Bedworth Heath Nursery School

Age group 3–4 Inspection dates 30–31 January 2012 Inspection number 381080 Bedworth Heath Nursery School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 125486 Local authority Warwickshire Inspection number 381080 Inspection dates 30–31 January 2012 Lead inspector Mike Thompson

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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 3–4 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 78 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Denise Flowers Headteacher Amanda King Date of previous school inspection 5 June 2009 School address Glebe Avenue Bedworth CV12 0DP Telephone number 024 76364188 Fax number 024 76364188 Email address admin1002@we-learn.com

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Registered childcare provision EY330743 Number of children on roll in the registered childcare provision Date of last inspection of registered childcare provision 5 June 2009 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. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not

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exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk 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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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days’ notice. The inspector sampled teaching and learning during seven sessions, including focused teaching within ‘family time’. These sessions were taken by the nursery team, which comprised the class teacher (assistant headteacher), and seven members of the support staff (early years educators and teaching assistants). During the childcare element of the inspection, the inspector visited the Nurture Nursery and observed a ‘lunch club session’. The inspector looked at a sample of the children’s records of achievement (learning journeys) and spoke to children about their work. He held meetings with the headteacher, senior leaders, and members of the governing body. The inspector took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection, observed the school’s work, and looked at documents including the school’s improvement planning and data showing the progress made by children. His

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Introduction

scrutiny of safeguarding procedures included a detailed evaluation of children’s behaviour. The inspector analysed questionnaires returned by 25 parents and carers and 18 members of staff, and held informal discussions with parents and carers.

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Information about the school

This is an average-sized nursery. It provides 80 part-time places for children aged from three to four. The children are admitted in two intakes, in September and January, and attend the nursery for either three or five terms depending on their point of admission. The school offers on-site ‘wrap-around’ childcare, managed by the governing body, from 8am to 5.30 pm for 50 weeks per year. This incorporates its Nurture Nursery for two year-olds.

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Information about the school

All children are from the local area, which is predominantly White British, with a very small percentage of families from minority ethnic groups. About a quarter of the children have special educational needs. This proportion is above average. A small number of children have physical disabilities. Funding from the local authority’s '2HELP' project provides Nurture Nursery places for 14 children.

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Information about the school

The school is beginning to develop a national profile. As a leading member of the Warwickshire Consortium of Nursery Schools, it has recently become one of 16 designated Early Years Teaching Centres selected by the Department for Education. The nursery has Healthy School status.

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Information about the school

There is a children’s centre on site, which is also managed by the governing body. This was inspected in January 2011. 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

 This nursery provides an outstanding quality of education. Children achieve exceptionally well as they benefit greatly from a wide range of extremely well planned learning experiences, both indoors and out. The activities provided capture children’s imaginations and hold their attention for lengthy periods.  Teaching is outstanding. Its impact on children’s attitudes and behaviour is excellent. Adults expertly guide children through new learning with clear explanations and carefully focused questioning. A key factor in the outstanding progress made by children is the large amount of individual attention each child receives. This is because of the excellent ratio of adults to children.  The direction provided by the headteacher is exceptional. Highly skilled senior leaders and an astute governing body provide effective support.  Procedures for ensuring the safety and well-being of children are rigorous.

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Key findings

Children have an excellent understanding of how to keep themselves safe.  Children are warmly welcomed and equally valued. Their individual needs are well known. Highly effective support for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is helping close the gap between their attainment and that of their classmates.  The impact of the curriculum on children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding. Children show great excitement and fascination in their discoveries about the world around them, such as their hunts for mini- beasts in the ‘forest’ area.  Parents and carers greatly value the school and the very strong contribution it makes to the life of the local community. While the school provides parents and carers with a wide range of useful information to help them support their children’s learning, it has identified that it has to do more to develop parents’

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Key findings

skills and their confidence as partners in their children’s education.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Extend and develop existing programmes to involve parents and carers in their children’s education by: 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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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 ensuring that they gain a greater insight into the learning that can be achieved through practical activities  involving them as partners in their children’s record of learning.

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Achievement of pupils

Each year, on entry to the nursery, only a very small minority of children are attaining at the expected levels for three year-olds. In most cases, attainment is, at best, below expectations and in many instances, significantly below. In order to help tackle this situation, local authority funding is now being used to provide places for the most needy two year-olds in the school’s Nurture Nursery as part of the ‘2HELP’ project.

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Achievement of pupils

Inspection evidence shows that parents are fully justified in their unanimously positive views about the progress made by their children. Tasks are well pitched, and the interaction of adults is varied according to need, so that activities provide achievable challenges for all. The result is rapid progress by almost all children and significant improvements in attainment. For example, 94% of the five-term children who started nursery in January 2010 were working at the nationally expected level by the time they left at the end of the summer term in 2011. The three-term children, who started nursery in September 2010, made equally rapid progress, but because of the shorter period of time in school, only 35% attained the nationally expected level by the time they left. Taken as a whole, the attainment of children at the end of each school year is broadly in line with national expectations.

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Achievement of pupils

Disabled children and those with special educational needs make exceptional progress because their learning needs are clearly identified and expertly met. These children are precisely targeted in order to develop skills in different areas of learning. For example, a group of five children worked with two adults in developing their fine motor skills through a modelling activity. Because of the excellent ratio of adults to children, there was great enthusiasm for learning as children successfully copied ways of making different shapes. Similarly effective support is provided on an individual basis for the very small number of children with who speak English as an additional language. Very close monitoring is helping to ensure that any gaps between the levels of attainment of different groups of children are closing rapidly.

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Achievement of pupils

All adults are clear that the key to accelerating progress in communication, language and literacy is the development of oracy. This is critically important, since many children have poor diction on entry to the school. The modelling of good speech is invariably an integral part of all interactions between adults and children. For example, the ‘snack bar’, which is highly effective in promoting healthy eating, provides excellent opportunities for children to develop speaking and listening skills while enjoying their snacks. During these sessions, adult dialogue with children helps broaden their knowledge and understanding of the world as children are expertly 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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Achievement of pupils

guided in talking about the choices they have made or the characteristics of different types of fruit. Early reading skills are carefully developed through clear teaching of phonics (the sounds made by letters) and regular reading activities in which adults share books with children and talk to them about the stories. In these sessions, children develop secure early reading skills, for instance by using picture cues to predict what is likely to happen next in a story. Children demonstrate their emerging knowledge of letters well by identifying these in the text.

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Quality of teaching

Parents and carers are unanimous in judging that their children are well taught. Comments such as ‘absolutely brilliant’ and ‘no complaints whatsoever’ typify the extremely positive views expressed during discussions with them. These views are fully justified. All of the staff teaching team have high expectations of what children ought to achieve. These expectations are underpinned by a secure understanding of the ways in which very young children learn. The staff teaching team is highly skilled in developing children’s confidence as learners and in enabling children to become independent in making sensible choices and organising their own methods of working. For example, children in the outdoor area, and particularly the boys, were highly motivated by an activity in which they were challenged to throw bean bags into containers. One of the staff team ensured that the children made good use of the opportunities to develop skills in counting and recording. Therefore one of the

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Quality of teaching

children was given the task of supervising the activity and making a tally of the number of successful throws. The child not only did this well but also provided a great deal of support and encouragement to those who took part.

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Quality of teaching

As a result of the rigorous monitoring of children’s learning, the planned curriculum is regularly fine-tuned in order to ensure that the levels of challenge increase as children’s skills improve. Focused teaching during ‘free-flow’ activities and in small groups during ‘family time’ is highly effective in transmitting knowledge and guiding children in developing their skills. Planning is meticulous and all adults work extremely well as a team. The impact of teaching on all aspects of children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding. It results in children using a high degree of imagination and creativity as they investigate. A focus on Chinese New Year provided many exciting opportunities across all areas of learning and contributed strongly to children’s understanding of the world around them. Children greatly enjoyed challenging experiences such as Chinese calligraphy and

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Quality of teaching

making colourful and detailed models of dragons from recycled materials.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Children respond exceptionally well to the high quality of care provided for them, and make excellent progress in developing their personal and social skills. They say that they enjoy being at school, and clearly demonstrate that they understand the need to move around the classroom safely. Children have, for their age, an excellent understanding of safe practices and use tools carefully, for instance when digging or cutting. Children’s behaviour is invariably exemplary. They work and play together 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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Behaviour and safety of pupils

amicably, and show great respect for all adults and for one another. There is a clear moral code within the school. Teachers’ expectations that behaviour will be at least good are implicit, and children rarely need reminding about what is expected of them. Children carefully obey rules, such as not using the large outdoor apparatus when cones are placed next to it. Records show that there have been no instances of bullying and no exclusions from school. Parents’ and carers’ appreciation of the school is evident in the regular attendance and excellent levels of punctuality of the children.

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Leadership and management

Standards are rising. This is because the headteacher has transformed the school within the three years since her appointment. Staff and the governing body share her ambitious vision and high expectations. The school’s excellent capacity for further improvement is evident in the impact of previous initiatives on provision and children’s achievement. The outstanding system for tracking children’s progress, devised by the headteacher, has been the key to many of the other improvements made because the impact of initiatives to improve children’s achievement can be accurately measured. The system helps ensure that there are equal opportunities for every child. For example, the progress of all groups is monitored extremely carefully to ensure that boys, girls, children at an early stage of learning English, those who are disabled or have special educational needs and those whose circumstances may make them vulnerable, all achieve equally well. This is because clear targets are now

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Leadership and management

set for each of these groups and progress in achieving them is objectively evaluated. The tracking system also ensures that the balance of elements within the planned curriculum are closely monitored and adjusted as required so that children’s needs are fully met. As a result, the school provides a wide range of exciting opportunities that have an excellent impact on promoting children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Leadership and management

There is regular, high quality moderation of the assessments of children’s achievements, both internally and through regular dialogue with other nursery settings. Records of children’s achievements, in their ‘learning journeys’, are carefully recorded. While these booklets provide excellent information for parents and carers about children’s achievements in school, the parents and carers do not use them to help inform the school about learning that occurs at home. The school has identified the need to build on the excellent progress already made in developing its partnership with parents and carers by helping them to gain a greater insight into the learning that can stem from many day-to-day activities at home.

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Leadership and management

The governing body is well organised and is highly effective in holding the school to account for its actions and in helping drive further improvements. Procedures for ensuring the safeguarding of pupils are robust.

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childcare provision

 The conditions placed on the school through its childcare registration are that it should have on roll no more than 70 children under eight years of age, and that there should be no children under the age of two. The maximum number allowed per day is 16.  Provision in the Nurture Nursery closely mirrors that of the adjacent nursery. It ensures that children receive outstanding quality care and valuable early educational experiences. There are excellent ratios of adults to children and the staff members are very skilled in their interactions, therefore the children benefit greatly from regular, high quality individual attention. For example, the children were engrossed in their role-play in the ‘Nurture Café’. Adults helped add extra realism and enjoyment to the experience through their interactions with the children as children practised ‘writing’ when taking the food orders and scanned items at the till.

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childcare provision

 Childcare registration requirements are fully met. The premises are clean, welcoming and well equipped. Procedures for ensuring the safety and welfare of the children are rigorous. For instance, the outdoor learning area is thoroughly checked before children use it. The adults are vigilant and quick to respond whenever children need help.  Strong emphasis is placed on good standards of hygiene, for example at mealtimes. These are enjoyable experiences for the children, as they sit together, closely supervised by adults, and quietly and sensibly eat their packed lunches.  Relationships with parents and carers are strong. Attractive displays of children’s learning experiences and good quality information for parents and carers welcome visitors as they approach the premises.  Provision is extremely well led and managed. All adults know clearly what their roles are and the staff work as a close-knit team.

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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 pupils’ needs. Grade 2 Good These are very positive features of a school. A school that is good is serving its pupils well. Grade 3 Satisfactory These features are of reasonable quality. A satisfactory school is providing adequately for its pupils. 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 pupils. 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. 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 ). 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. 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 pupils’ work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attendance the regular attendance of pupils 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 pupils behave in lessons, with emphasis on their attitude to learning. Pupils’ 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 pupils 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 pupils are learning in lessons and over longer periods of time. It is often measured by comparing the pupils’ 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 pupils are in school, including in lessons; and their understanding of risks. Pupils’ freedom from bullying and harassment. How well the school promotes safety, for example e-learning.

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

main findings from the inspection of their school.

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

Inspection of Bedworth Heath Nursery School , Bedworth CV12 0DP

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

Thank you for making me so welcome when I visited your school. I spoke to a lot of your parents and carers. They told me that you go to a really excellent nursery, and I agree.

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

 I loved seeing you so happy and being so kind and helpful to each other. You really enjoy learning, and you find out a lot from all of the wonderful things that there are for you to explore. I especially liked watching some of you investigating in your forest area. I am sure that this is a very exciting place to be.  You behave really well. All of the adults at your school take excellent care of you and make sure that you are always safe. You told me that you feel safe. You keep yourselves safe by being sensible while you are playing.  Your headteacher and all of the adults who work in you school are doing an excellent job and help make your school such a friendly place to be. They want it to be even better. This will be difficult, because it is excellent already. I think that the best thing to do next is for the school to work even more closely with the adults who look after you at home to help you learn faster.

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

I am sure that you will carry on enjoying your school and learning a lot more in the future. You can help by continuing to listen very carefully to what your teachers ask you to do and by always trying hard to do your very best.

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

Mike Thompson Lead 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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