Windsor Nursery School

Windsor Nursery School Windsor Road, Off Parkfield Road, Wolverhampton, WV4 6EL

p.1

Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Good 2

p.1

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  Children make good progress and achieve well. They make outstanding progress in some areas.  Children’s behaviour and safety are outstanding. They are very keen to learn and love coming to the Nursery.  There are excellent relationships throughout the school’s diverse community.  Parents are unanimous in their positive views of the school and would recommend it to others.  Teaching is good. Staff draw very effectively on children’s interests to encourage learning.  Staff make good use of the high quality indoor and outdoor areas to encourage learning.  The headteacher provides very strong leadership. She and her deputy work well together.  All staff and governors know what the school needs to do to improve and how improvements will be measured.  Notable improvements since the last inspection include strong involvement of parents and carers in their children’s learning.  The school and children’s centre staff work well

p.1

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

together to make sure that children and families have the help they need.  Staff speak highly of the chances they have to improve their knowledge and skills. They are pleased and proud to work at Windsor.

p.1

It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Children’s progress in reading, writing and calculation is not as rapid as it is in other areas. The school has a suitable plan and is working to improve this.  There are some occasional weaknesses in teaching that are not picked up when leaders check on this.  Not all members of the governing body have a secure understanding of how to use information about how well children are doing at the end of Nursery in order to question school leaders about the school’s performance. This limits the school’s ability to improve on its own.

p.1

Information about this inspection

 The inspection took place at short notice over two days.  The inspector observed six learning sessions, over a total period of three hours. All of these were joint observations with the deputy headteacher. Learning was observed indoors and outside.  The inspector looked at samples of records showing progress made by children who currently attend the nursery.  The inspector spoke informally to several children.  Informal discussions were held with several parents as they arrived to bring children to the Nursery. There were too few responses on Parent View for the results to be seen. The inspector took account of the responses of 39 parents to a school survey of parental views carried out in July this year.  Questionnaires completed by six staff were considered.  Formal discussions were held with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, staff representatives, a representative of the local authority and three members of the governing body.

p.2

Information about this inspection

 A range of documents were examined, including policies, training records, the record showing checks carried out on staff, data showing children’s progress in the last three years, records of the monitoring of teaching and a sample of governing body minutes.

p.2

Inspection team

Susan Aldridge, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

p.2

Information about this school

 Most children are from minority ethnic groups although the largest single ethnic group is of White British origin. Over a third of children are from families where English is an additional language. A few are at an early stage of learning English. Altogether, nine different languages are represented and the most common is Punjabi.  The local authority do not collect information on children who attend part-time and are eligible for free school meals. There is no additional funding (pupil premium) available for this group of children either.  The proportion of children who need extra help in order to learn (early years action and early years action plus) is below the average for primary schools. There are no national figures for nursery schools. No child has a statement of special educational needs.  The Nursery is integrated with a children’s centre. It shares a building, site, a headteacher and a

p.3

Information about this school

governing body with the centre.  Children attend in the morning or the afternoon. A very small number attend the Nursery all day and access the before- and after-school registered childcare in the adjacent children’s centre. The registered childcare and the children’s centre are separately inspected and reported.  Following the retirement of the previous post holder, the current headteacher took up her appointment in January 2011. The headteacher and deputy headteacher are qualified teachers; other staff are not.

p.3

What does the school need to do to improve further?

 In order to speed up progress further, improve teaching by making sure that:  all adults, including volunteers, are well briefed and used effectively to support children’s learning  signing is used throughout the day to help children understand language.

p.3

What does the school need to do to improve further?

 In order to increase the school’s capacity to improve ensure that:  all members of the governing body are confident in using data showing how well children achieve in order to question school leaders about the school’s performance  checking of teaching takes full account of the school’s policy on teaching and learning, is focused and rigorous.

p.3

The achievement of pupils is good

 From generally low starting points, children’s knowledge, understanding and skills are at least at expected levels by the time they leave. They make good progress and achieve well because the teaching is good.

p.4

The achievement of pupils is good

 Parents and carers are full partners in their children’s learning. The home visits before children start, and the high quality of information exchanged between school and home, all combine to build this partnership. This also gives staff an excellent knowledge of children, their particular circumstances, likes, dislikes and interests.

p.4

The achievement of pupils is good

 For two out of the last three years, progress in personal, social and emotional development has been outstanding. The high quality of the way the Nursery prepares children before they start and the strong emphasis on this aspect when children arrive helps them to settle quickly and start to learn. Similarly, past progress in knowledge and understanding, creative and physical development has been outstanding.

p.4

The achievement of pupils is good

 In the key areas of early reading, writing and calculation, however, progress is good rather than outstanding. The school has identified these as important aspects in need of development and has a suitable plan which is now being carried out.

p.4

The achievement of pupils is good

 Children develop an awareness of letter sounds and many can recognise the first sound of their names. They also grow to enjoy stories and even to retell them, sometimes at length. They quickly learn to count and learn the meaning of language linked to numbers, such as ‘enough’.

p.4

The achievement of pupils is good

 Although all groups of children make equally good progress, most girls have better developed basic skills than boys. This is also an area the school is tackling. Staff are taking suitable steps, such as teaching small groups of boys together for part of the time, but these are at an early stage.

p.4

The achievement of pupils is good

 Parents are delighted with their children’s progress. All agree that it is good and many agree strongly. One remarked that this is because ‘the staff are so good at meeting his individual needs’, and inspection evidence supports this view. For example, children with medical needs have the close monitoring and care that they need.

p.4

The achievement of pupils is good

 Children who need additional help in order to learn are quickly identified. They have good quality individual support and external help from other professionals, such as therapists. The school’s resources, such as a sensory room, are used effectively to support the development of skills.

p.4

The achievement of pupils is good

 Those children who speak English as an additional language are well supported. This includes the help of a bilingual support worker and close liaison with parents to keep everyone informed about language development. Staff use pictures and symbols to help children learn the meanings of English words. Although children rapidly learn to use signing during sessions designed to do this, the use of signing by staff at other times is not frequent enough to enable children to build on this.

p.4

The quality of teaching is good

 The excellent relationships that staff quickly make with the children in their care help children to feel secure and valued in the Nursery.

p.4

The quality of teaching is good

 Staff know the children very well. Information about children flows well from home to school and back again through well-maintained and presented ‘message books’. These include photographs and some detailed exchanges. Consequently staff keep up-to-date with family events and families keep abreast of each child’s learning at school.

p.5

The quality of teaching is good

 Staff know the children very well and have a good understanding of how well they are doing. This information is used well to plan learning activities that draw on children’s interests. This ensures that children are excited by the experiences on offer. As a result, they concentrate on activities for a considerable time and enjoy their learning.

p.5

The quality of teaching is good

 When children express new interests, staff are quick to seize on them. For instance, an interest in ‘scary books’, was used very well to get children drawing creatively. Skilful adult questioning encouraged children to use their powers of observation. This enabled children to improve the quality of their drawings of faces.

p.5

The quality of teaching is good

 Staff plan well as a team, using detailed ‘learning logs’ to document children’s achievements and agree the next steps in learning. As a result, children continue to build on their knowledge, skills and understanding.

p.5

The quality of teaching is good

 The organisation of the room into areas where appealing resources are close by enables children to find things out for themselves. Routines are quickly set up. For example, children confidently put on tabards, helped themselves to paper, secured this on an easel using magnets and painted a picture. Once finished they marked the picture with their ‘name’, placed it carefully on a drying rack, removed their tabards and moved on to another activity.

p.5

The quality of teaching is good

 The outdoor area is used well to offer a wide range of activities. Resources for physical play are challenging. For instance, the twisting track for wheeled toys means that children have to work hard and persevere when propelling themselves along, and they rise well to the challenge.

p.5

The quality of teaching is good

 Staff get on well with children. They know when to stand back in order to encourage children to find things out for themselves and when to step in. However, other adults, such as volunteers, are not always briefed well enough. For instance, they tell children what is going to happen instead of allowing them to see for themselves.

p.5

The quality of teaching is good

 Additional adults are not always used to best effect, such as to reduce the size of groups and increase children’s participation. This occasionally slows the pace at which children learn.

p.5

The quality of teaching is good

 Adult’s exchanges with children encourage correctly spoken English. For example, when a child reported that he had ‘drived a rocket, an adult responded, ‘You drove the rocket, did you?’

p.5

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Children behave exceptionally well. They are involved early on in making the small number of simple rules and they keep these. The rules include ‘always have kind hands and kind feet’ and ‘always use kind words’.

p.5

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 All parents who completed the school’s recent survey and all staff who completed inspection questionnaires agree that children’s behaviour is at least good. Most agree strongly with this.

p.5

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Children have good attitudes to learning because it reflects their interests and is enjoyable. They share resources well. During a session where several children were using construction kit, one boy asked another, ‘May I have that please?’ and he was readily given the spanner. Similar instances of politeness receive quick praise from staff, such as, ‘You asked very nicely if you could go past me’.

p.5

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 There is a rewards system that is used well and valued by children and parents alike. Children proudly show their stickers to parents when they are collected from school. There are also simple sanctions, but these are rarely needed as behaviour is very well managed by staff.

p.6

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The school keeps records of racism and bullying but there are no instances of either recorded. The accident book shows that there are instances when the action of one child hurts another but these are accidental rather than malicious. During the inspection, no bickering or falling-out was seen.

p.6

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Records of accidental injuries are used well to identify ways of preventing this from happening in the future. For instance, following a scratch from a protruding branch, the school pruned the plant.

p.6

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Staff make the most of any opportunities that arise for learning about safety. For example, when a child constructed a wooden slope and started to jump on it, an adult quickly stepped in. By talking about what he was doing and asking questions she allowed the child to predict the possible consequences of his actions and he happily stopped what he was doing.

p.6

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Children learn effectively about road safety when out and about in the community. This is reinforced well during outdoor play, for instance when a ‘one-way’ arrow is used to prevent wheeled toys colliding on a narrow ‘road’ drawn in chalk on the outdoor surface.

p.6

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 During ‘forest school’ sessions, children learn about the importance of keeping together and returning to an adult when the whistle blows. They learn how to light a fire safely and quickly respond to adults who ask them to stay back from this. They know that they need to wear high visibility jackets when they are in the forest.

p.6

The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 There is no way of comparing the attendance in nursery schools. Although it is low when compared with primary schools, this is because several children have medical needs or have been on holiday abroad. The school takes unexplained absence seriously and there is very little of this. Leaders can identify actions they have taken to help families, and which have improved the attendance of individual children.

p.6

The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher provides highly skilled leadership. She has introduced many positive changes and successfully won the support of the staff, governors and parents. One mother identified the strong emphasis on parents as partners in their children’s learning as the most significant change.

p.6

The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher and deputy headteacher share responsibilities effectively. Their presence at the start and end of each session is very much appreciated by parents, one of whom described this as ‘always a smiling face to meet us’.

p.6

The leadership and management are good

 As a team, leaders and staff think carefully about their practice and work towards shared goals. They use information well to identify which aspects of learning need to improve and whether all groups of children are doing equally well.  Every effort is made to combine the support for children and families, using school and children’s centre resources.

p.6

The leadership and management are good

 The local authority provides good support. A representative visits each term with a different focus. Support has helped the school to improve its plans for future development. This now has only the most important things included, is focused on children’s achievement and has clear targets for measuring the success of developments.

p.7

The leadership and management are good

 The school has a good policy on teaching and learning, well suited to children of nursery age. Leaders check how well the school is doing in many different ways. However, they do not take full account of the expectations set out in the policy when observing teaching. Occasionally, weaknesses are not identified, because the focus of observations is too wide or because checking of records, for instance, is not quite careful enough.

p.7

The leadership and management are good

 Staff find that feedback given is helpful, so that they are able to improve their teaching skills. Similarly, they speak highly of increasing their skills and expertise through training. All staff discuss and agree how training would help them improve their work each year and the school’s priorities as well as personal goals are taken into account.

p.7

The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  The governing body has improved its work since the last inspection. There is a full complement of governors. They meet regularly and have committees to manage particular aspects of their work. Committees report to the full governing body. An audit of skills identified the need for a member with financial expertise and a suitable person has been recruited. Governors make sure that the budget is balanced. They seek parents’ views regularly through the centre’s ‘parent voice’ group. Regular professional training for governors makes sure that they understand their roles and responsibilities. However, they rely on local authority support for understanding information about the school’s performance as they do not have the confidence to judge the effectiveness of teaching on their own. They meet their statutory duties for safeguarding children. They make sure that qualified teachers, including

p.7

The leadership and management are good

the headteacher, are only awarded salary increases if their performance merits it.

p.7

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

p.8

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.

p.8

School details

Unique reference number 104283 Local authority Wolverhampton Inspection number 400700

p.9

School details

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

p.9

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 56 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Cllr Sandra Samuels Headteacher Claire Foster Date of previous school inspection 25 November 2009 Telephone number 01902 558128 Fax number 01902 552639 Email address windsornurseryschool@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 .

p.9

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.

p.10

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

p.10

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

p.10

School details

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’.

p.10

School details

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

p.10