of previous school inspection 25 March 2009 School address Chesham Fold Road Bury BL9 6HR Telephone number 0161 7616822 Fax number 0161 7635427 Email address Hoyle@bury.gov.uk

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Registered childcare provision EY281714 Number of children on roll in the registered childcare provision Date of last inspection of registered childcare provision March 2009 You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child's school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when.

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You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children's services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. The inspector observed six sessions led by three teachers and 12 early years practitioners. Meetings were held with parents and carers, members of the governing body and staff. The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including the school improvement plan, the safeguarding policy and policies about the childcare provision. The inspector analysed 52 questionnaires from parents and carers and others completed by staff.

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Information about the school

Hoyle Nursery School is an average-sized nursery school and operates as a fully integrated provision. It is the only maintained nursery school in Bury. It has been on the same site since 1975, as Hoyle Nursery School, as an Early Excellence Centre, as part of the Neighbourhood Nursery Initiative and was designated as a phase one children’s centre in 2006. The children’s centre was inspected separately in 2011 and in 2012.

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Information about the school

Most children are of White British heritage. A small number are from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds. A small minority of children speak English as an additional language. The number of disabled children and those with special educational needs is above average. The number of children known to be eligible for free school meals is above average. The school has achieved the Basic Skills award, the Golden Apple award and the Leading Parent Partnership award.

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Information about the school

There is on-site childcare managed by the governing body and children from birth to age four years use this provision throughout the year. This was inspected as part of this inspection, as was the resourced provision of five places for children with special educational needs. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Key Findings

 ‘Staff are very supportive - they are flexible towards individual children’s needs’. This comment expressed by a parent and echoed by many others, helps to explain why Hoyle Nursery School is a good nursery school. Children from birth are given very effective, individualised support by skilled teachers and early- years practitioners who have a good knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Key Findings

 This is a school where learning through talk and play is highly valued. All children, including babies, are spoken to with warmth and sensitivity. For those children for whom communication is difficult, alternative strategies such as signing and pictures are used very effectively. The overall quality of learning and teaching is good. As a result, all children including those with special educational needs and those with disabilities, make good progress from their starting points and achieve well.

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Key Findings

 Children’s early mark-making is valued through a range of opportunities across the nursery and children attain well in writing. However, role play is currently under used as a meaningful context to encourage children’s writing. This means that attainment in writing can be raised further.

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Key Findings

 Children behave well and show growing confidence to explore and investigate. Through regular monitoring of children’s emotional well-being, support for children from age two years is carefully prioritised.

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Key Findings

 The quality of the Early Years Foundation Stage delivered in the registered childcare provision on site is good. The provision is well-led and staff are a fully integrated part of the nursery school. The provision meets all statutory requirements. Practice is strongest in the quality of care, the very effective adult-child interactions, good opportunities for meaningful play indoors and outdoors and the attention given to building children’s confidence and well- being.  The headteacher and senior staff know the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Self-evaluation is thorough and accurate, and improvement planning is clearly focussed. School leaders recognise that the next challenge is to raise all children’s attainment further by increasing the proportion of outstanding teaching and learning across the school. The governing body supports school leaders well.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

■ Raise children's attainment further by:  increasing the proportion of outstanding teaching and learning across the school  increasing the use of role play in promoting meaningful opportunities for writing and mark-making

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Achievement of children

Almost all children enter the school with skills and knowledge that are well below those typical for three year olds. They make good progress across each of the areas of learning. This represents good achievement considering their starting points. Furthermore, the gaps between groups, for example between children speaking English as an additional language and others, are closing. This is because staff successfully engage children in play and conversation and use appropriate questioning to encourage children’s thinking.

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Achievement of children

During the inspection, children were observed making rapid progress in improving their skills and knowledge across the areas of learning. For example, key workers used their knowledge of individual children’s strengths to make very effective use of outdoor play and extensive opportunities for talk, stories, rhymes and the sounds that letters make. Parents and carers recognise the impact that the school is having, for example, saying, ‘I am really pleased with my child’s progress’. Parents and carers also identified that children make the most progress if they previously attended the on-site under-threes provision. School data shows that these children make rapid progress from their starting points. This is because the quality of that provision is good and attainment and progress are carefully tracked across the school.

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Achievement of children

The school provides five resourced places for children with communication difficulties. Achievement by these children who left the school in 2011 is good and the progress made by children currently at the school is also good. Other children with special educational needs and those with disabilities are making good progress. This is because of the highly effective, individualised interventions by their allocated key workers, well supported by clear planning and advice from the special educational needs coordinator.

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Quality of teaching

Teaching is mainly good and some is outstanding. The responses from parents and carers to the inspection questionnaire reflect this. A minority of examples of satisfactory teaching were observed during the inspection. Where teaching was better, teachers and early years’ practitioners demonstrated a good understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage. They made very effective use of resources to encourage children’s active participation. For example, in a dance activity the children were introduced to a pair of dancing shoes and to some engaging music to inspire them to move. The early years practitioner led the dancing with confidence and enthusiasm. Good use was made of assessment and effective questioning to encourage children’s thinking. This was enhanced by close teamwork between staff. Children knew how well they were doing because of the verbal recognition from adults. In the minority of instances where teaching was satisfactory, staff talked too

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Quality of teaching

much or activities were insufficiently matched to children’s needs and interests. However, relationships between adults and children were supportive and responsive at all times.

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Quality of teaching

The teaching of communication, language and literacy is enhanced by the school’s strong emphasis on talking with and listening to children. Stories, sharing books with adults indoors and outdoors and discussions about specific authors are used very effectively. The marks that children make are valued in activities involving keeping a written tally and through making marks on large sheets of paper covering tables or extending across the floor. Adults routinely demonstrate being a writer to children during group times. However, role play is not sufficiently used by staff to engage children in meaningful opportunities to play at being a writer. The teaching of letters and sounds is through stories, rhymes, songs and through days of the week and children’s names. For example, a teacher used a musical instrument at group time to encourage children to listen carefully and follow instructions to clap. At other times,

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Quality of teaching

staff were observed correctly enunciating to children the sounds that individual letters make and using a range of contexts to make this meaningful.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers and early years’ practitioners carefully assess children’s learning through observations of their play and through sharing information with parents and carers. These assessments are very effectively used to inform planning for children’s next steps in each area of learning. School leaders track children’s attainment and progress from age two years old. This information informs improvements to learning and teaching and shapes school development priorities. School leaders are not complacent and are further developing their tracking systems across all areas of learning.

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Behaviour and safety of children

The school has a well-developed key worker system. This means that children have an identifiable adult with whom to build a close relationship from the moment that they start. Parents and carers know who to approach with any questions or concerns and expressed understanding and confidence in the school’s approach. Key workers carefully monitor and support children’s individual needs on a daily basis. As a result, children show good levels of emotional well-being and when facing difficulty they know who to turn to. For example, one child during the inspection was upset due to changing home circumstances. The key worker recognised this and was able to offer regular reassurance and encouragement and affirm that it was okay to be upset.

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Behaviour and safety of children

Through careful attention to daily routines, room organisation, room access and the outdoor area, the school is a safe environment. Children are encouraged to take appropriate risks, for example, through climbing up and along climbing boxes outdoors. There are no recorded instances of bullying and parents and carers express confidence in the school’s systems for dealing with any issues that might arise. Children behave well in and around the school, and parents, carers and staff say that children behave well. Children refer to adults at appropriate times to help them with conflict or difficulty.

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Behaviour and safety of children

Children show good levels of engagement in activities which allows nursery sessions to flow smoothly. At times, some group activities unnecessarily interrupt opportunities for children to show deep levels of involvement in their learning. School leaders are aware of this and are continuing to refine the daily routine. Children show positive attitudes towards each other and towards staff and found it very interesting to have an inspector as a visitor, wanting to know what he was doing, why he was there and what he was writing about on his clipboard.

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Behaviour and safety of children

While attendance is not compulsory, the school promotes prompt and regular attendance as an important preparation for primary school. Therefore, absences or regular lateness are carefully followed up with parents and carers. The school routinely celebrates differences between individuals and consequently all children are very accepting of diversity. For example, children with communication difficulties are fully included by staff and children in all activities.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher leads with clear vision and a firm commitment to improving the life chances of local children and families. She is focussed upon developing a school where children feel good about themselves and make as much progress in their learning as possible.

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Leadership and management

Over several years, the school has grown to provide on-site childcare and broaden it’s work into a phase-one children’s centre as well as to appoint new school staff. Throughout this period of significant change, the headteacher has built strong teamwork and a renewed, shared sense of purpose among school staff and governors. Through carefully focussed improvement planning and rigorous performance management she has led continuous improvements to learning and teaching. Good support is given to the headteacher by the governing body. It holds the school to account very effectively, helped by clear briefings from school leaders, including on attainment and progress.

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Leadership and management

Equality and diversity are strongly promoted, and children with special educational needs and those with disabilities are supported particularly well. A range of festivals is celebrated throughout the year and print in community languages, bilingual books and imagery reflecting a range of culture, ages, ethnicity and gender are displayed which helps to promote the school environment as welcoming and inclusive. Children show a good understanding of right and wrong and mix well with one another, showing respect for individual differences. Consequently, children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good.

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Leadership and management

Safeguarding is a high priority and all necessary systems are in place to safeguard children’s well-being throughout the school. All children are treated as individuals and the school works in close partnership with other agencies to promote the welfare and safety of all children, especially those who may be vulnerable.

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Leadership and management

Leaders have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and priorities. Self- evaluation is clear and accurate and informs staff’s professional development. As a result, all staff have a deep knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The learning environment is stimulating and well organised. The school curriculum is good with a strong emphasis upon learning through talking and doing, through stories, letter sounds and rhymes and being active, confident and musical. The school’s engagement with parents and carers is very effective because of the close sharing of children’s learning and progress by key workers. Consequently, there is ongoing improvement in the quality of learning and teaching and children grow in confidence during their time at the school and achieve well.

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Leadership and management

Given the school’s rigorous self-evaluation and track record of improvement, along with the other strengths, as outlined, the capacity to improve further is good.

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childcare provision

The governing body manages provision on the school site for children under the age of three years and for children aged three to four years at the end of the school day. The provision complies with the requirements of registration and the overall effectiveness is good. The strengths in provision are the good quality of care, very effective adult-child interactions, good opportunities for meaningful play indoors and outdoors and the attention given to building children’s confidence and well-being.

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childcare provision

Songs, rhymes, stories and dancing are a key part of the curriculum provided for children, and the learning environment is well-planned and appropriate to children’s needs. Resources are of a high quality, for example, babies are able to play with baskets of natural objects to excite and intrigue them. Talking is a consistently strong aspect of the provision with all staff regularly talking with children in appropriate ways, including babies and toddlers. As a result, children who attend the provision make good progress and have a head start upon others when they move into the room for three to four year olds in the school.

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childcare provision

The provision is a fully integrated part of the nursery school. All staff are qualified at level 3 and are a part of the school team, involved in all school training and development. Consequently, staff have a good knowledge of the learning and development and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The provision is strongly led. Leaders have a good understanding of the specific care of babies including how to keep sleeping children safe, good practice in feeding and the strengths and areas for improvement across the provision. Furthermore, leaders are not complacent. They are actively seeking ways to extend staff expertise further about children under the age of three years.

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childcare provision

These are the grades for the Early Years Foundation Stage of the registered childcare provision, inspected under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006

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childcare provision

Overall effectiveness of the Early Years Foundation Stage Taking into account: Outcomes for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage The quality of provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage The effectiveness of leadership and management of the Early Years Foundation Stage for the registered provision

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding These features are highly effective. An outstanding school provides exceptionally well for all its children's needs. Grade 2 Good These are very positive features of a school. A school that is good is serving its children well. Grade 3 Satisfactory These features are of reasonable quality. A satisfactory school is providing adequately for its children. Grade 4 Inadequate These features are not of an acceptable standard. An inadequate school needs to make significant improvement in order to meet the needs of its children. Ofsted inspectors will make further visits until it improves.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Nursery schools 46 46 8 0 Primary schools 8 47 40 5 Secondary schools 14 38 40 8 Special schools 28 48 20 4 Pupil referral units 15 50 29 5 All schools 11 46 38 6

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

New school inspection arrangements have been introduced from 1 January 2012. This means that inspectors make judgements that were not made previously.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

The data in the table above are for the period 1 September 2010 to 31 August 2011 and represent judgements that were made under the school inspection arrangements that were introduced on 1 September 2009. These data are consistent with the latest published official statistics about maintained school inspection outcomes (see www.ofsted.gov.uk ).

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

The sample of schools inspected during 2010/11 was not representative of all schools nationally, as weaker schools are inspected more frequently than good or outstanding schools.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Primary schools include primary academy converters. Secondary schools include secondary academy converters, sponsor-led academies and city technology colleges. Special schools include special academy converters and non-maintained special schools.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Achievement: the progress and success of a pupil in their learning and development taking account of their attainment.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attainment: the standard of the child's work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attendance the regular attendance of children at school and in lessons, taking into account the school's efforts to encourage good attendance.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Behaviour how well children behave in lessons, with emphasis on their attitude to learning. Children's punctuality to lessons and their conduct around the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Capacity to improve: the proven ability of the school to continue improving based on its self-evaluation and what the school has accomplished so far and on the quality of its systems to maintain improvement.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Leadership and management: the contribution of all the staff with responsibilities, not just the governors and headteacher, to identifying priorities, directing and motivating staff and running the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Learning: how well children acquire knowledge, develop their understanding, learn and practise skills and are developing their competence as learners.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Overall effectiveness: inspectors form a judgement on a school's overall effectiveness based on the findings from their inspection of the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Progress: the rate at which children are learning in lessons and over longer periods of time. It is often measured by comparing the children's attainment at the end of a key stage with their attainment when they started.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Safety how safe children are in school, including in lessons; and their understanding of risks. Children's freedom from bullying and harassment. How well the school promotes safety, for example e-learning.

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to share with their children. It describes Ofsted's main

findings from the inspection of their school.

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Inspection of Hoyle Nursery School, Bury, BL9 6HR

 Thank you for being so kind to me when I came to watch you playing in the nursery. I watched choosing time, group time, lunchtime, snack time and playing outdoors. You were very brave when you asked me who I was when I visited your nursery. You told me about the nursery and what you like to do. You showed me that Hoyle is a good nursery school.

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Inspection of Hoyle Nursery School, Bury, BL9 6HR

I was very interested to see all the different places where you can play in the nursery. Most of all I liked the computer area, the book area and your super outdoor area. I also visited the baby room and nursery 2 and I liked the dancing that I saw children doing and the good way that teachers look after the babies. You told me that you like going to nursery and are very safe when you are there. Your parents and carers also told me that they are very happy with the nursery and that you have good teachers.

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Inspection of Hoyle Nursery School, Bury, BL9 6HR

I really liked your learning journeys. These show the exciting activities that you do every week. I am glad that you share these with your families. I was very pleased to hear how you are learning new rhymes, stories, letters and sounds. To help your school to be even better, I have asked your teachers to find ways to help you learn even more during your special time at Hoyle and to help you to write about interesting things when playing in the home area.

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Inspection of Hoyle Nursery School, Bury, BL9 6HR

Your families must be very proud of what you are learning at school. Well done.

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Inspection of Hoyle Nursery School, Bury, BL9 6HR

Tim Vaughan Her Majesty's Inspector procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted's website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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