Montbelle Primary School

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.  All groups of children make outstanding progress.  They make rapid gains in communication and language. They apply their numeracy skills very well to solve problems.  Children gain new understanding extremely well about the world and express themselves creatively through music and role play.  Attainment by the end of Reception is securely above average in all areas.  Teaching is creative, inspirational and highly effective in promoting learning.  Teachers’ expectations of what children can achieve are consistently high.  The challenging and interesting learning activities provided are well matched to children’s needs.  Children are highly motivated and make exceptional gains in their learning.  Children are enthusiastic and excited about their learning.  Children relate very well to others. Their consideration and respect for others are particularly strong.  Children’s behaviour is exemplary.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Highly effective leadership and management are at the heart of this school’s success.  This is the school’s third outstanding inspection judgement in succession.  The headteacher provides outstanding vision and direction. She and the staff are a powerful team dedicated to providing the very best learning opportunities for the children.  There is a strong capacity for change and improvement.  The development of teaching and the curriculum receives high priority and is highly effective.  Governors make a valuable contribution and the engagement with parents is exceptional.

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Information about this inspection

 This inspection was carried out with one day’s notice.  The inspector observed teaching and learning in 12 lessons or part lessons.  He held discussions with the headteacher, staff, a representative from the local authority, members of the governing body, parents and children.  The inspector took account of the 33 responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection.  School policies, assessment information, teachers’ plans, children’s work and school improvement planning were examined.  The inspectors analysed 14 questionnaires completed by staff.

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Inspection team

Derek Watts, Lead inspector Additional inspector

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Information about this school

 College Green is a maintained nursery school with extended services including a neighbourhood nursery on site for children from one- to three-years-old. All provision and services are managed by the governing body.  Nearly half of the children are White British. Other children are from a range of other ethnic backgrounds.  The proportion of disabled children and those with special educational needs is below average overall. The proportion supported through school action and by school action plus is also below average. Currently, there are no children with a statement of special educational needs.  A lower than average proportion of children is known to be eligible for the pupil premium.  For the past three years, the school has provided for around 15 Reception children because of the shortage of Reception places in primary schools in the area.  The school has gained a range of awards including Unicef’s Rights-Respecting Schools Award

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Information about this school

(RRSA) and Enhanced ‘I CAN’ accreditation, a communication initiative. This aims to enhance communication standards particularly for children with mild and moderate speech difficulties.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Revise the curriculum in order to fully incorporate the requirements of the new Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage as outlined in the current improvement plannning.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children enter the school with knowledge, understanding and skills broadly expected for their age.  Excellent teaching and a dynamic and stimulating curriculum contribute to children’s rapid progress in all areas of learning.  All groups of children make outstanding progress. The most able are successfully challenged and extended. Children who need extra help make exceptional progress because of the well targeted support they receive.  Children’s communication and language skills develop extremely well because of the careful attention that staff place in these areas. Skilful questioning and the good modelling of speech promote these areas very well.  Children love the wide range of attractive books on offer. They gain a very clear knowledge and understanding of letters and the sounds they make (phonics). Children in the neighbouring nursery listened with great enthusiasm to the story of the ‘Owl Babies’. They then created their

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

own owl’s nest using cotton wool and shredded paper to remarkable effect.  Using sand trays, chalk, paint brushes and pencils, children make outstanding progress in mark making and in practising early writing skills.  Exceptional progress is made in developing an understanding of the world. Children have gained a very good understanding of plants by growing carrots, beans and courgettes in the garden. During the inspection, they particularly enjoyed mashing and pressing apples to make apple juice with assistance from the ‘gardener in residence’. Children show a fascination for dinosaurs and name some of the different types.  Children are creative and imaginative. For example, they made ice cream in the parlour and then served this in the café role-play area.  In physical development, children make very good progress as they practise balancing, climbing and travelling on a range of apparatus. Once on the field, children showed

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

considerable coordination and control when practising football skills. Trapping, passing and shooting skills are developing extremely well.  The Reception children make outstanding progress. They are admirable role models for the younger children in the setting. Attainment is securely above average by the end of Reception.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching is creative, inspirational and successfully promotes high quality learning. Children respond extremely well to the high expectations conveyed by staff.  All adults promote children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development exceptionally well. They create a very positive climate for learning. Relationships are strong and children learn and play very well together. They show consideration and respect for others’ feelings and views.  Teachers and support staff are enthusiastic and passionate about children’s learning. A teacher stated, ‘Teachers who love to teach help create children who love to learn.’ A parent governor commented, ‘For the staff here, this is a passion rather than a job.’  Teachers plan exciting and stimulating learning activities. The teaching team reviews all learning activities at the beginning of the school day. The teachers evaluate their effectiveness and adapt and modify them to suit children’s learning. Through careful assessment and

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

observations, staff know each child’s current attainment and future learning needs accurately. This is excellent practice.  The exciting and stimulating activities inside and outside the classroom are challenging and are set are the right level for children’s different abilities. Children are fully engaged and make rapid gains in acquiring new knowledge and developing skills.  Children benefit from teachers’ considerable expertise and infectious enthusiasm which is successfully transmitted to the children.  The teaching of essential skills, such as letters and the sounds they make and numeracy skills, is highly effective. For example, a long toy snake was used to promote the shape and the sound for the letter ‘s’. Children embarked eagerly on the task of finding items and objects beginning with ‘s’ around the nursery.  Skilful questioning by staff challenges the children’s thinking and checks their understanding.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Excellent use is made of the school’s well-designed indoor and outdoor accommodation and facilities to promote children’s learning. The field, pond, sensory tunnel, garden areas and outdoor apparatus are all used to great effect.  Technology is used very effectively to support teaching and learning. Children use computers, touch screen technology and digital cameras with confidence.  There is a highly effective blend of adult-led activities and those chosen by the children. Children have plenty of opportunities to explore and learn independently.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Children settle into the school and into daily routines because of first rate induction procedures, the very positive atmosphere and the high calibre relationships that adults form with them.  Children thoroughly enjoy their time at the school and have extremely positive attitudes to learning.  The children feel safe and extremely well looked after in a nurturing and stimulating environment. Parents who completed the online questionnaire and those who spoke to the inspector were particularly pleased with the children’s safety and how well the children are looked after.  Unicef’s Rights-Respecting Schools initiative has been successful in promoting children’s respect for one another and responsible attitudes within the school and wider community.  The behaviour of children is often exemplary. Children share, take turns and take responsibility for their actions. The school’s clear records indicate that behaviour is consistently of a high

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

standard.  There are comprehensive procedures for dealing effectively with inappropriate behaviour should it occur, including bullying.  Children love coming to school because of the stimulating activities on offer. The vast majority of parents ensure that children arrive on time. Attendance levels of children in Reception are high.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The established and experienced headteacher is a highly effective leader and this was unanimously confirmed by children, staff, parents and governors. ‘The headteacher is wonderful and has built a strong team of staff,’ and, ‘The headteacher is an amazing leader,’ were typical comments.  The headteacher, deputy headteacher and staff are a dedicated and inspirational team with a passion for providing the best possible learning opportunities for all children.  Senior leaders, staff and governors monitor and evaluate the school’s performance effectively. The findings of review are successfully used to inform future planning for improvement.  There is a very positive team spirit among the staff where high expectations, continuous improvement and putting the child first are all part of the professional culture. As a result, the school fully embraces change and improvement. As members of the governing body

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The leadership and management are outstanding

commented, ‘The school is always ahead of the game.’ ‘It does not stand still.’ An extremely happy and long standing parent told the inspector, ‘I did not think that College Green could get any better, but it does.’  Leaders place considerable emphasis on improving teaching and the curriculum. Their actions are highly successful because teaching has been outstanding over time and the curriculum is creative and dynamic. The high quality provision gives rise to outstanding learning and development for children.  The school is currently revising the curriculum in the light of the new statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.  College Green is consistently a high performing school and therefore requires minimum support from the local authority. The school works in partnership with the local authority in sharing the outstanding practice across the London Borough of Brent.  Over a third of the parents responded to the on-line questionnaire, Parent View. This

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The leadership and management are outstanding

information and discussions with parents reveal that parents are extremely pleased with the care and education provided for their children. Leadership, safety and teaching receive particular praise.  The school successfully engages with parents and offers a range of ways to help them support their children’s learning such as workshops in phonics and mathematics, shared learning days, an interactive website and home visits.  The governance of the school:  Governance is highly effective.  Members of the governing body are rightly proud of the school’s consistently high performance.  They provide considerable support to the school, whilst at the same time challenging the leadership in order to hold the school to account.  Governors are fully involved with senior leaders in monitoring performance.

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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

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Grade Judgement Description

is 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 100149 Local authority Brent Inspection number 4004482

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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 1–5 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 92 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Alka Varsani Headteacher Wendy Yianni Date of previous school inspection 8–9 July 2010 Telephone number 020 8969 2179 Fax number 020 8969 2169 Email address admin@cgnss.brent.sch.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,

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School details

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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School details

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

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