Great Coates Village Nursery School

Great Coates Village Nursery School Station Road, Great Coates, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, DN37 9NN

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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 Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  Children achieve well from their individual starting points. The large majority have a good level of development by the end of the Nursery Year.  Children make outstanding progress in their personal, social, emotional and physical development.  The provision for learning outdoors is a notable strength. The outdoor activities are extremely varied, interesting and fun.  Teaching is good. Staff are very good at helping children to explore and work things out for themselves.  Behaviour is outstanding. Children are friendly, inquisitive, active young people who enjoy discovering and making things.  Children feel very safe and readily turn to staff for help if they are troubled. Parents agree that their children are very happy in the nursery.  The leadership of teaching is a strength. As a result, teaching continues to be consistently good.  Governors provide good levels of support and

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

challenge to ensure children achieve well. The nursery’s performance has continued to improve since the last inspection as a result.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teaching is not yet outstanding. Support for children’s developing communication, language and literacy skills is not quite as effective as in other areas of learning.  Sometimes children do not have time to answer questions or talk with a partner.  When children learn a new letter and sound, they do not practise using them afterwards.  Teachers do not provide key staff and other adults with relevant vocabulary for specific areas of learning so that they can use it in their teaching to enrich children’s language development.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed 10 lessons or parts of lessons taught by five staff.  The inspector held meetings with the headteacher, staff, the Chair of the Governing Body, one other governor and a representative from a private company that is in partnership with the local authority for school improvement.  The inspection took into account the 18 responses in the online questionnaire (Parent View). The inspector also talked to some parents informally when they came to collect their children at the end of nursery sessions.

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Inspection team

Lesley Clark, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This nursery is smaller than the average-sized primary school.  Most children are of White British heritage.  A small proportion of children are learning English as an additional language.  The proportion of children supported through early action is below average.  The proportion of children supported through early action plus is below average. None has a statement of special educational needs.  Most children have between three and five terms in nursery before transferring to a Reception class in other schools.  Nursery provision is organised flexibly to accommodate parental requirements between 8am and 5pm.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 In order to improve teaching from good to outstanding and to raise children’s achievement further in communication, language and literacy, staff should:  give children sufficient time to respond to questions that require them to work things out for themselves  give children opportunities to talk to a partner and ask each other questions  give children time to practise their reading and writing skills after they have learnt new letters and sounds.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that teachers provide key staff and other adults with relevant vocabulary for specific areas of learning so that they can use it in their teaching to enrich children’s language development.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children achieve well from starting points that are generally below expected levels for their age, especially in speaking, listening and language skills. By the end of the Nursery Year, the large majority reach a good level of development.  Although children make good progress overall in communication and language, fewer reach a good level of development than in other areas of learning. Some children have unclear speech and are slow to ask or answer questions.  Children make good progress in learning new words through singing nursery rhymes and carols, copying the actions and remembering what comes next. Inventing extra verses challenges the most able children who delight in making the new lines rhyme.  Achievement is good overall in literacy. Children know ‘you have to open it’ to read books with pop-up flaps and they enjoy ‘reading’ to toys and showing them the pictures. They like ‘writing’ on clipboards and try to write their names.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children learn to understand how letters and sounds link together (phonics) but have little opportunity to capitalise on new learning because they do not have time to practise reading and writing them afterwards.  Children make good progress in mathematical development. Activities, such as throwing the beanbag on to 24 numbered squares, help them to use big numbers.  Indoors, programming a toy to move a specific number of squares to get through the tunnel and then turn to go through another one challenges the most able children. However, because some staff do not know which words to emphasise they miss opportunities to extend children’s understanding of terms such as ‘over’, ‘under’ and ‘through’.  Children achieve well in expressive arts and design and in understanding the world. They construct dens using differently sized pieces of cloth which they secure with large pegs, for instance. When they explored ‘pretend snow’ they worked out that ice was ‘blocks of water’.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Overall, children make the best progress in their personal, social, emotional and physical development. Their achievement is outstanding in these areas of learning. The widely varied outdoor activities, such as the obstacle course or building a castle wall which children modified to be even more challenging, encourage children to play together, balance, climb and construct inventively.  Children who are supported through early action or early action plus or who are learning English as an additional language make good progress. This is because they are taught language skills in a small group but also access all the other activities just like everyone else, well supported by adults.  The nursery clearly promotes equality of opportunity and tackles discrimination successfully.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Adults are very well organised. There is no learning time wasted because children know exactly what they are doing and when.  The balance of taught activities and those that children lead themselves results in all groups of children enjoying enough chances to deepen their learning well throughout the day.  In particular, the session when everyone learns outside, which supplements free-choice sessions, leads to excellent achievement in children’s social and physical development because the activities encourage discovery and exploration.  Staff are skilled at playing with children to extend their understanding. For example, they helped the most able children to discover that interlocking large bricks made a stronger structure than aligning tall columns.  Similarly, staff are good at helping children who are supported through early action, early action plus or who are learning English as an additional language. In one session, for instance, they

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The quality of teaching is good

used mirrors so that children could see how their mouths moved when they made different sounds.  Children become increasingly confident learners because staff use praise well to encourage and support their growing investigative skills.  Staff tend to ask simple questions. They do not ask questions that require children to think and do not always give them sufficient time to respond. Children have few opportunities to talk to a partner and ask each other questions in adult-led sessions to raise their achievement further.  A strength is the way that staff make careful observations of children’s progress, noting down changes and using this information to set further challenges, especially for the most able children. Staff are quick to spot when children need extra help or when they need to move on to a different task because they know the children so well.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Children quickly settle into the nursery routines. They self-register and join their special group, eager to start on the day’s tasks. They line up sensibly when it is time to move to a different building.  Children show a great deal of independence for their age. They help themselves to a snack when they are hungry, carefully placing different portions of fruit on a plate, carrying it to the table and sitting down sociably with others. Similarly, at lunchtimes, children unpack their lunch boxes and take lids and wrappers off food competently.  Tidy-up time is speedy and efficient because children know exactly what to do and waste no time in doing so. They readily help each other to carry large items and double-check to make sure they have completed the task properly.  Children soon know what is needed to be ready to learn. They listen and concentrate very well indeed, following instructions carefully. For example, outdoors, children wobbled like ‘jelly

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

beans’, ran like ‘runner beans’ then flopped flat on the ground when ‘beans on toast’ was called. They also like inventing their own, suggesting a ‘dinosaur walk’, for example, which involved walking on tiptoes and growling.  Children clearly feel safe. They treat each other considerately. They like playing with their friends. They take turns and share and, on the rare occasion when someone snatches something, they know they have to say sorry. Some children know the nursery rules off by heart, chanting, ‘We care, we share, we walk, we talk and we always remember to listen.’  Parents agree that their children are very happy. They are confident that they are safe and that staff look after their children extremely well. Attendance levels are high with over two-thirds of children rarely missing a day.

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The leadership and management are good

 The nursery’s good provision and practice have been achieved by good leadership and management. Through accurate self-evaluation, the headteacher and governors know exactly what to do to ensure its good rate of improvement continues.  The leadership of teaching is a notable strength, resulting in consistently good teaching over time. Performance management and appraisal are used wisely to ensure that teaching is consistently effective.  The headteacher checks the quality of teaching systematically and gives very good pointers to help staff to improve their practice. An excellent feature is the way she checks staff’s interactions with children regularly to ensure they are effective and productive. Staff observe each other’s practice and try out the ideas that they learn from each other. These features have improved significantly since the last inspection.  All key staff have individual strengths that relate to their middle leadership roles. This is reflected

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The leadership and management are good

in the interesting activities they devise to promote children’s learning.  Although staff are aware of the need to promote children’s communication, language and literacy skills, because it is part of the nursery’s improvement plan, teachers do not promote specific language for their areas of learning. This means that staff do not tend to use subject specific vocabulary in their teaching which reduces the opportunities to enrich children’s language development and raise achievement further.  The private company that is in partnership with the local authority for school improvement gives light touch support. The nursery ensures its staff access continuing professional development through its links with local schools and sharing training events.  The nursery takes great care to ensure children and staff are safe. Safeguarding meets current government requirements.  The governance of the school:  Governance has improved significantly since the last inspection. Governors check and evaluate

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The leadership and management are good

the nursery’s work regularly through monthly visits, checking provision as well as different aspects of the nursery’s work, such as finance. The minutes of governing body meetings confirm that governors ask challenging questions, particularly about children’s achievement. They question the school’s data and set challenging performance management targets. Governors are closely involved in decision-making and have a good understanding of staffing. They clearly see their role as driving improvement through asking questions and satisfying themselves that the actions the nursery takes fully support children’s achievement and well- being.

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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 117697 Local authority North East Lincolnshire Inspection number 425728

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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 3–4 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 63 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair James Drury Headteacher Christine Penszor Date of previous school inspection 16 November 2010 Telephone number 01472 231231 Fax number 01472 320040 Email address office@gvc.nelcmail.co.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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