St Werburghs Park Nursery School

Age group 0–5 Inspection date(s) 13–14 March 2012 Inspection number 377846 St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School and Children’s Centre Inspection report

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Unique reference number 108902 Local authority Bristol Inspection number 377846 Inspection dates 13–14 March 2012 Lead inspector James Henry

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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 0–5 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 180 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Emma Paasch/Sedef Ahmed Headteacher Liz Jenkins Date of previous school inspection 16 September 2008 School address Glenfrome Road St Werburgh’s Park Bristol BS2 9UX Telephone number 0117 903 0323 Fax number 0117 377 2363 Email address stwerburghsn@bristol.gov.uk

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Registered childcare provision St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School and Children’s Centre Number of children on roll in the registered childcare provision Inspection report: St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School and Children’s Centre, 13–14 March 2012 2 of 13

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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. 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 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

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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 Inspection report: St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School and Children’s Centre, 13–14 March 2012 3 of 13

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. Inspectors visited 14 learning sessions and observed 6 teachers as well as support staff. Meetings were held with members of the governing body, senior school staff and staff from other support agencies. Inspectors took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection, observed the school’s work, and looked at school self-evaluation and planning documents, governing body minutes and school assessments showing children’s progress. Also 161 parent and carers’ questionnaires were received and analysed.

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Information about the school

St Werburgh’s is larger-than-the-average-sized nursery school. Children come from diverse cultural backgrounds with nearly half speaking English as an additional language. The school is integrated with a children’s centre and offers a range of extended services through other agencies such as health professionals, speech and language specialists and family support workers. The school provides childcare provision on site and has breakfast, after-school and holiday clubs.

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Information about the school

St Werburgh’s is part of a consortium of four nursery schools in Bristol which is one of sixteen nationally-recognised Early Years Teaching Centres that provides early years training for staff and governors and works to improve provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage in other schools. Inspection report: St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School and Children’s Centre, 13–14 March 2012 4 of 13

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Information about the school

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 is an outstanding school because all groups of children, including those who are disabled or have special educational needs, make rapid and sustained progress in all areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Overall children enter the nursery at three years of age with skills and abilities well below that expected for their age and leave achieving age-related expectations across their learning.  Through accurate, rigorous and coordinated assessments, the school is highly effective in identifying and meeting the personal, social, emotional and learning needs of the different groups of children in the school. Consequently, it is highly successful at closing the gap between the achievement of different groups, especially those with English as an additional language and those children whose circumstances make them vulnerable.  The quality of teaching is outstanding and is exemplary at developing children’s

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Key findings

independence in learning through building their self-esteem and self- confidence. Assessment of children’s progress is consistently robust and accurate and used very effectively to plan activities that meet children’s needs. However, opportunities are occasionally missed to use information and communication technology (ICT) during adult-led and child-initiated activities.  Relationships throughout the school are excellent resulting in children’s behaviour being typically outstanding. Due to the very high level of care and support, children feel very safe and develop an exceptionally mature attitude to their learning in class and around the school.  Leadership and management are highly effective because the headteacher, supported by senior leaders, has established a sustained and very ambitious drive for excellence. Leaders at all levels work in a highly collaborative way to monitor and evaluate the quality of teaching regularly and hold staff to account

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Key findings

robustly for children’s progress. The curriculum is outstanding, especially at promoting children’s personal, social and emotional development due to the very creative activities planned by staff. Inspection report: St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School and Children’s Centre, 13–14 March 2012 5 of 13

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Key findings

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?

 Increase the use of information and communication technology in developing children’s knowledge and understanding by:  ensuring a variety of new technology resources are accessible for children during independent learning sessions  making more use of a range of technology resources in teaching sessions.

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Achievement of pupils

There was unanimous agreement amongst parents and carers who responded to the questionnaire that their children make good progress at school. This is certainly the case because over time most children make outstanding progress in all areas of learning. The progress made by different groups of pupils is similar, including those who may be disabled or have special educational needs. Children often enter the nursery with skills and abilities that are at least a year behind those expected for their age, especially in their basic language, communication and mathematical skills. Due to the overall outstanding provision of the school, children make exceptional progress given their starting points and leave with skills and abilities appropriate for children of their age. This often represents children making the equivalent of two years’ progress in all areas of Early Years Foundation Stage learning in one year at

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Achievement of pupils

This rapid and sustained progress can clearly be seen in learning sessions. Even time during registration is utilised to promote children’s creative development and independence through singing, with children responding in either English or French and then finding and putting their own names on a registration board.

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Achievement of pupils

Children’s basic reading skills are developed very effectively through the teaching of initial sounds. For example in one lesson, the teacher had a box with objects beginning with ‘s’. Very skilful questioning from the teacher allowed the children to develop their language and reasoning skills in guessing the object. When a dinosaur was pulled from the box, one child successfully responded that it was a stegosaurus. Independent learning activities that followed were all highly stimulating and based on re-enforcing children’s understanding of the sound made by the letter ‘s’. Mathematical concepts were also included through learning by discovery about the word ‘six’. This type of practice is consistent throughout the school and robustly supported by accurate assessment of individuals’ and different groups of children’s needs.

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Achievement of pupils

The school is exceptionally effective in closing the age-related expectation gap between the different groups of children, including those from minority ethnic groups or those who have English as an additional language, and children nationally. Consequently, all groups of children make at least good progress, with most making Inspection report: St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School and Children’s Centre, 13–14 March 2012 6 of 13

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Achievement of pupils

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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Quality of teaching

Again, parents and carers who completed the questionnaire were unanimous in agreeing that teaching is good or better. This is a broadly accurate view. However, typically, teaching is outstanding over time because all staff know their children very well and the progress they are making through extremely effective and rigorous assessments. Children’s learning journals, containing photographs of their achievements and their initial attempts at writing and painting, consistently show the outstanding impact that excellent teaching is having on children’s learning over time. This can also be clearly observed in learning activities and in the development of their early reading skills. For example, children were thoroughly absorbed and involved during an exceptional story-telling session where all were encouraged to join in with fun actions and make different noises to show the sound of rain. However, occasionally, opportunities to use ICT are missed during both adult-led and

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Quality of teaching

Teachers and support staff are very effective in involving all groups of children in learning activities through sharply-focused interventions, very skilful open-ended questioning and highly tailored support for children who may be disabled or have special educational needs or have English as an additional language. Accurate assessments also ensure more able children are identified and their needs met. In one learning session observed, a small group of more able children were developing their calculation skills through putting plastic frogs and snails into their correct homes. The teacher was very skilful in developing the children’s mathematical language through building on previous learning. As a result of excellent teaching over time, children understood the concept of equal amounts, could count accurately and make correct comparisons between the quantities of different objects. They could also manage simple addition and subtraction and were highly engaged and

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Quality of teaching

Relationships between staff, children and parents and carers are exceptional, with teaching and the curriculum making a considerable difference to children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Due to proactive recruitment strategies, staff in the school not only reflect the cultural diversity of the children and their families but also provide very positive male role models, particularly for boys. Consequently, staff use their knowledge and understanding to plan activities that celebrate cultural diversity. For example, story weeks are organised where parents and carers from different cultural backgrounds come into school and tell the children stories in their own language, which staff translate into English.

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Quality of teaching

Staff use the Forest School to develop children’s understanding of the world around them. In one observed activity, they were talking to children about the sun and the clouds whilst another group of children sat around a guarded open-air fire discovering why wood was burning and where the smoke was going. This again is typical excellent practice and children are thoroughly absorbed in these types of Inspection report: St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School and Children’s Centre, 13–14 March 2012 7 of 13

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Quality of teaching

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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Quality of teaching

activities that have an outstanding impact in promoting their social development and sense of awe and wonder in the world around them.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

All the parents and carers who completed the questionnaire felt that their child was safe in school. None expressed serious concerns about behaviour and the way that any bullying was dealt with. Inspection findings supported these views. The school has a log of incidents over time, but these were very few and had been dealt with effectively.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Children were observed as being very happy and feeling extremely secure in school. This is because staff know the children as individuals and are exceptionally caring and sensitive to every child’s needs and feelings. There was no bullying of any nature observed because the school is highly effective in celebrating diversity. Consequently, an outstanding strength of the school is the creating and maintaining of a cohesive community where all are included. This has real impact because as a child’s quote recorded in her learning journal by a member of staff said, ‘If you have a black face or any face or even if you’re skinny, you still hold hands.’

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Given their young age, children’s behaviour is outstanding as the children show maturity and independence. They respect one another and respond enthusiastically to the gentle encouragement of staff when asked to listen and move to different activities. Children from all the different backgrounds play very well together and happily share their learning experiences in the school’s pleasant, welcoming and highly stimulating environment.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Another outstanding aspect of the school’s work is its procedures for identifying and meeting the needs of children whose circumstances make them vulnerable. Integration with the children’s centre means that the school is able to work very effectively in partnerships with other agencies, such as family support workers, health professionals and speech and language specialists. Case studies show that this has a significant impact on children’s personal well-being, especially in cases involving domestic violence. The resulting outcome is that children whose circumstances make them vulnerable often make similarly outstanding progress to other groups in the school.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher, along with other senior and middle leaders, is exemplary in striving for excellence and has maintained the outstanding overall effectiveness of the school identified in previous inspections. Leadership is thoroughly embedded at the different levels with all teaching and support staff involved in curriculum teams that are responsible for improvements in the different areas of learning. Members of the governing body are linked to these teams and know the school very well. The governing body is also fully involved in monitoring, evaluating and challenging senior and middle leaders about the quality of teaching and its impact in the school. Inspection report: St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School and Children’s Centre, 13–14 March 2012 8 of 13

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Leadership and management

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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Leadership and management

Senior and middle leaders are very robust in their monitoring of teaching and learning and in their analysis of children’s progress, especially in ensuring different groups make outstanding progress over time. The school’s status as an Early Years Teaching Centre means that there is an extremely strong commitment to delivering highly effective professional training for all staff. The impact is seen in the sustained and consistently good, and often outstanding, teaching across the school.

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Leadership and management

The curriculum is not just broad and balanced but highly innovative and flexible in meeting the needs of different groups and individual children. There are examples where staff plan a curriculum specifically for an individual child to meet their emotional and behavioural needs. Every opportunity in the curriculum, especially in the Forest School, is consistently taken to promote children’s outstanding spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Just one of many examples seen was after children had designed and made simple rockets out of plastic bottles, staff organised a simple launching pad using a pump to build up and then release water pressure inside the rocket to launch it high into the air. The resulting enjoyment and awe and wonder for the children were clear for all to see.

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Leadership and management

Safeguarding policies and procedures are fully in place, with staff appropriately and regularly trained in child protection and all adults checked before working for the school. Members of the governing body have attended safer recruitment training to check that only suitable people are employed in the school.

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Leadership and management

The very strong commitment to promoting equality and preventing discrimination is clearly shown by the school being highly effective in ensuring that all groups of pupils make outstanding progress over time which is closing the gap on age-related expectations with children nationally.

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Leadership and management

Since the last inspection the school has addressed the area for improvement by developing the outdoor learning area, maintained the outstanding judgements in all areas, fully embedded leadership and management at all levels and moved forward in being recognised as a national Early Years Teaching Centre. This clearly demonstrates that the school has an outstanding capacity to continue improving. 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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childcare provision

The setting is integrated within the nursery school sharing very good facilities, resources and professional training for staff. The environment is not only safe but an exceptionally stimulating place for children to learn. Highly effective induction procedures and excellent relationships between children and adults help children to settle quickly. The team leader of the setting, the child’s key worker and, where appropriate, the family support worker visit the homes of all new children to establish links with parents and carers.

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childcare provision

Children make outstanding progress in their early development because of outstanding teaching and there is a very strong emphasis on developing children’s early language and communication skills, particularly through song and nursery rhymes. Children are extremely happy, feel very safe and thoroughly enjoy the activities offered because of exceptional relationships with parents and carers. For example, during the inspection children were thoroughly enjoying using ICT to develop their skills for the future.

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childcare provision

Behaviour is exceptional, with children cooperating very well for their age and learning to share toys and equipment and take turns in activities.

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childcare provision

Staff are very effective in assessing the needs of individual children and keep excellent records of the progress they are making. Staff also have an outstanding knowledge of the early years curriculum due to highly effective professional training. There is a challenging balance, both in the classroom and outdoor learning area, between adult-led and child-initiated play and exploration activities that very effectively encourage children to become independent learners.

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childcare provision

Robust self-evaluation, done in conjunction with the staff in the older children’s learning areas, means the setting is extremely well led and managed with all staff fully vetted to ensure they are suitable to work with young children.

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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 sta tistics 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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Bristol BS2 9UX

I understand that at such a young age you will not be able to read this letter. Perhaps I could ask an adult to read and explain it to you.

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Bristol BS2 9UX

Thank you for welcoming us to your school during our visit. It was a pleasure to meet you and we enjoyed watching you work with your teachers. Your school gives you a really good standard of education. It was clear that you feel safe in school and that all the adults would help if you had any worries. Here are some of the very good things we found at your school.

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Bristol BS2 9UX

 You really enjoy school because everyone gets on well together and behaviour is very good.  You work hard and enjoy learning, especially when you chose things to do or other adults help you to do things like woodwork.  The teaching you have in school is very good all the time.  You make really good progress in beginning to learn how to read and write and count.  Your mothers and fathers and other adults who look after you all think that the school is really good and looks after you very well.

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Bristol BS2 9UX

To help the school improve we asked that the adults in charge to do one thing.

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Bristol BS2 9UX

 To make better use of things like computers to help you to both learn for yourself and when teaching you.

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Bristol BS2 9UX

You can help by listening to your teachers and continue to be helpful to each other.

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Bristol BS2 9UX

James Henry 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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