Chertsey Nursery School

Age group 3–5 Inspection date(s) 15–16 May 2012 Inspection number 381007 Chertsey Nursery School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 124911 Local authority Surrey Inspection number 381007 Inspection dates 15–16 May 2012 Lead inspector Kevin Hodge

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Type of school Nursery School category Community Age range of pupils 3–5 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 80 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Elizabeth Langley Headteacher Gwyn Taylor Date of previous school inspection 18–19 March 2009 School address Pyrcroft Road Chertsey KT16 9ER Telephone number 01932 562225 Fax number 01932 561720 Email address admin@chertsey.surrey.sch.uk 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

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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 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 inspectors observed 12 activity sessions taught by three different teachers and support staff. Inspectors held informal discussions with children, staff and members of the governing body. The inspectors took account of the responses to the online Parent View survey in planning the inspection, observed the school’s work, and looked at development planning, the school’s website, self-evaluation information showing learners’ progress, teachers’ planning and children’s written and pictorial records of their learning. In addition, the inspectors analysed the questionnaire responses of 34 parents and carers along with those returned by staff.

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Information about the school

This is an average sized nursery school. There are children who attend full time and part time. There are few pupils from minority ethnic groups, and few who speak English as an additional language or are at an early stage of learning English. The proportion of pupils supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is higher than average. There is a specially resourced provision for special educational needs known as the ‘cluster class’. It is managed by the governing body and caters for children with severe autism and language needs. All the children that attend either have a statement of educational need or are in the process of gaining one. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is low.

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Information about the school

The nursery shares the site and some facilities with the adjacent children's centre and crèche, but neither were included as part of this inspection. 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 a good school. This is a similar picture to that at the last inspection. It is not yet outstanding because, although improving, not all teaching is at the level of the very best and governors' formal monitoring is not always sufficiently frequent or focused to ensure all children reach their full potential.

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Key findings

 Children achieve well during their time here. They quickly settle in to their new routines. They benefit from a wide range of opportunities to extend their knowledge and understanding, as well as their language and social skills. All groups of pupils, including those with special educational needs in the main school as well as those in the cluster class, learn and progress well.

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Key findings

 Teaching is typically good, but there are still areas to improve. Occasionally opportunities are missed to develop children’s number and reasoning skills, particularly when working on outside activities. Teachers make learning enjoyable and off-site visits help develop their wider interests. Teaching in the cluster class is sometimes outstanding.

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Key findings

 Children enjoy attending, behave well and are excited to take part in the range of activities on offer, from role playing in the class museum to exploring the nature walk. Children in the cluster class benefit from close support to make their learning enjoyable and meaningful. Children say they feel happy and safe.

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Key findings

 Senior leaders have succeeded in improving outside facilities, managing staff performance well to maintain the quality of teaching and children's achievement levels over time. Governors give good pastoral support, which means children feel safe and secure, and parents and carers feel valued. They have supported improvements to resources. However, their more formal visits to gauge the progress in addressing priorities are sometimes too infrequent. Parents and carers are overwhelmingly supportive of the school’s work. 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 proportion of good and outstanding teaching by: – ensuring that problem solving, number and reasoning are planned within more activities when practical to do so – ensuring that adults spot more quickly those children who have lost interest in their activities and need to be directed to other learning opportunities – ensuring that staff help children gain the maximum from each activity they engage in so they are stretched more in their learning.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Sharpen the focus and increase the frequency of governors’ formal monitoring by December 2012 so they can gauge the progress of priorities for improvement more clearly and regularly.

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Achievement of pupils

When children join the school they have a wide range of skills that are usually below the levels expected for this age group. They achieve well and reach the expected levels in their language and most other areas of learning. Their number and reasoning skills are a comparatively weaker aspect of their understanding. Children develop very good social skills which allow them to interact with each other confidently giving them a secure start to school life and routines. Most play cooperatively and share resources. Daily discussions about the weather, who has a birthday or recounting yesterday's experiences help develop their language and listening skills. Children like trying to write out lists, signs, entrance tickets, or just their name, which some do well. Children regularly make use of the attractive book corner to choose their favourite books to share; one child enjoyed hearing about the alien who lost his underwear! The good range of outside activities and equipment

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Achievement of pupils

entice children to learn in all weathers. The school ‘beach’ and ‘pirate boat’ are current favourites. The sensory garden and recently developed conversation room give children pause for thought when needed. On occasions, children’s learning is not extended as they are left too long on their own so their interest in activities wanes.

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Achievement of pupils

Simple daily counting activities, for example a well-taught activity to learn concepts such as ‘more than’ or ‘less than’ using play figures on a model boat, help make learning fun. In some outdoor activities, opportunities are occasionally missed to foster number and problem-solving abilities, so not all children are as confident in this area of learning. Children taught within the cluster class make good and sometimes outstanding progress, aided by high levels of interaction with adults. This promotes hand eye coordination, language skills through singing and problem-solving skills using computers to aid their learning. Children who have special educational needs in the main school, achieve well along with others. Their needs are identified 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

clearly and activities are often tailor-made to aid learning to good effect. The children’s good achievement, noted by inspectors, is also recognised by parents and carers, who are very appreciative of the progress made.

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Quality of teaching

Parents and carers agree with the inspection findings that teaching is typically good. Children interact well with their teachers and other adults, who promote their social, emotional and language skills very well. These good social skills come to the fore when playing with others, visiting the toilet sensibly or when sitting down to eat their morning snacks in the school cafe. There is a good balance between times when children can choose what they do and when they sit together with an adult to learn as a group. One group were fascinated to see what objects did or did not float and children like the teacher-led communal singing to welcome each other at the start of the school day. Other activities concentrate effectively on promoting early reading and writing skills, where children are encouraged to choose books, sound out letter sounds and recognise familiar everyday words. Children are encouraged to use

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Quality of teaching

information and communication technology (ICT) to explore the use of different materials to design their own model sailboats, or in using simple soft modelling materials to cut out shapes and compare sizes.

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Quality of teaching

The well-designed outdoor area promotes a good level and range of interests, from collecting and observing mini-beasts to picking sweet smelling flowers from the sensory garden. Such activities help promote children's sense of wonder or simple moral understanding by ensuring that creatures are kept safe. The school ‘beach’ or ‘pirate ship’ are popular role play areas, but on occasions, adults miss opportunities to developing the activity further with those involved, particularly in their reasoning and number skills. Those children taught in the cluster class benefit from close, often one-to-one level of support which ensures that their learning opportunities are skilfully managed, whether they be in fostering children's communication skills or physical skills, for example bouncing balls, cutting out paper shapes or manipulating modelling materials. In the main school, children with special educational needs are

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Quality of teaching

supported effectively by adults, both individually and in small groups. Teachers use a variety of means to promote children's cultural and moral understanding. A recent visit to the local transport museum has formed the starting point for children acting as pretend tour guides and sales assistants in their class version. Those children in the cluster class benefit from close attention to their health and welfare, in addition to developing their learning. Staff are thorough in their daily recording of children's progress in all areas of learning. This is helpful in identifying relative strengths and weaknesses of children's progress. The resulting booklets compiled, detailing the children's progress over time, give a good overview of their successes.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Parents and carers overwhelmingly acknowledge children's good behaviour and steps taken to ensure their well-being and safety. Not surprisingly, children enjoy attending. Their good social skills ensure they are patient and kind with each other. 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

They often allow others to take turns helping when engaged in activities, for example working in the outdoor car wash, or in discovering items buried in the sand pit. Upsets, name-calling or behaviour perceived as bullying are very rare and children's behaviour only drops when some whole-group activities go on for too long or they cannot sustain the interest in an activity. There are no recorded instances of bullying or serious incidents. Children's attitudes to learning are usually good, reflected in their willingness to explore different activities, inside or outside the classroom. Most enjoy their tasks, particularly when they are very practical, for example cutting out, sticking, constructing or role playing. In whole-class discussions, children usually sit attentively unless overly long. They answer questions willingly and allow others to make contributions. One child’s comment, that they ‘loved school’, reflected

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

children's enjoyment of day-to-day activities. Those children in the cluster class behave well, and respond to their adult helpers quickly and cooperatively. The close support they receive helps them to feel secure and any frustrations, which occasionally come to the surface, are handled well by those caring for them.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Regular visitors, for example police officers, fire fighters or health professionals, help give children a wider understanding of those that help us, in learning simple rules of life or how to stay safe and healthy. Strong links with families, often aided by the strong links with the adjacent children's centre and crèche, help engender parents’ and carers’ trust in the activities provided. Many commented that the Nursery was ‘fantastic’ or ‘brilliant’.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher, supported well by senior staff, has maintained a drive and ambition for further improvements, which combined with accurate self-evaluation, indicate clear capacity to continue to improve. A notable improvement is seen in the way the outside area now includes a sensory garden and separate conversation and sensory rooms. Class grouping and staff deployment are now more informal and flexible, following recent changes, and staff benefit from enhanced professional development in revising assessment routines. Support staff say they now feel more involved in what is going on because of organisational changes, and there are good levels of teamwork. The school improvement plan highlights the most pressing and relevant priorities, for example preparing for curriculum changes in September. The work of the cluster class and the coordination of special educational needs provision are managed particularly well. Parents and carers are very appreciative of the

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Leadership and management

specialised help that children receive in the cluster class.

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Leadership and management

Staff know children and their families extremely well and use this knowledge to foster a supportive atmosphere in which children feel secure. The varied curriculum areas, which make particularly good provision for children's spiritual, moral, social and language development, are extended by a number of off-site visits to boost children's knowledge and understanding of their local surroundings. The children's ‘books of experience’ booklets provide valuable insights for parents and carers about the progress their children make. 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

Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated and there are clear routines to ensure that all are treated equally. Any differences in achievement between groups of children are kept to a minimum. Members of the governing body are particularly supportive in terms of their informal visits to the school. This ensures that safety and welfare of children remain secure, particularly in terms of health and safety requirements, staff vetting and checks. However, governors’ routines for visiting the school on a more formal basis are relatively infrequent and visits do not always have a specific focus, which reduces their usefulness in gauging the progress of class-based initiatives or activities.

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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 54 42 2 2 Primary schools 14 49 32 6 Secondary schools 20 39 34 7 Special schools 33 45 20 3 Pupil referral units 9 55 28 8 All schools 16 47 31 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 to 31 December 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

Floor standards: the national minimum expectation of attainment and progression measures.

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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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Inspection of Cherstey Nursery School, Chertsey KT16 7ER

We enjoyed our visit to your school very much. Thank you for talking to us and showing us all the exciting things that you are able to do. We really liked finding out about the local transport museum, which looked exciting. Your parents and carers think that yours is a good nursery school and is a very safe place to be. You will be glad to hear we agree with them.

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Inspection of Cherstey Nursery School, Chertsey KT16 7ER

We liked watching you take part in all the inside and outside activities and it was lovely to see you being so friendly with each other. I know some of you liked showing us around the nursery very much. You all behave well when you are really enjoying your activities. I know some of you sometimes find sitting for a long time more difficult, but you can, by really trying to listen hard to your teachers. We liked the range of activities that you have to do, for example your craft work, listening to your teachers, using the computers or simply sitting in the book corner learning to read those lovely books you have. You can do just about everything as well as other children of your age, although some of you are not as confident in solving problems or learning about numbers. Teachers normally plan exciting activities for you, which we know you enjoy. Those of you who are in the cluster class must be very grateful

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Inspection of Cherstey Nursery School, Chertsey KT16 7ER

that you have a lot of adults to help you learn. Well done for behaving so well when we came in to see you! I have asked the school to see if it can make sure that the teaching is even better in helping you to develop your problem-solving and number work and that you get the most out of all the activities that you do. I have also asked the school to keep an eye on anyone who might not be sure what they want to do next and to give them help to choose something new.

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Inspection of Cherstey Nursery School, Chertsey KT16 7ER

The headteacher and governors make sure that you feel safe and that you have nice things to use, for example the new outside play equipment and gardens. The governors are good at helping the staff and they have made sure your parents and carers feel welcomed in the school. I have asked the governors to come and see what you are doing in the classrooms and the new outside area a little bit more often so they can see what exciting things are taking place and how you are getting along.

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Inspection of Cherstey Nursery School, Chertsey KT16 7ER

Kevin Hodge 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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