Central Community Nursery School

Central Community Nursery School Nuns Street, Derby, DE1 3LR Inspection dates 17–18 January 2013

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Overall effectiveness

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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  Teaching is good and ensures that the children achieve well and are enthusiastic young learners.  Children enjoy interesting activities that fire their imaginations in both the inside and outside areas.  Teachers, nursery nurses and care workers work well together to ensure that children are supported well in their learning and personal development.  Disabled children and those who have special educational needs make outstanding progress.  The headteacher’s good leadership is moving the school forward. She has high expectations and these have brought about improvements in teaching and achievement since the previous inspection.  Children behave well. They listen carefully to adults and are keen to learn. They take care to keep themselves and their friends safe.  The quality of care provided before and after school is good.  Governors are often in school and this helps them understand how well it is doing.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the work of the nursery.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Adults’ questioning and conversations with children are not always good enough to extend children’s learning.  The information held about the children is sometimes not used well enough to ensure that activities meet their needs and abilities.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed activities in 11 sessions led by teachers, nursery nurses and care staff.  Meetings were held with the senior staff, five members of the governing body and two local authority representatives.  Inspectors took account of the 25 responses to the online Parent View survey.  Inspectors looked at documentation including the school’s self-evaluation, performance data, children’s ‘learning journeys’, documents relating to safeguarding and minutes from meetings held by the governing body.  During this inspection, inspectors asked additional questions designed to ascertain the school’s view of the impact and effectiveness of local authority services to support school improvement. This information will contribute to work being carried out by Ofsted to assess the use, quality and impact of those services.

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Inspection team

Anthony O'Malley, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Godfrey Bancroft Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a small school where children usually attend for three to five terms. The great majority of children leave the nursery to enter the Reception classes of local primary schools at the start of the autumn term.  Since the previous inspection the nursery has taken over responsibility for care provided before and after school. Care is also provided during part of the holiday period.  The nursery is on the same site as West End Children’s Centre which provides for families with children from birth to five years. The children’s centre was not part of this inspection.  The nursery has specially resourced provision for pupils with special educational needs. It has an enhanced resource facility for children with significant disabilities or special educational needs. There are currently seven children receiving this enhanced provision.  The great majority of children are from White British backgrounds, but a handful of children do

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Information about this school

speak English as an additional language.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the amount of outstanding teaching by ensuring that:  questioning and conversations always extend children’s learning  information held about the children is always used effectively to plan activities that meet their needs and abilities.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen performance management systems by establishing partnerships with the local primary schools to get an external check on the achievement of the children by the time they leave the nursery.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Most children start the nursery with skills that are below those expected for their age. Girls often start with better communication skills and social skills than boys.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children achieve well and by the time they leave they have made good progress. Most children have gained the skills expected and are well prepared for their Reception classes, with girls generally still outperforming boys.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children who speak English as an additional language make the same good progress as other children because they receive effective additional support. For example, copies of storybooks used in activities are available in a range of languages for families to enjoy together at home.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The achievement of children in the enhanced resource facility is outstanding. The children make exceptional progress in their personal and emotional development, their social skills and in their language and communication skills.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children make good progress in mark-making and early writing activities. When they leave the nursery, the most skilled are able to write their name unaided and form some letters from familiar words.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Throughout the day adults develop successfully a growing understanding of numbers. Many children are able to identify how many boys and girls there are when they work together in small groups.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The nursery identifies any children who are gifted and talented. These children are given challenging work and make good progress. For example, the creative skills of one pupil are used as a school logo.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 A strong focus on storytelling and a weekly library day ensures that children enjoy books. This results in children of all abilities being able to act out favourite parts of stories. Some more-able children identify simple words and name several letters and the sounds they make. Many children are on the way to becoming confident young readers.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Care workers plan suitable activities that build seamlessly on the skills developed during the school day, while ensuring the before- and after- school sessions are distinct and allow for fun and relaxation.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Very effective use is made of the outdoor area and there are lots of activities to develop physical and creative skills. During the inspection children loved being outside investigating the properties of snow and ice. Photographic evidence shows that the outdoor area is very well used throughout the seasons.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Good teaching, well-organised indoor and outdoor learning environments and a varied range of activities help children enjoy their time at nursery and learn well. Adults are very sensitive to the emotional needs of the children and are usually quick to adapt sessions according to the children’s responses.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Adults give children lots of praise. This provides them with the confidence to try new things and work with others.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Most adults ask a good range of questions to encourage the children to reflect on or talk about what they are doing. This helps to improve their understanding. Occasionally, however, some staff miss opportunities to get the children to use new words or talk about their activity.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Staff usually plan activities well so that children readily find an activity that interests them or join in happily with adult led learning. Occasionally, adults do not pitch the work or resources at the right level and when this happens time is wasted. For example, sometimes children sit waiting at a computer for an adult to start an appropriate learning activity.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Adults reflect on how well activities went at the end of each day. This, and weekly reviews of how well individual children are doing, helps teachers and support staff check how well children are progressing and to plan their next steps in learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching for children in the enhanced resource facility is outstanding. Staff are very clear about the individual challenges the children face because their needs are identified precisely at an early stage. Details of individual progress are recorded, no matter how small the step. Each day activities are matched precisely to the children’s needs.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Staff working with children in the enhanced resource facility are very good at recognising when individuals are struggling or upset. They make astute adjustments which help to keep children on track and learning from every opportunity.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Throughout the day, including before and after school, staff strike an effective balance between supporting children directly and giving them opportunities to be increasingly independent.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Behaviour is good inside and outdoors. Children enjoy each other’s company. All groups of children, including those who attend the enhanced resourced facility, play and work together happily.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Children say they like coming to nursery and that they feel safe. Staff talk with children regularly about the importance of other people’s feelings and the children are aware of what the school expects from each of them.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 On the few occasions when children lose concentration, it is because they are left for too long working without adult support or the activity is too challenging for them.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Adults give sensitive support so that children are willing to have a go at unfamiliar activities. As a result, children choose activities confidently and, particularly when outdoors, are aware of the importance of keeping themselves and others safe.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 There is a good focus on helping children become independent and they have lots of opportunities to follow their own interests. Children are learning to care for the environment and animals. For example, they take great care when collecting the eggs produced by Madge and Marley, the school chickens.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Children learn well to understand different cultures and lifestyles. For example, two girls readily adapted a meal they had prepared so that it was just right for a member of staff who did not eat ham.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Children in the enhanced resource facility behave exceptionally well and make outstanding progress in their personal development, especially in becoming more independent.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher is held in high regard by the whole school community. She provides dynamic leadership which challenges under-performance to ensure that the nursery maintains its strengths. Her dedication to serve young children, including those who attend the enhanced provision, inspires the whole community to look for continual improvement.

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The leadership and management are good

 Staff morale is high. They work well together to plan and provide a range of activities that meets the different needs of the children. Staff questionnaires were extremely positive about all aspects of the nursery.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school’s curriculum takes full account of the children’s interests. Activities hold children’s attention and encourage them to learn successfully. The outstanding range of opportunities for learning outside excites children and promotes their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively.

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The leadership and management are good

 The enhanced learning facility is led and managed outstandingly well by the headteacher/ special needs coordinator and the lead professional for children with special needs. This ensures that staff benefit from good links with other agencies and that each day disabled children and children with special educational needs learn and play alongside other children. In this way the nursery promotes their equal opportunities extremely successfully.

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The leadership and management are good

 There is a good programme of training for staff. The professional development of care staff is included in this programme. Since being managed by the school, the quality of provision for children who attend the child care sessions has improved.

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The leadership and management are good

 Teachers’ performance is monitored closely. The headteacher uses information from lesson observations and data about children’s progress to decide whether teachers have met their performance targets and merit salary increases. The nursery has not yet established links with the nearby schools the children join to get an external check on the accuracy of their judgements about the children’s achievements.

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The leadership and management are good

 The nursery is extremely successful in the way it works with parents and carers. Its provision, including its care, is highly valued. Issues raised by parents and carers are responded to very effectively. Parents and carers have many opportunities to become involved in their children’s learning.

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The leadership and management are good

 The local authority has an appropriately light touch approach to this good school. A School Improvement Partner has provided an external view on the quality of teaching and the local authority has assisted the governing body on matters such as safeguarding and staff attendance. The nursery values all of these activities.

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The leadership and management are good

 Procedures to safeguard the children meet current government requirements.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  Members of the governing body have a range of expertise which enables it to be effective. Governors know about the progress children make, the quality of teaching and how decisions about the salary progression of staff are made.  Governors ask challenging questions of senior leaders to ensure that they have a good understanding of all areas of the nursery’s work. They set performance targets for the headteacher linked to the achievement of the children.  Governors play an active role in planning for improvement. They visit the school regularly to gain first-hand knowledge of the nursery’s effectiveness and so are not entirely dependent on the staff for information.  The governing body gives good support to all aspects of the nursery’s work. Its effectiveness has increased since the previous inspection. Governors have benefited from training provided by the local authority. This enables them, for example, to make an informed check on how

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The leadership and management are good

well the school meets requirements for safeguarding.

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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 112472 Local authority Derby Inspection number 401267

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Nursery School category Community Age range of pupils 3–4 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 77 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Karen Hargraves Headteacher Clare Cossor Date of previous school inspection 16-17 September 2009 Telephone number 01332 342647 Fax number N/A Email address head@central.derby.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, please

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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’.

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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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