Randolph Beresford Early Years Centre

Randolph Beresford Early Years Centre Australia Road, White City, London, W12 7PH

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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.  The school continues to provide outstanding care, support and education for the children.  Children start Nursery with levels of skills and knowledge that are considerably below those typical for their age. By the time they leave Nursery, they make outstanding progress to reach standards that are close to those expected for their age.  Children make rapid progress with acquiring communication and language skills because staff interact with them effectively to develop their speaking and listening skills. This particularly benefits children at the early stages of learning English who, as a result, make excellent progress.  Children’s personal, social and emotional development is particularly weak when they enter Nursery. As a result of outstanding teaching and support, they quickly develop a good sense of themselves, form positive relationships and develop their social skills.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Children do particularly well in their physical development and well-being through active play and through making choices in relation to food.  Children are provided with a range of opportunities to practise and apply their skills in mathematics.  Children have a great love for outdoor learning, which provides a rich and supportive environment for interaction and exploration and makes a strong contribution to their understanding of the world.  Disabled children and those with special educational needs make excellent progress because of the individualised and specialised support and care they receive.  Behaviour and safety are outstanding. Children get on well with each other and have very positive attitudes to their learning.  The headteacher, who is ably supported by other leaders and managers, provides excellent leadership to bring about continued improvement in teaching and achievement.  The strong partnership with parents and carers

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

has improved attendance and helps them to support their children’s learning more effectively.  The governors know the school exceptionally well, including its strengths and areas for development, and they provide the appropriate levels of support and challenge to help drive improvements.  The progress of boys is not as good as that of the girls. The school is fully aware of this and is addressing this through planned actions.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed teaching and learning sessions both indoors and outdoors, most of which were joint observations with the headteacher, including one with a senior teacher.  The inspector examined: children’s work; school policies, including documents on safeguarding and behaviour; the school’s plan for improvement; and the school’s information on the progress and attendance of children.  The inspector spoke with three school governors and held telephone calls with the Chair of the Governing Body and a representative of the local authority. He held meetings with the headteacher and middle leaders and a telephone call with the deputy headteacher.  The inspector spoke to parents and carers informally at the start of the school day. The school’s most recent survey of parents and carers was considered. The online Parent View survey could not be accessed because there were insufficient responses from parents and carers. The

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Information about this inspection

inspector also considered 17 questionnaires completed by staff.

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Inspection team

Avtar Sherri, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a larger than average-sized nursery school.  Children come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds. The majority of children are from Black or Black or British African background, with children from White British and Black or Black British backgrounds forming the next sizeable groups.  The proportion of children from minority ethnic backgrounds is well above average, as is the proportion of children who speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of children known to be eligible for free school meals is well above average.  The proportion of disabled children and those who have special educational needs who are supported by school action is average; the proportion supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is well above average.  About a quarter of the children join or leave the school other than at the usual times.  The school organises and manages a breakfast club and after-school provision.

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Information about this school

 The children’s centre and the provision for children under three years old that share the school site are the subject of separate inspection arrangements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the attainment of boys by ensuring that activities are always targeted to challenge their thinking and develop their skills and understanding.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children enter Nursery with skills and knowledge that are exceptionally lower than those typical for their age.  The high quality of teaching, care and support, including engaging activities, contributes positively to children’s outstanding progress in all areas of learning. As a result, children leave the Nursery with attainment that is close to what is typically expected for their age.  Nearly all groups of pupils make outstanding progress from their starting points. Boys start Nursery with levels of skills and knowledge below those of girls and their progress lags behind girls in all areas of learning. Opportunities are missed sometimes to ensure activities are sufficiently targeted at boys to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding further.  Disabled children and those who have special educational needs make outstanding progress because their needs are effectively met through specific plans, high-quality support, specialised

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

resources, and through working with a range of other professionals.  Children at an early stage of learning English make rapid progress in their acquisition of English language. There are plenty of opportunities for them to interact with other pupils and staff so that they use their speaking and listening skills as much as possible to develop their confidence in communication and spoken English quickly. These children also make excellent progress in all areas of learning. The school ensures that equal opportunities are promoted well to meet the needs of these learners.  Children who are known to be eligible for free school meals also make excellent progress and their progress is particularly strong in physical development and personal, social and emotional development.  Children enjoy looking at books, and staff use a range of books to read to them. Parents and carers are encouraged to come into the classroom to read to their children at the start of the

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

day and borrow books to read to their children at home.  Children make good progress in mark making and early writing skills. For example, children use paint brushes, charcoal and sand to create different marks and patterns.  There are excellent opportunities for children to develop their mathematical knowledge and skills. They sing number songs, including songs involving counting down from a number, develop a concept of time by seeing how long it takes to warm up food in a microwave and measuring how far they can jump.  Opportunities to develop children’s physical development are excellent. Children thoroughly enjoy learning outdoors where they show confidence in riding bikes, climbing obstacles, jumping from wooden structures and seeing how far they can jump, and running against each other to pick up a bean bag and take it back to the starting point.  The outdoor learning environment is also effective in developing their understanding of the

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

world through learning about how fires start and how they are put out by fire fighters. They work out how a fire fighter can get a ‘cat’ down from a tree and collect twigs and leaves to represent porridge in the ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ story they have been reading.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 School leaders have been highly successful in ensuring that the teaching has remained outstanding since the previous inspection. This is because leaders and managers, including governors, are ambitious. As a result, children make rapid progress at school.  Staff are extremely caring and want children to do their very best in a range of exciting and engaging activities that they plan for them. They know the children well through observing and tracking their progress, and hold end-of-day evaluation meetings to plan and modify tasks for the next day as part of the next steps in children’s learning. There are weekly ‘child of concern’ team meetings for children who do not make enough progress and through strong links with parents and carers. Children enjoy looking at and talking about their previous work with staff, and their photographs of their learning provide good opportunities for these discussions.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Staff provide rich opportunities for pupils who speak English as additional language and those with speech difficulties to improve their language and develop their vocabulary through encouraging children to speak in planned activities and by effectively modelling spoken English.  Teaching is creative and engaging and helps children to make choices in the activities they want to be involved in, both indoors and outdoors. Their experience is enriched through a very good balance between staff-led and child-initiated activities. For example, a group of children in one class decided to make some cakes for another child because it was her birthday, without any staff involvement. They put saucepans on their ‘cooker’ and made imaginary cakes and served them on plates to each other and sang ‘happy birthday’ to the girl. They then decided to go out to join in with some of the staff-led activities.  Children particularly enjoy making breakfast in the morning. This is linked to prior learning

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

where they decide what to make. They have opportunities to enhance their mathematical skills through counting the number of spoons of porridge they are going to use, and develop their listening and understanding skills through following staff’s instructions on the different steps involved in the recipe, including cutting fruit and mixing it in with the porridge. Once they have made their porridge, they are excited to show the end results to other children.  Children love learning in the outside area. There is a wide range of exciting and engaging activities to capture their interest. The activities are carefully planned to promote a range of skills, including communication and language and personal, social and emotional development. For example, children involved in cooking activity have to imagine there is a fire and have to think about what action they would take. Children learn about the emergency number for the

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

fire brigade and the teacher rings the number. Then a group of children dressed as fire-fighters turn up with hose pipes to extinguish the fire. This activity also made a strong contribution to promoting children’s knowledge of the world.  In another activity, children dressed as fire-fighters have to work out how they would rescue a ‘cat’ from a small tree. There are rich interactions between staff and children to maximise the opportunities for children to improve their confidence, communication skills and to extend their learning. Staff use very good questioning skills to test children’s understanding and engage children effectively in speaking and listening. However, there are sometimes insufficient opportunities for boys to extend their thinking and develop their understanding further.  Parents and carers speak highly of the teachers and the progress their children make. One said that her child ‘comes home happy and singing’. Another parent or carer of a child who speaks

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

English as an additional language said that her child receives such good support at school that ‘her English is now better than mine!’

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Children from all backgrounds get on extremely well with each other. They are polite, kind and show respect to each other and adults. Considering that the children are in school all day in the Nursery, their behaviour is exemplary and contributes well to their rapid learning.  They enjoy coming to school and this is reflected in their much improved attendance since the previous inspection. Most parents and carers ensure that their children attend regularly and arrive on time. One parent or carer said that his child ‘loves school so much that he wants to stay here longer’.  Children know about school rules on behaviour and how to behave. They are, therefore, able to check their behaviour and that of others. For example, in one activity a boy threw some ‘snow’ from a tray on to the floor; he was very quickly reminded how to behave by a girl!  Strong links with parents and carers through home visits and a four-week settling in programme

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

for children, which includes a parent or carer staying for a week with the child with the involvement of a key worker, help the children to settle quickly. There are good links with schools that children attend when they leave the Nursery, including visits to the Nursery by teachers from schools, and a transition record of a child is passed on to the new school.  Children’s behaviour is managed exceptionally well by all adults. Very occasionally when a child is unkind to another child, adults take time and care to explain to the child why their behaviour is unacceptable, the focus being on children always understanding right from wrong and taking responsibility for their own behaviour.  Children show high levels of independence and responsibility. They know where to hang their coats when they come into the classrooms in the morning and when to wear warm clothes when going out into the playground. In a physical activity session in the hall, children were

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

encouraged to put on their socks and shoes by themselves after the activity. Children eat lunch in small groups with staff; they make their own choices of healthy foods and serve themselves. They are careful not make any mess and are keen to keep everything tidy. The lunchtime is very calm and gives further opportunities for children to socialise and for staff to interact with children and talk about their learning. The kitchen garden helps children to grow and eat what they plant and this further contributes to their understanding of the world.  The school records show that any serious behaviour, including racial situations, is extremely rare. Almost all parents and carers agree that behaviour is at least good, as do staff who responded to the staff questionnaire.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher, governors and other leaders have extremely high aspirations for the school and children. The headteacher provides exceptional leadership and works effectively with governors in providing clear and strong educational direction, based on continuous improvement and shared by other leaders and managers. As a result, the school has been highly successful in sustaining and improving on its previous outstanding practice.  Middle managers, some of whom are relatively new to the role, have a firm understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development. They make a positive contribution to the development of the school improvement plan by writing their own action plans on areas of improvement. For example, they know that there is an attainment gap between boys’ and girls’ achievement in some areas of learning and have worked with senior leaders in developing a plan to address this. They have an opportunity to observe the quality of learning and feedback to

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The leadership and management are outstanding

staff to bring about improvements. They are increasingly involved in bringing about some rapid improvements in children’s records of work so that the next steps in their learning are clear.  The school improvement plan identifies the right priorities to bring about improvements in teaching and the raising of children’s achievement. The tracking of children’s progress is accurate and helps leaders to quickly identify individuals and groups of children who are not making sufficient progress so they can be given appropriate support.  There is a rigorous system in place to monitor the quality of teaching and learning and for staff training and development. All staff are encouraged to develop their skills and study for further qualifications and degree courses, including support staff in moving on to become qualified teachers. Performance management of staff is robust, and this links in strongly to children’s

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The leadership and management are outstanding

progress and the school's main priorities for improvement. There is also a clear link between teachers’ pay and the quality of their teaching.  The school promotes children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively. Children from all backgrounds engage with each other well and show respect for each other’s feelings. They respond well to the opportunities provided for them to be imaginative and creative, particularly in the outdoor learning areas where they develop their understanding of the world. There is a sense of togetherness through play, during lunchtimes and when they sing together.  There are effective links with parents and carers with a wide range of support and guidance for families. The school works effectively with other agencies to provide children, particularly those vulnerable to underachievement, and families with the support they need. This has had a good positive impact on improving attendance and the progress children make in their learning. As

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The leadership and management are outstanding

one parent or carer said to the inspector, ‘I wish my child could stay in this school for longer’!  Parents, carers and staff are very positive about leadership. As one member of staff commented on the headteacher in the staff questionnaire, ‘He is very supportive and inspirational.’  The local authority provides light-touch support for this outstanding nursery.  Safeguarding checks are robust and meet the accepted requirements. As one member of staff commented in the questionnaire, ‘Child protection protocols are fantastically implemented – no stone is left unturned’.  The governance of the school:  Governors know the school really well and have an excellent understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. They receive high-quality information from the headteacher and take steps to find information for themselves, including through regular visits to the school. They also attend training to update themselves and enhance their skills,

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The leadership and management are outstanding

including training for new governors, financial management and safeguarding. There are governors who have background experience in early years, finance and those with a firm knowledge of the local community. This helps governors to perform their role effectively, including providing the appropriate support and challenge and holding senior leaders accountable for the work they do. They are aware of the quality of teaching, and how this is linked to children’s progress, including how it is linked to performance management systems and pay scales. They ensure the efficient management of financial resources and know how the funding is spent and its impact on raising achievement. All statutory duties are met, including arrangements 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 100315 Local authority Hammersmith and Fulham Inspection number 425486

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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 Community Age range of pupils 3–4 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 97 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Alice Harlan Headteacher Michael Pettavel Date of previous school inspection 3–4 November 2010 Telephone number 020 8743 7339 Fax number 020 8749 7723 Email address admin@randolphberesford.lbhf.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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