Bridlington Nursery School

School report Bridlington Nursery School Butts Close, Bridlington, YO16 7BS

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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.  Children make outstanding progress. They are busy and eager to learn.  Staff make learning fun. It is just as much fun learning indoors as it is outside.  Activities are really interesting and make children think and try out new things.  Children are very keen on reading and writing. This is because staff talk to children all the time and read and write with them.  Children concentrate for long stretches of time. They like doing special jobs. Their excellent behaviour helps them to make rapid progress.  Staff are vigilant at ensuring children are safe.  Children feel extremely safe. They know that nursery staff are there to help them.  The nursery is particularly well led and managed.  The leadership of teaching is a strength. This is why the nursery gets better and better each year.  The nursery has good relationships with parents but does not always help them to understand how their children learn.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Governors know just what to check to make sure that the nursery does its best for everyone.  Excellent links with the on-site nursery and children’s centre help children to do really well.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed children in 14 different learning sessions throughout the day both indoors and outside. These included times when children learnt how letters and sounds link together to form words and times when children led their own learning.  The inspection team observed all teachers and most of the nursery nurses and teaching assistants who teach different groups at different times of the day.  The inspectors talked to children about what they were learning. They looked at children’s ‘learning journeys’ (detailed records of children’s learning and progress) to check the progress they had made since starting in nursery.  The inspection team observed children sharing books with each other and with adults.  The inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, the assistant headteacher, staff, the Chair of the Governing Body and the site manager. The lead inspector had a telephone conversation

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Information about this inspection

with a representative from the local authority.  The inspectors looked at a range of documentation supplied by the school. This included information relating to safeguarding, children’s progress and the school’s future plans.  Insufficient responses were available on the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) for the lead inspector to be able to access them. The inspectors talked to a small number of parents informally.

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Inspection team

Lesley Clark, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Jenny Firth Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This nursery school is smaller in size than the average-sized primary school.  Almost all children are White British.  The nursery offers flexible provision for up to 120 children for a minimum of three terms and a maximum of five.  The proportion of children who are supported at school action plus or who have a statement of special educational needs is above average.  About 50% of the children have additional needs that make it hard for them to learn. These include speech and communication difficulties.  The headteacher is also head of the on-site Sunshine Nursery and children’s centre and a second children’s centre located at a nearby primary school. They are inspected separately. The reports can be found on the Ofsted website.  The nursery is managed by the assistant headteacher.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Develop the way that parents support their children’s learning by:  giving parents more regular information about what their children are learning and suggesting activities that they might like to do at home with their children  having more regular times when parents can stay and play with their children so they see how they learn  making children’s ‘learning journeys’ more readily accessible so that parents can share them with their children.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Achievement is outstanding. Children learn a great deal in a short time. They gain a very good knowledge and understanding of the world around them. They are very inquisitive and ask lots of questions.  Most children start nursery with skills that are below those typically expected for their age. They do extremely well. By the time they leave the nursery, most have skills at the level typically expected of their age and almost half have skills above this level.  More-able children do exceptionally well. This is because staff challenge them to think for themselves and to learn through solving problems.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs do equally well. This is because staff have had a lot of training so they know just what to do to help these children learn. At the same time, they ensure that these children have the same opportunities as everyone else to make choices and to follow their own interests. This means that they learn at the right pace for their

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

needs.  The nursery clearly shows that it promotes equality of opportunity and tackles discrimination very effectively. There are no gaps between how well different groups of learners do.  Children who have additional needs that make it hard for them to learn swiftly overcome their difficulties. They settle quickly and adapt to the nursery’s clear routines and adults’ high hopes for them. They make exceptionally good progress as a result, often attaining above expected levels.  The strong emphasis on talking and communicating helps children to achieve highly. For example, talking to each other down ‘speaker tubes’ means they have to talk clearly, especially if they are on a bear hunt! By the time children leave, they are fluent communicators.  Children develop a keen interest in reading and writing. They hold books the right way up and ‘read’ aloud to each other, sharing stories just like they do with staff. Most especially, they enjoy

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

being read to and acting out the story with small toys at the same time.  Children are quick to learn how letters and sounds link together. Fun games such as making ‘silly soup’ had children giggling as they put in weird ingredients such as ‘snake’, carefully sounding out the ‘sss’ as they did so.  They are keen to write because there are so many words around for them to copy and so many interesting things to write with. There are also good reasons for writing such as noting down on the garage clipboard how much petrol they have used.  Similarly, children use and apply early numeracy skills all the time such as when they counted spoonfuls to make porridge. Tasks such as matching pictures of different sized beds and chairs to different bears challenged more-able children because they had to select just three from a large number of different sized bears.  Children’s physical and creative development comes on apace. They play very constructively and

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

are good at building, making dens, playing skittles, whisking up foamy water or gluing delicate leaves and seeds on to paper.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Extremely good relationships and the way staff organise equally high quality activities both indoors and outside help children to learn very effectively. For example, children can just as easily use numbers outside as indoors.  Staff are very good indeed at playing with children and turning a game into an adventure. They are skilled at reading out loud. When an adult reads a story, children will often cluster around, agog to hear what happens next.  Activities are often open-ended and therefore encourage children to use their imaginations. The children’s interests determine how frequently the activities change. Wherever possible, adults include words for children to read and write in most activities so that children’s language and literacy skills are constantly reinforced.  Staff are exceptionally skilled at helping reluctant children to turn into lively communicators. They constantly talk to children, asking questions that make children think. They also make sure

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

that they use, and that the children repeat, the ‘words of the week’. Opportunities are missed to share these with parents.  Staff are excellent role models. Children learn to imitate adults’ calm, measured approach, using quiet voices when they speak to each other.  Staff want the very best for children. This is why more-able children and those who have initial barriers to overcome do exceptionally well. Staff know how to challenge and extend children’s learning.  Assessment is used very well indeed to record children’s progress in informative ‘learning journeys’. Although parents see these once a term and contribute to them they do not have other times to share and read these with their children.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Children behave like children who are much older than three or four years old. They quickly settle in at the start of sessions. The child who is the daily helper checks that everyone’s name is on the board. The children themselves suggested having a daily helper. They know to check the calendar to see when it is their turn.  There is a seamless transition between short formal learning times and free choice times because children behave responsibly. They know what to do when and do so without fussing.  Children are highly independent. Pictures in appropriate places remind them to put on their coats or when to put on a plastic apron. As a result, children automatically take care of themselves, rolling up their sleeves to wash up or wipe down the tables after cooking, for example. They have very good hygiene practices.  Children concentrate for long periods of time. They rarely flit from one activity to another. This is

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

because adults are always there to talk to or to play with and so children learn to persist because the more they do the more interesting the activity becomes.  This high degree of independence and capacity to concentrate for a long time has an appreciable impact on their learning. Children are used to making choices and decisions. They know the rules. There is so much to do that there is no time to waste. This means they make the most of their learning time.  Children feel safe. They respond confidently to adults and are helpful to each other. They know it is important to share and if someone is not sharing properly then they point it out.  Children know that if there is anything wrong with them or if they are worried about anything then they must tell an adult.  There is no bullying. On the very rare occasions when children upset each other they discuss in a group what has happened. Very occasionally they sit on the ‘sad cushion’ until they have

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

calmed down but this is rare.  The school’s records show that behaviour is excellent and that the large majority of children have good attendance.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The nursery is extremely well organised. Senior leaders and other staff have clear roles and responsibilities which they carry out exceptionally well. Discussions are purposeful. Staff know exactly what they do when and children know where they will be at any given time.  The nursery successfully builds on its strengths and continues to develop well.  The leadership of teaching is highly effective. Teaching has improved since the last inspection in that it is now of a uniformly high standard. This has been achieved by sharper performance management which is closely tied into salary progression.  Staff are much more accountable for the progress that children make in their groups. A simple system of pairing staff to work with the same group of children has resulted in very accurate assessments and uniformly excellent teaching as staff learn from and coach each other.  Staff training is first rate. All staff do the same training so all are equally skilled. For example,

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The leadership and management are outstanding

staff now speak to others about how developing children’s skills in talking helps them with reading.  An outstanding feature is the nursery’s seamless approach to education through its close links with the on-site Sunshine Nursery day care and the children’s centres. These fully support children who have problems with learning. For example, a speech and language professional is on-site to support as and when necessary.  Although the nursery has good links with its parents, and recent surveys indicate very high levels of parental satisfaction, parents have infrequent opportunities to stay and play with their children so they can see how they learn.  The local authority gives extremely light touch support to the nursery which they accurately see as exemplary.  The governance of the school:  The members of the governing body challenge the school to ensure that teaching and children’s achievements continue to improve. They make sure that staff and children are safe.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

They are proud of the school’s contribution to the local community. They regularly check that the school is doing the best it possibly can for all children. They have a thorough understanding of performance management and use this to help them check teaching effectiveness.

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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 117695 Local authority East Riding of Yorkshire Inspection number 401683

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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 3–5 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 92 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Andrew Hewitt Headteacher Kay Roantree Date of previous school inspection 10 February 2010 Telephone number 01262 678485 Fax number 01262 401923 Email address bridlington.nursery@eastriding.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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