Sheringham Nursery School & Children's Centre

Sheringham Avenue, Manor Park, London, E12 5PB

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 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.  All groups of children make an excellent start to their education due to outstanding provision. Their progress across all areas of learning is outstanding because of excellent teaching.  Highly successful involvement in specialist programmes to develop children’s language and communication skills ensures children make rapid progress, both in terms of their confidence and in the development of their spoken English.  Excellent teaching through stimulating, challenging activities, that are very thoughtfully prepared and reviewed, enables children to learn exceptionally well.  Children with disabilities and special educational needs receive excellent care, and make similarly rapid progress to their peers.  High quality reading provision ensures children develop a love of reading, a strong interest in tales such as The Three Billy Goats Gruff and nursery rhymes that they sing with

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

huge enjoyment.  Rigorous checks on children’s progress ensure children not doing well enough are fully supported to help them catch up.  There are excellent partnerships with parents, who are very well supported through the range of services on offer, high quality induction for them and their children and opportunities to talk to the headteacher and staff whenever they have any concerns.  Outstanding relationships are a strength of the school. Staff are extremely sensitive to children’s differing needs and consequently promote their learning, health and well-being extremely well.  Behaviour and safety are outstanding. The school provides a calm, caring, and harmonious learning environment.  Children feel extremely safe and well cared for. They are confident, inquisitive learners who approach all that is on offer, wholeheartedly and joyfully.  The headteacher provides outstanding leadership, with a clear and uncompromising

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

focus on providing the very best possible education for the children in his care.  Senior staff share the headteacher’s vision, as can be seen in all they do to promote the children’s excellent learning. Leaders, managers and governors have all worked very successfully to improve teaching and children’s achievement.  Governors provide effective support and challenge to the school and have been fully involved in the school’s drive for excellence.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed 11 lessons or part lessons, of which two were joint observations with senior staff.  Meetings were held with the Vice-Chair of the Governing Body, the leadership team and other staff. Additionally, a telephone conversation was held with a local authority officer.  The inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including the school’s information on children’s current progress, planning and checks on the quality of teaching, records relating to behaviour and attendance, and documents relating to safeguarding.  There were insuficient responses to the online Parent View survey. However, inspectors spoke to several parents when they brought their children to school and took account of the school’s most recent survey of parents and the 10 staff questionnaires.

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Inspection team

Janet Sinclair, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Cliff Mainey Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Sheringham Nursery is an average-sized nursery school.  The proportion of disabled children and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is above average. The proportion of children supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above average.  The proportion of children from minority ethnic groups is high, a large proportion of whom are at an early stage of learning to speak English.  Children start in the nursery the term after their third birthday and leave the term before their fifth birthday. Most transfer to Sheringham Primary School.  There are two sessions per day: 8.45am until 11.45am and 12.35pm until 3.35pm, five days a week.  The nursery shares the site with a children’s centre and an early learning hub for two-year-olds.  The school is part of a soft federation of local schools.  The headteacher and deputy headteacher have been in post for two years.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Continue to work on improving the attendance of children who do not attend regularly so that they fully benefit from the school’s excellent provision.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children start in the nursery with skills and abilities well below the typical level of development for their age, particularly in communication and language. They make outstanding progress across the areas of learning so that all groups, including those from minority ethnic groups and those new to speaking English, reach or exceed the expected levels for their age.  The school’s procedures and practices for checking on children’s progress are exceptional. This ensures that any not doing well enough are quickly identified and effective support quickly put in place to help these children catch up.  The school monitors all children carefully and is particularly vigilant with those that are slower to learn, to ensure they do not fall further behind. This ensures all groups of children make rapid progress across the areas of learning. Consequently, all have an equal chance of doing well and possible discrimination is tackled. However, the poor attendance of a few children slows their

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

progress.  The more able children are catered for extremely well. Lively and engaging teaching ensures children are fully challenged and adult questioning deepens their understanding. Consequently, they achieve exceptionally well.  Children with disabilities and special educational needs have well-planned activities that are very well tailored to their individual needs and regularly reviewed to ensure their effectiveness. This helps them to achieve extremely well.  The school supports children at an early stage of learning English extremely well in developing their language skills. The highly successful use of specialist programmes to develop speaking skills, on-going high-quality talk between staff and children and the use of ‘signing’ and clear diction where needed to help convey meaning. This ensures children make rapid progress.  The school carefully checks the progress of children from minority ethnic groups to ensure that

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

none fall behind. Children from such backgrounds achieve exceptionally well.  Children eagerly learn about letters and the sounds they make (phonics) and eagerly use these skills extremely well in their reading, writing and signing.  Excellent attention to reading through ‘core books’ (a small selection of specially chosen books) and rhymes in group activities help children to practise, repeat end extend their understanding of language. Children were observed regularly reading books either by themselves, sharing with an adult or through enjoying taped stories. Their achievement and enjoyment are outstanding.  Children develop their counting skills extremely well through, for example, interesting activities such as knocking down skittles and counting them, throwing bean bags into numbered buckets or singing songs such as ‘Five little peas’. They also learn to use mathematical language, such as ‘big’, ‘middle-sized’ and ‘small’ when discussing size in stories such as Goldilocks and the Three

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

Bears.  Children’s physical skills develop successfully as children climb on the apparatus safely, use the space hoppers and learn to sew. Additionally, as part of the school’s links with Bow Arts, adults support children to build large structures using hammers and nails. The children do this with confidence and work conscientiously on their individual parts.  They develop their understanding of the world extremely well through the many activities on offer such as water play, exploration of materials, using information and communication technology and visits to the beach.  The many opportunities for music making, singing, dancing and role play ensure huge enjoyment and excellent creative achievement.  Children have exceptional attitudes to their work and demonstrate high levels of involvement in all that they do. Consequently, they learn extremely well.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Excellent teaching enables children to learn exceptionally well.  All staff have developed their teaching to a high standard. They have an excellent understanding of how children of this age learn and plan carefully to ensure activities are stimulating and challenging.  Staff set up excellent indoor and outdoor activities that provide challenging and enjoyable experiences for children. As a result, children demonstrate high levels of engagement, independence and concentration in all their activities.  Staff have high expectations for what children can achieve and regularly assess their learning through daily meetings, weekly planning and review meetings, and on-going observations of children’s learning. There are also termly meetings to review data on children’s progress and set clear goals for any child not doing well enough. Excellent use of ‘Learning Stories’, where a child is tracked through a special interest over time, provides very useful information on the learning

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

that has taken place.  Effective questioning by staff deepens children’s knowledge and understanding. This, coupled with a strong emphasis on encouraging children to think for themselves and learn from their mistakes, ensures very effective learning.  Children listen to, and practise saying, different sounds through small group teaching of initial letters and sounds. In a session seen, children were actively and fully engaged in sounding out words and were very keen to give words that began with the same initial sound.  Staff challenge the more able children extremely well through carefully planned activities that extend their knowledge and skills. For example, some more able children were working on numbers involving counting on and subtraction.  Children develop their spoken English rapidly through on-going high quality discussion in all their activities, for example when they have their snacks or use tools at the work bench. Staff work

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

hard to develop their vocabulary, as was seen when language such as ‘vice, ‘saw’ and ‘glue gun’ were used at the work bench.  Staff support children with disabilities or special needs extremely well, to ensure their needs are met exceptionally well. Parents spoken to were delighted with the high level of care and support given to their children to enable them to be fully integrated.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The behaviour of children is outstanding.  Children’s excellent behaviour contributes extremely well to their exceptional learning and full enjoyment of all that is on offer.  Excellent induction arrangements, including home visits and regular visits with their parents for the half term before they start, help them to settle quickly as they are familiar with the nursery routines. Additionally, many of the children attend the on-site children’s centre prior to starting in the nursery, so are already very familiar with their surroundings.  Children have excellent attitudes to their leaning. They are fully involved, regularly sing and dance and engage in all activities with huge enthusiasm. They regularly take out their ‘special books’ and look at the photographs which remind them of all the activities they have enjoyed throughout the year.  They learn about healthy living through the healthy snacks they are encouraged to eat and the

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

good focus on hand washing prior to eating.  Staff foster excellent relationships and provide many opportunities for children’s personal, social and emotional development. This enables children to cooperate very well on activities, learn to take responsibility for their environment and show high levels of support and encouragement for each other.  Most children attend the nursery regularly and senior leaders monitor those at risk of poor attendance carefully. However, there are still a few children who do not attend regularly, so do not fully benefit from the nursery’s excellent provision.  The school’s work to keep children safe and secure is outstanding. The school ensures children are kept very safe with comprehensive safeguarding procedures and policies in place. Children learn about staying safe, for example they know they have to wear safety goggles and gloves when using tools.  There are no recorded incidents of bullying or racism and very few accidents.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 All of the parents spoken to during the inspection agree that there are no issues with behaviour or bullying and their children are safe in school. School staff are fully in agreement. Inspection evidence confirms these views are accurate.  Staff promote children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development extremely well. Children from different cultures learn and work together very harmoniously. They know right from wrong, are kind and supportive of each other and enjoy working together.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Exemplary leadership by the headteacher and deputy headteacher has enabled the nursery to improve rapidly from its previously good provision. They are fully supported in all they do by a strong staff team who shares their vision. An excellent range of initiatives, including involvement in pilot projects, has improved outcomes across all areas of learning. This clearly shows capacity for further improvement and continued innovation.  Leaders responsible for subjects and other areas of the nursery relish their responsibilities and have secured improvements across the teams they lead, particularly in ensuring consistency of practice. They are fully committed to supporting the school’s drive for excellence in all its work.  The school has an accurate view of how well it is doing. The school improvement plan, shared with governors and staff, is an effective tool for school improvement. All are involved in checking

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The leadership and management are outstanding

progress on a regular basis to ensure excellent achievement is maintained.  Senior leaders, and increasingly all staff, have an accurate and thorough understanding of how well children are achieving, and take purposeful and highly successful steps to ensure any slow progress is dealt with quickly.  Excellent monitoring of teaching and learning, especially by the deputy headteacher, has ensured all staff have a clear view of their strengths and areas for further development. Regular lesson observations, planning reviews and coaching have ensured high quality teaching is maintained.  All staff have their performance regularly and thoroughly checked, and targets are set to ensure the school’s high quality provision is maintained. Staff willingly undertake training as well as on- going involvement in new projects, for example the recent mathematics project and specific training for middle leaders. Staff fully appreciate the challenge and support they get to develop

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The leadership and management are outstanding

and extend their practice.  The curriculum is very well planned to ensure all areas of learning are covered exceptionally well through stimulating and challenging activities. A wide range of additional activities, visits and visitors enrich the children’s experiences further.  There are excellent links with parents. This is seen in the way they are greeted by the headteacher at the start of the day and their on-going discussions with staff. The school also provides a range of workshops for them, such as ‘Learning through play’ and ‘Phonics’. Parents spoken to were full of praise for the high quality care their children get.  Strong links forged with the primary school help to ensure a very smooth transition to the next stage in the children’s education.  The nursery is part of a soft federation. It led on a highly successful project to improve children’s early communication skills, as well as leading on the early years strand in writing as part of a

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The leadership and management are outstanding

project to improve children’s knowledge of letters and sounds. This shows the school’s strengths in supporting other schools and improving provision in the early years.  The local authority provides light touch support for this highly successful school.  The governance of the school:  Governors have been well supported and have worked extremely hard to ensure they fully challenge the school to ensure high quality provision. They have a good knowledge of the quality of teaching and learning through the headteacher’s reports and the regular learning walks they undertake to see for themselves. They know how well children are doing because they have regular updates on children’s progress at every meeting. They have a good understanding of how well the nursery is doing compared with similar school across the country. They are especially interested in the performance of different groups to ensure the school is closing the gaps in children’s achievement. They have a good knowledge of the

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The leadership and management are outstanding

school’s finances and regularly review the budget and spending to ensure funds are used well. Governors undertake regular training in order to keep up to date with new developments. They set clear targets for the headteacher’s performance and know that there is a similar process, that is linked to their pay, in place for staff. They have regular training to ensure they meet all safeguarding requirements in order to ensure staff and children are kept 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 102705 Local authority Newham Inspection number 425584

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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 3–5 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 140 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Hannah Dutt Headteacher Dr Julian Grenier Date of previous school inspection 7 February 2011 Telephone number 020 855 32479 Fax number 020 855 32606 Email address julian.grenier@sheringham-nur.newham.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 and 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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