Walbrook Nursery School

Walbrook Nursery School Middleton Street, Derby, DE23 8QJ

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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

 The exceptional leadership and high-quality teaching have maintained outstanding care and achievement for all children.  The key to the school’s success is the headteacher’s drive to secure excellence. Staff constantly reflect and evaluate the quality of their work in order to improve still further.  Adults are highly skilled in planning exciting and relevant activities. All learning areas, including the ‘Forest School’ offer a wide range of activities, developed from the childrens’ interests, to secure rapid progress and high levels of motivation.  Children feel very safe and enjoy coming to school. Their behaviour and attitudes to learning are exemplary, as is their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. They are happy, confident and co-operative learners.  The governing body knows the school well. Governors work effectively with the headteacher and provide a good balance of support and challenge.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Staff know precisely what every child is capable of. They tailor work to the needs of different ability groups, so that work is not too easy or too hard. Every child has an equal opportunity to achieve their best, no matter what their circumstances or background.  Outstanding teaching is secured by rigorous and accurate checks, as well as targeted training and support for all staff.  Partnerships with parents are exceptional. Parents are fully involved in their child’s learning because staff keep them fully up to date on their child’s progress. Staff provide excellent guidance on how they can support their child’s learning at home. 

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed children learning in a wide range of activities, including those they had chosen for themselves and others led by adults, including small-group work in literacy and mathematics. Seven learning sessions were observed, and several part-lessons were observed, the majority of these jointly with the headteacher.  The inspector spoke with children about their learning. Displays and records of children’s work, as well as some of the children’s ‘learning journey’ folders, were examined.  The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at progress and attainment data, the school’s development plan, curriculum plans, documentation from the governing body, notes on the checks made on the quality of teaching, arrangements for safeguarding and those for the promotion of attendance.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, members of staff with specific responsibilities, and members of the governing body. The inspector also spoke to the representative of the local

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Information about this inspection

authority.  The inspector took account of the 32 responses to the online survey (Parent View) and the results of the school’s consultation with parents. The inspector spoke to a number of parents who stayed to see their children settle into the nursery. Questionnaires completed by 11 members of the school staff were also considered.

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Inspection team

Mary Hinds, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is an average-sized nursery school.  Children are taught in a large shared open-plan area with small group areas off the main space.  Children attend for five part-time sessions each week.  A high proportion of children speak English as an additional language. There are 16 different languages spoken, the most common being Urdu. Approximately three quarters of children are of Pakistani heritage.  The proportion of children known to be eligible for free school meals is much higher than the national average. There is no pupil premium funding for these children because they are not old enough to qualify.  The proportion of children who need extra help (either at early years action, early years action plus, or who are undergoing assessment for a statement of special educational needs) is above that found in primary schools nationally. There are no comparative figures for nursery schools.  The nursery provides a ‘stay and play’ facility for parents of children up to three years of age, as

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Information about this school

well as English lessons for some parents.  The nursery is in a federation with Pear Tree Infant School. This is subject to separate inspection.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Provide additional resources for children to extend their technological skills further.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 In all areas of learning, children join the nursery with skills that are well below the levels typical for their age. They make rapid progress, particularly in their communication and language skills. By the time they leave the school, the majority attain expected levels for their age, especially in their physical and personal development.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children make excellent progress because staff accurately assess what each child can do. They plan precisely for their next steps in learning, using children’s interests to spark their curiosity and motivation. For example, the recent train ride to Matlock – with its follow-up activities which included role play to extend children’s vocabulary, and counting trains – secured effective learning and excellent rates of progress for all children.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Every opportunity is used to maximise children’s learning, particularly their communication and language skills. When children arrive in the nursery, there is a continuous flow of talk, as adults explain what they are doing and what the children are doing. This increases children’s vocabulary, and their ability to talk to one another and to explain with increasingly clarity their ideas and understanding in sentences.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 This is particularly so for those children for whom English is an additional language. These children make outstanding progress in all areas of learning, especially in extending their vocabulary. Adults know precisely where children are in their language acquisition and match activities precisely to their needs. Several adults are bilingual and paraphrase sentences in the children’s home language as well as in English. This focus on developing English speaking skills is also extended to parents.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children with a range of additional learning needs do exceptionally well in their learning. Their needs are swiftly identified so that the right level of support can be put in place. Staff carefully check the progress these children make towards their targets and adjust the support accordingly to secure good and often rapid progress.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 More-able children make outstanding progress because staff have high expectations for all ability groups. Consequently, they carefully build on what these pupils know to extend their learning. As a result, these children acquire skills knowledge and understanding that is beyond that typically expected for their age.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Weekly ‘Forest School’ activities provide stimulating opportunities for the children to practise, apply and extend their skills in all areas of learning. They enjoy working on their own to problem solve, and they readily co-operate with other. Children learn practically about the world around them. They use all their senses to appreciate the beauty of nature.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Focused literacy sessions develop children’s early reading and writing skills well. For example, children learn about non-fiction books and what a contents page is. They use their growing knowledge of phonics (the sounds letters make) to read key words.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children confidently speak in sentences, asking each other ‘What did you enjoy doing in the forest today?’ The teacher scribes for some children and others have a go at recording their ideas for themselves, increasingly writing the correct initial letters of the words.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children enjoy learning about counting, ordering numbers and writing numerals. They develop their skills through singing, counting on their fingers and jumping as they count, developing their one-to-one correspondence and coordination to music. They use the large number lines displayed to check the accuracy of their counting.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children develop very good physical development as they climb and balance on apparatus. They gain good dexterity when they make imaginary worm cakes, sweep the floor in the kitchen and hang out the washing.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching provides exciting and relevant activities for the children. Staff make excellent use of the children’s’ interest, and adapt subsequent activities in light of their depth of learning, rates of progress and motivation.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Staff plan together and there are on-going checks on the children’s progress, which is recorded weekly. These assessments are used effectively to plan work which is suitably challenging for all ability groups. Parents are invited to record their observations via sticky notes on the ‘learning stories’ display. This provides a holistic picture of every child’s achievement and response to their learning.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Children are taught key literacy and numeracy skills in groups dependent on their ability to make sure that their learning is moved on at a brisk pace. However, although children use information and communication technology confidently, for example, when writing and drawing on the interactive whiteboard, there are too few resources for them to further develop and practise key skills in a different context.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Children are able to choose resources and activities for themselves, supported exceptionally well by the staff, because they are skilled in knowing when to ask questions to extend children’s learning. They know when to stand back and enable the children to find out for themselves, to experiment, and to let them work and concentrate for sustained periods of time on their own or with their friends.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 In zoned areas, skills are promoted through first-hand practical activities using natural materials which invite children to find out for themselves. Children delight in finding worms and snails, or cooking soup in their own kitchen.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Staff check the progress pupils make towards their termly targets, and this information is shared with parents. Through regular workshops, parents are provided with excellent guidance on how to support their child’s’ learning at home.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The behaviour of children is outstanding. This is as a result of highly positive relationships between the staff, children and parents. This strong link is forged even before the children start school, through home visits which enable most children to settle quickly into school life.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Parents and their children are welcomed warmly by staff at the beginning and end of each daily session. Parents usually stay and talk informally to staff or help their child to eat their healthy snack or to write their names on the whiteboards. This secures a very positive and productive start to the session.  Staff have consistently high expectations. There is a sharp focus on developing children’s confidence, self-esteem, and ability to co-operate with each other and to work with perseverance and resilience. They are highly successful, as all children make huge strides in their personal development.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The schools work to keep children safe is also outstanding. There are many opportunities for children to assess and manage risks; for example, how to behave sensibly and to learn about the dangers of fire when preparing to make a campfire in the forest.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 There are no recorded incidents of bullying or racism. Children say they feel safe and their parents agree. Many parents were very keen to give their views about the school during the inspection. They were overwhelmingly positive, with many saying the school was like a ‘big family’ as reflected by one parent who said, ‘The staff treat the children as if they were their own.’

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Attendance is improving, as the school contacts parents on day one if the child is not in school and also takes a hard line on extended holidays taken in term time.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Children learn through a wide range of activities about cultural diversity. Through festivals and themed days – for example, ‘Around the World Fun Day’ – children learn to appreciate and celebrate different cultures, listening to Caribbean stories, playing African drums and learning Polish dancing.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher is totally focused on making sure that all children make the best possible gains, both academically and personally. This has meant that the school has continued to secure excellent provision and outcomes for all children since its last inspection. The teacher-in-charge provides excellent support for the headteacher and the staff.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 All staff share the headteacher’s commitment and passion to continually improve. As a consequence, all have the confidence and willingness to try out new ideas, so that the school continues to evolve in order to meet the needs of the children, parents and the local community. For example, following a recent visit to Italy to observe outstanding practice, staff reorganised both the indoor and outdoor classrooms.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Self-evaluation is accurate because monitoring is regular and all information is used to arrive at secure judgements on the quality of teaching and the progress children make over time. Improvement planning is focused on the right priorities and is a useful tool to assess the school’s work through measurable targets.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Staff relish the training and support they get. As one teacher said, ‘Our continuing professional development is truly valued ... we have time to reflect and plan afterwards for maximum impact...’ This, together with effective performance management of all staff, who are set demanding targets, and the sharing of expertise across the federation, means that the quality of teaching continues to improve.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Assessments of what children know and can do are accurate because there are regular staff meetings across both schools. This sharpening of assessments has led to more rigorous tracking of children’s’ progress, and regular progress meetings ensure that potential underachievement is identified swiftly, with appropriate support put in place if required.  There is excellent extended care, which is managed by the governing body. This provides invaluable support for families so that they are better able to help their child learn at home, as well as preparing younger children’s transition into the nursery.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Partnership work is outstanding. Parents are true partners in their child’s education and they fully appreciate the outstanding work of the school. The local authority recognises the high quality of the school’s work, using it as an example of excellent practice. As a result the school supports other nurseries in the city. The nursery is recognised as a Health Promoting School and has received the Leading Parent Partnership Award for its outstanding work with parents.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school:  The governing body has a good overview of the school’s work. Governors know how well the school is doing because they have detailed information from the headteacher, and they are beginning to gather their own information. As a result, they are influential in making key decisions and in asking demanding questions. Governors are well trained and they understand how well the school is performing in relation to similar schools. They understand the teacher appraisal process and have recently become more involved in ensuring that pay progression is securely linked to the quality of teaching. They work with an external consultant to set and review targets for the headteacher. They ensure that finances are used effectively to secure further improvements and that all statutory requirements are met, including arrangements to keep children safe.

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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 112475 Local authority Derby Inspection number 430684

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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 80 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Ranjodh Sund Headteacher Karen Clark Date of previous school inspection 16 June 2011 Telephone number 01332 772434 Email address admin@walbrook.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

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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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