Canterbury Nursery School and Centre for Children and Families

Canterbury Nursery School and Centre for Children and Families Basil Street, Bradford, West Yorskshire, BD5 9HL

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 While teaching has recently improved across the school, it is not leading to all children achieving well. This is because not enough teaching is good and there is no outstanding teaching.  Although children’s achievement is improving, it varies too much across the areas of learning.  In some activities, staff do not use and encourage enough open-ended questions, model being a thinker or use children’s own interests well.  The role of teachers and early years practitioners as key workers for groups of children is underdeveloped.  Some staff do not make enough use of facial expression, eye contact or their hands and fingers to help their communication with children.  Leaders do not have enough links with other nursery schools or external early years advisers to ensure that their evaluations of the school are always accurate.  Staff do not have good opportunities to observe and learn from outstanding teaching.

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 Some checks on the work of the school by the governing body are not clearly planned and focused enough.

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The school has the following strengths

 The head of centre and deputy headteacher are working effectively to improve the school and are clear about the direction that the school must take to improve further.  Children are looked after well. They feel safe, are happy and behave well.  Support for children’s home language is good. Children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well.  Children accessing a specially resourced place for those with special educational needs make good progress from their starting points. 2 of 9

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed learning and teaching in three nursery sessions and spoke to children. Some teaching was observed jointly with the deputy headteacher.  Meetings were held with four members of the governing body including parent governors. A telephone discussion was held with the chair of governors. Other meetings were held with senior staff and a representative of the local authority.  The inspector looked at a number of documents, including school records of the quality of teaching, records of teacher targets, data about children’s progress, self-evaluation and the school development plans.  There were no responses available in the online Parent View survey at the time of the inspection. However, the inspector did consider 126 responses to a recent parent survey conducted by the school.

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Inspection team

Tim Vaughan, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector 3 of 9

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Information about this school

 Canterbury is a larger than average-sized nursery school.  The school brings together early years education and care with support for families on one site. It was created in 1985 through the amalgamation of Horton Park Nursery School and Canterbury Day Nursery to become the first combined centre in Bradford. It has since benefited from participation in a range of initiatives including as an Early Excellence Centre.  The school is led by a head of centre who, with the governing body, is also responsible for a phase one children’s centre (designated in July 2004) and an early years setting, Canterbury Children’s Centre and Nursery School. A deputy headteacher has been appointed since the previous inspection and leads learning and teaching within the school.  Both the children’s centre and early years setting were not inspected during this inspection.  The proportion of children who receive extra help from school staff because they have been

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Information about this school

identified as having special educational needs (school action) is above average. The proportion who are supported by external specialists because of their needs (school action plus) is above average.  The school has 16 specially resourced places for children with special educational needs. Children have a range of learning difficulties. All are included in the classes with other children. At the time of the inspection, six of these places were taken by children.  The heritage of children attending the school has become more diverse since the previous inspection. The vast majority of children are Pakistani with the remainder from a range of other ethnic groups.  Half of the children are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language.  Since the previous inspection there have been a lot of changes of teachers employed at the school. Currently, one teacher is a newly qualified teacher.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching across the areas of learning by making sure that all staff:  use and encourage open-ended questions  model being a thinker  make more use of children’s interests when supporting and extending children’s learning  use eye contact, facial expression, hands and fingers when communicating with children  meet regularly with their allocated children for a short key worker group time  have opportunities to observe and learn from outstanding teaching.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen leadership and management by:  making more links with other nursery schools and early years advisers to provide external support and challenge to school self-evaluation  increasing opportunities for members of the governing body to check aspects of the school’s work through planned, focused visits. 4 of 9

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Across the areas of learning, children start nursery school with skills, knowledge and development that are below those expected of three-year-olds. By the time that children move on to primary school their attainment is low. This means that the progress that children make from their starting points is not yet good.  Learning and progress vary between areas of learning. For example, children made much greater progress in 2012 in their personal, social and emotional development than their communication, language and literacy. Too few children are not exceeding the expected rate of progress, because of weaknesses in the quality of teaching.  Recently introduced initiatives, which include starting some three-year-olds in school early, are helping to improve the rate at which learning takes place. As a result, children are beginning to make more rapid progress than in previous years.  School leaders have correctly identified raising children’s achievement in mathematics as a

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

priority for improvement. Recent staff training in numeracy is beginning to improve children’s learning.  Children with special educational needs who access the school’s specially resourced places benefit from the close support of allocated staff. Consequently, such children make small but individually significant steps in their own learning. This is tracked well by staff and children’s progress is good. By contrast, the achievement of other children with special educational needs and disabled children requires improvement because their progress is not good enough due to weaknesses in teaching.  Children from a Pakistani heritage benefit from the good language support given by multilingual staff. However, like other children in the school, they could achieve more. They are currently making better progress than they did previously because of improvements to teaching.  Children enjoy rhymes, listening to stories and looking at the good range of books in classrooms

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

and outdoors. Staff share books well with children. However, the slow progress in some children’s language development is limiting their ability to develop book-related language and understand the sounds that letters make.  Children have adequate opportunities to develop early writing skills including with chalks and painting outdoors. Adults model writing well in group activities. As a result, some children during the inspection approached the inspector and chose to make marks and write letters from their names on his clipboard.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Since the previous inspection there have been lots of changes of staffing in the school. Consequently, some teaching has been inadequate. The quality of teaching has improved recently and it is good overall. However, some teaching still requires improvement.  When teaching is good, teachers and early years practitioners provide children with a balance of activities that children choose for themselves and those that are led by adults. Staff join in with children’s play and investigations sensitively rather than just supervising.  Based upon listening closely to children, some staff use thoughtful, open-ended questions to develop children’s thinking. For example, a teacher showed children a strawberry, a lemon, a flower and some curry powder. While the children explored, she asked questions such as, ‘what does it smell like?’ This was helped by a support worker translating the activity into Urdu and

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

Punjabi. Consequently, children made good progress in their learning.  Staff planning makes good use of festivals such as Eid and Diwali and celebrations such as Black History week. These activities support children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 5 of 9

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

well.  In activities where teaching requires improvement, staff use too many questions to which children can only answer yes or no, rather than give a range of thoughtful answers. More-able children are also not supported as well as they could be. In some teaching staff do not model being a thinker or use children’s own interests as a basis for creating interesting learning opportunities. This leads to short-lived activities that do not sustain children’s involvement or enthusiasm.  The use of regular group times for children to learn with their allocated key worker is patchy. As a result, not all opportunities are being used to help children to develop confidence and trust in their allocated member of staff. It also means that some children do not benefit as well as they could from the greater attention to their individual needs in a small group.  Children, including those experiencing difficulties with language or learning to speak English as

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

an additional language are growing in their confidence to communicate. This is also true for those children who access the specially resourced places. This is because all staff speak gently to children, listen to what they are saying and model spoken English clearly and precisely. However, some staff do not make good use of eye contact, facial expression or their hands and fingers to help their communication with children. This prevents children from making even greater progress in activities.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 All staff help children learn self-control, be confident and to understand school routines and expectations. As a result, children’s behaviour is good. There are no recorded instances of bullying. Parents and carers are overwhelmingly supportive of children’s behaviour at the school.  Children are friendly to one another, mix well together and there is no record of discrimination. They are accepting of differences between people, partly because the school places an emphasis upon valuing each child and family as unique.  Children enjoy school and they regularly help to tidy up the nursery at the end of the session. One child said to the visiting inspector, ‘well, aren’t you going to help us tidy?’  Clear routines and support from staff, for example, in how to carry scissors, mean that every effort is made to keep children safe. Children wash their hands regularly and take great care in using resources sensibly in their play and activities.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Although at this age attendance is not compulsory, the school checks children’s daily attendance to see if there is a pattern of when children do not attend. They are working closely with parents to help them understand the importance of learning through being at school each day and how this is important preparation for later schooling.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership overall is not good because children’s progress from their starting points is not consistently good and teaching requires some improvement. Leaders have found it difficult to establish a common approach to teaching because of several changes in staffing. However, leaders have acted well to improve the quality of work by teachers and early years practitioners.  The deputy headteacher demonstrates an accurate understanding of what good learning and teaching look like for young children. She is a good role model for staff in how she interacts with children, is very keen to learn and improve and has a good knowledge of the new Early Years Foundation Stage framework. The leadership of the specially resourced provision is strong and ensures children’s good progress through skilled teaching and a clear understanding of their individual needs.  Improvement targets for teachers and early years practitioners are based on whole-school

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The leadership and management requires improvement

developments and personal needs. Decisions about teacher pay are closely linked to targets and children’s achievement. Training and support have been given to all staff, and while there is 6 of 9

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The leadership and management requires improvement

evidence of some impact, staff do not have enough opportunities to observe and learn from outstanding teaching.  Leaders review children’s achievement data regularly to check progress against the Early Years Foundation Stage framework and use this to ask questions about the quality of teaching and learning for different groups of children. They recognise that the next step is to use actual numbers and percentages of children achieving each development band of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework, rather than average point scores.  Staff work effectively to ensure that the welfare of all children is monitored closely. Children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted effectively through visits, visitors, books, displays and celebrations backed up by a close focus upon how to lead healthy lives. Safeguarding requirements are met, meaning that all required efforts are made to ensure that

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The leadership and management requires improvement

children are safe.  Given the previous success of the school, support from the local authority has been light touch. Links with other nursery schools or external early years advisers have not been used to challenge the school’s evaluation of itself. As a result, some self-evaluation has not been wholly accurate. However, school improvement priorities are clear and appropriate.  The school’s performance has improved over the last year. Leaders show that they are able to identify where changes need to be made and can then lead the required improvements effectively. This demonstrates that the school is well placed to improve further.  The governance of the school:  The governing body asks challenging questions of leaders about children’s achievement and about finance. The governing body has recently had a change of membership and new members are strongly supportive of the school and keen to develop their roles. The chair of

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The leadership and management requires improvement

governors knows about the links between teacher’s pay and the quality of teaching and the work undertaken to improve inadequate teaching. The expertise of governors is being developed well through access to training and an annual evaluation day that takes place with the whole-staff team and governing body. Members of the governing body take an adequate overview of safeguarding. Although members of the governing body know the school well and visit regularly, some of their checks on the school are not structured well through planned, focused visits. 7 of 9

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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. 8 of 9

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School details

Unique reference number 132815 Local authority Bradford Inspection number 402558

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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 115 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Dale Smith Headteacher Christine McKay Date of previous school inspection 17 May 2010 Telephone number 01274 574539 Fax number 01274 574522 Email address chris.mckay@canterbury.ngfl.ac.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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