Eastfield Nursery School

Eastfield Nursery School Griffin Street, Off Willenhall Road, Wolverhampton, WV1 2HH

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 This inspection: Outstanding 1 Achievement of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school.  Almost all children make outstanding progress. They settle quickly into school life and learn rapidly to socialise and communicate effectively with others. Learning to write is not quite as strong as other aspects, especially for the boys.  Children’s achievment is outstanding. Learning is encouraged exceptionally well because the staff provide activities and tasks that are interesting and very well matched to children’s needs. Excellent talk between adults and children ensures that children are fully involved in all activities, so they make outstanding progress.  Children who find learning difficult are extremely well supported and make equally good progress as their peers, especially in developing their speaking skills. Those at an early stage of acquiring English are very well supported and play a full part in school life.  Children’s behaviour is exemplary and has a very positive impact on their learning. Children

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

learn quickly how to be safe and healthy.  The interim headteacher leads the school very effectively. The provision is continually being checked by leaders and the governing body, and the success of this is evident in the ever improving provision and the progress made by children.  Leaders have a very positive impact on raising the quality of teaching, especially through improved systems for judging how well children are learning. As a result, teaching is outstanding.  The school has very successfully introduced a new system for planning children’s learning and staff are working to become fully familiar with the best ways to assess children’s progress. Even so, the outdoor areas require some refurbishment so that they can become a more effective resource for children’s learning.

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Information about this inspection

 Ten sessions or parts of sessions were observed.  Meetings took place with the interim headteacher, deputy headteacher, staff, a representative of the local authority, six parents or carers and two representatives of the governing body. There were no parental views submitted on Parent View.  Children talked to the inspector and shared their activities and work with him. Samples of earlier work, including those on film, were scrutinised.  A range of the school’s documentation was examined, including policies, planning and records of the checks the school makes on the suitability of adults to work with children.  The school’s data about the progress made by children currently in the Nursery and those who attended in the recent years was also examined.

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Inspection team

Geof Timms, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Eastfield is a larger nursery school than is typically the case.  No children are currently supported through early years action or action plus, and none have a statement of special educational needs.  A small proportion of children are at a very early stage of acquiring English as an additional language.  A few of the children stay for the full school day but most attend for their entitlement of fifteen hours.  The interim headteacher is also headteacher of a nearby nursery school. She has been at the school for two terms, following the retirement of the previous headteacher.  The school shares the site with a children’s centre and 0–3 years provision. These are inspected and reported on separately.  The school has achieved a Basic Skills Quality Mark.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Develop the outdoor accommodation and resources so that they provide:  more planned opportunities for all aspects of the curriculum but especially literacy and numeracy  more activities to inspire boys’ writing.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Monitor and evaluate the recent changes made to the curriculum and the assessment of children’s progress to ensure that they are successful in supporting their continued outstanding learning.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The attainment of most children when they start school is well below that expected for their ages. Children often have undeveloped personal, social and emotional skills, and poor levels of communication with others. For example, a number have very poor speaking skills, while others are not used to playing and working alongside others.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The school ensures children’s progress is outstanding through a wide range of excellent activities that build their confidence, independence and self-esteem, and improve their communication skills. Children quickly settle into new routines at the start of the year. They soon enter the school happily, showing pleasure at seeing friends and staff. If children show some uncertainty at being separated from their parent or carer, staff very successfully distract and engage the children.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The school’s data show that children make outstanding progress in all areas of learning. This is supported by examples of their work and observations made during the inspection. By the time they leave the Nursery, the very large majority are at least in line with what is expected and many exceed this. This represents excellent progress over the year, and this is supported by the positive comments made by the staff of the children’s next school.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children learn about how books work, and enjoy listening to stories and looking at pictures. In one session, a group began to compose their own book to tell the story of some imaginary characters: this represents outstanding progress in just over three weeks of school. There are excellent opportunities for children to begin to link sounds and letters. There are no significant differences in the attainment of boys or girls in most areas of learning, although the boys’ writing is weaker than that of the girls and they are less inclined to choose writing activities.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children make swift progress in learning to count and many of the activities provided promote number skills and the learning about shape and colour. Children confidently talk about shapes and colours when engaged in various group activities. Unprompted, some knew the term for a triangle when cutting out shapes.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 High-quality creative work is evident and this is supported by the regular visits of an artist to promote a wide range of imaginative activities. In one project, an excellent ‘stop motion’ film was created; this won an award ahead of other schools in the local authority. It involved children in creating a background, moving objects and taking the photographs to create the work.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The school’s records show that children who find learning difficult are well supported and their progress is very carefully monitored during the year. Where appropriate, outside support and expertise is provided, often through strong links with the local children’s centre, enabling children to make significant strides forward. For example, children with speech difficulties are regularly supported this way and this has a very positive impact on their language development and their learning.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The small but highly effective team of teachers, early years educators and early years practitioners provide the children with an excellent start to their education. As a result, children make outstanding progress in their learning. As one staff member said, ‘The Nursery now feels buzzing and alive – a great place to be.’ In many of the sessions observed, children made excellent progress because of the carefully chosen activities provided and the high quality support of the adults.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 A major strength of the teaching is the significant amount of time staff provide for individual children. This enables them to move children’s learning on even more rapidly than in group sessions.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Staff know children’s needs well and excellent planning of activities enables an outstanding mix of adult-led and child-initiated activities to be provided, giving the staff this valuable time with individuals. While working like this, adults successfully develop and extend children’s speaking and listening skills through continual conversation and questioning. The regular noting of ‘magic moments’ provides a clear picture of children’s progress in learning.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Staff have very high expectations. They provide a high level of challenge so that children are able to achieve more. In one outstanding outdoor session, an adult encouraged a girl who clearly wanted to get better at completing a tyre obstacle course. During the time they worked together, the child moved from holding hands all the way to jumping confidently from one tyre to another. This represented excellent progress in physical skills and in developing self-esteem.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Although there are none currently on roll, the data from previous years show that children who are disabled or who have special educational needs are taught well and this supports their excellent progress.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 An artist, football coaches and an African drummer help staff to provide even more enrichment for the children’s learning. A regular visit to an outdoor centre provides children with an exciting and educational ‘forest school’ environment where they can explore their understanding of the natural world and develop further their physical control and skills. A number of these activities also involve parents and carers, such as during an Olympic-themed project. However, staff do not always plan sufficient opportunities for children to use the outdoor areas at the school, especially for literacy and numeracy activities.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Training has helped staff develop their assessment of children’s learning since the last inspection. Observations are accurate and children’s work is now closely linked to the expectations for their ages so that progress can be more accurately measured. Staff observations and judgements are moderated so that outcomes can be confidently and accurately graded. Samples of work are kept in excellent booklets to show children’s progress made over the year.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The school is an outstandingly harmonious community. Children play and work together very happily and they show considerable pride in their work. Their attitudes to learning are very positive. Children are developing their appreciation of the achievements and feelings of others. This was shown by the boy who responded ‘Wow!’ when shown another child’s work.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Behaviour throughout the Nursery is outstanding. This has a very positive impact on children’s learning, especially their social and emotional skills. They quickly develop friendships, and their faces throughout the day show how much they enjoy school. Although many still play and work independently or alongside others, a number are already beginning to work co-operatively with others to, for example, build towers from wooden blocks or set out train tracks.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Parents and carers say that their children are safe at school and they are confident in how well they are looked after. The inspection evidence supports this. When accidents or bumps occur, they are very well dealt with. Staff actively promote children’s independence alongside guidance on safe and hygienic practices.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Attendance is inconsistent, but the school encourages parents to get into good habits early on. A lot of support is given to some families to help them with this, and changes to the way the sessions start has encouraged better punctuality.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The interim headteacher provides the school with excellent and well-focused leadership. She has worked closely with the local authority and this has enabled her to provide a clear vision and make a significant number of improvements to the structure of the staff and the refurbishment of the buildings. The local authority has provided effective support during the recent changes to the leadership, enabling the school to maintain and further improve the provision. The outdoor areas, although partly improved, are yet to be fully utilised as a learning resource.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Although recently appointed, the deputy headteacher has already had a significant and positive impact on the arrangements for planning and assessing. This effect of this is already seen on children’s learning. The school recognises that the new provision and its impact on children’s learning require close monitoring and evaluation in order to become successfully embedded.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The development of children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural knowledge and understanding is actively and successfully promoted through the curriculum.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Staff strongly agree that the school is well-led and managed. The links with the children’s centre and other early years provision on the site are strong. These have a positive bearing on children’s learning, especially through the support provided for their families, and for those who find learning more difficult.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school’s self-evaluation is accurate and honest, and provides an excellent basis for improvement planning. Staff are committed to continual improvement, including through their professional development, and they work well as a team. Opportunities for training staff take good account of the school’s current priorities and the individual needs of staff.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The senior staff have an outstanding grasp of the data showing children’s progress. This is used to highlight any groups or individuals making less progress, or any curriculum areas needing more emphasis. This has highlighted, for example, that attainment in boys’ early writing skills is slightly less well developed than that of the girls.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school is committed to close links with parents and carers and the wider community. Different activities are regularly provided to engage the community such as during the Jubilee celebrations and a school-led Olympic themed weekend.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school:  is well-led by an experienced Chair of the Governing Body  provides the school with an excellent level of support and challenge  has supported the interim headteacher very effectively and worked closely with the local authority to ensure the best provision for children.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is

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Grade Judgement Description

failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 104280 Local authority Wolverhampton Inspection number 400699

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School details

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

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School details

Type of school Nursery School category Maintained Age range of pupils 3–4 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 70 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Kath Rogers Headteacher Emma Smith (Interim Headteacher) Date of previous school inspection 22 June 2010 Telephone number 01902 558141 Fax number 01902 558141 Email address eastfieldnurseryschool@wolverhampton.gov.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', 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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School details

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 and as part of the inspection.

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School details

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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School details

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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School details

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School details

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

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