Rosegrove Nursery School

Rosegrove Nursery School Havelock Street, Burnley, Lancashire, BB12 6AJ

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Outstanding 1 Achievement of pupils Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Outstanding leadership, high quality teaching and meticulous care secure excellent achievement for all children.  Skilled planning for their learning and development means that the needs and interests of all children are fully met.  Children who are disabled and those with special educational needs are exceptionally well supported.  Children excel in early reading, writing and mathematics skills.  Exciting, imaginative activities and opportunities to experience a wide range of cultures and religious traditions enable children to be extremely tolerant and understanding towards one another.  Adults’ expertise in talking with children about their learning and joining in their play is outstanding. This supports children’s language development especially well.  Children behave exceptionally well because of the very strong relationships with adults, who set an excellent example.  Children are encouraged to be kind and thoughtful

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

and, as a result, they thoroughly enjoy playing together and are happy and cooperative.  An extremely caring, warm and safe setting means that children feel very secure and love to come to the nursery. Most attend very regularly.  Partnerships with parents are outstanding. All the parents who spoke to the inspector or completed the parental questionnaire fully recommend the nursery. However, there is further scope for helping some parents to support their children’s learning at home.  The key to its success is the inspirational leadership of the headteacher. Her passion for all children to enjoy and succeed in learning is shared wholeheartedly by all staff and governors.  It is this shared belief and determination that has enabled the nursery to become outstanding, in all aspects of its work.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed children playing and learning in a wide range of activities including those led by adults and those chosen by the children.  All practitioners were observed during the morning and afternoon sessions. One adult-led session was observed jointly with the headteacher.  The inspector talked with children about their activities and looked at displays and records of their work.  A wide range of documents was scrutinised, including systems for checking children’s progress, records relating to behaviour and attendance, safeguarding procedures and the nursery school’s checks of how well it is doing and how it plans to continue to improve. Records of checks made on the quality of teaching and the minutes of the governing body meetings were also examined.  Meetings were held with members of the governing body, the nursery school staff and a meeting took place with a school adviser from the local authority.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector spoke to parents when they brought their children to the nursery in the morning and afternoon, and she took account of 10 responses to the online (Parent View) survey as well as the school’s own parental survey. Questionnaires completed by 6 members of staff were also considered.

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Inspection team

Clare Henderson, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Rosegrove is an average-sized nursery school. Children start in the term after their third birthday and stay until they transfer to the Reception class in their chosen primary school.  Children have a choice in patterns of attending. This can be for either five mornings, five afternoons or a combination of days.  Working in partnership with the on-site Pippins day care, the nursery offers parents the opportunity to extend their child’s day with wrap-around provision.  The proportion of disabled children or those with special educational needs supported through early years action is average.  The proportion of children supported at early years action plus is above average.  The nursery school is federated with Rosegrove Infant School which shares the same governing body. This school was inspected separately and the report can be found on the Ofsted website.  The nursery has gained the following awards; Eco-School Bronze, Smile 4 Life, Learning Excellence in

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Continue to work with parents to help them support their children’s learning more fully at home.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The inspirational headteacher is totally dedicated to ensuring that all children make the best possible progress. At the heart of her drive for excellence is an uncompromising commitment to children’s high achievement.  High quality training in all areas of early years education has produced a highly effective team of staff and governors. Partnerships, including shared projects with local nurseries, primary schools, pre-school settings and Pippins day care are outstanding and add greatly to children’s personal and social education.  Children rapidly learn to be tolerant and understanding of each other by experiencing different religious traditions such as Diwali, Eid and Easter.  Regular checks on children’s progress and the quality of teaching mean that there is accurate information on what the nursery needs to do next. The whole-school community is involved in determining the correct priorities for development, which are then used as the basis for comprehensive action plans.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Staff are very reflective and continually engage with one another through questioning that drives forward further improvement as they share the management of all the areas of learning in the early years curriculum. All staff have individual targets to meet to support both the nursery plans and their own development. This information is used rigorously to make decisions about staff pay and progression.  During the inspection, parents were very keen to speak personally to the inspector to give their views. They value the nursery extremely highly, especially its flexibility and liaison with Pippins, and were overwhelmingly positive about the work of the nursery.  The staff and governors knows that some families need, and would benefit from, working more closely with staff to support their children’s learning more fully at home. There are plans in place to address this.  Equal opportunities for different groups of children, including the most able and those with special

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The leadership and management are outstanding

educational needs, are promoted very well and the nursery does not tolerate any form of discrimination. Children are exceptionally well cared for and the governing body and the school staff make sure that safeguarding and child protection procedures are followed rigorously and meet statutory requirements.  The nursery demonstrates exceptional strength in its capacity to continue to secure outstanding provision and achievements for all the children.  The school and the local authority have worked successfully in partnership for some time.  The governance of the school:  Governors check the work of the nursery carefully through regular visits and reports. As a result, they have a comprehensive knowledge of its strengths and areas to improve further. This enables them to ask challenging questions about its performance. Governors use their experience and skills from the world of work well and, as a consequence, they are well organised and fulfil their statutory duties well.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

They have a good understanding of information on children’s progress, which enables them to ask searching questions of leaders. They ensure that funding is used to maximum benefit. Staff pay and children’s progress are carefully compared and considered to ensure good value for money. They set challenging objectives for the headteacher and review them regularly.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.  School records over time, views expressed in the online parent questionnaire and informal discussions with parents confirm this view. No child has been prevented from attending the nursery because of poor behaviour. This is achieved because adults take great care to build trusting and respectful relationships with children. They listen carefully to them, helping them to understand their feelings.  Excellent provision for children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development strongly supports their emotional and personal development.  Daily super learner awards are eagerly sought and recognise children’s successes not only academically, but in how well they share and care for one another. Children glow with pride as they show these stickers to one another and their parents at the end of the session.  Children play exceptionally well together and because they are listened to by adults, they learn to listen to

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Behaviour

one another. In their play, there are lots of opportunities for them to learn to take turns, share and help one another. A fine example of this was when children shared hot chocolate they helped to make to conclude their outdoor learning experience.  No opportunities are missed for children to develop their personal and self-help skills. Snacks are excellent social occasions during which children collect their own milk, share the fruit or share opinions on the taste and texture of, for instance, poppadoms and onion bhaji. They are encouraged to sit at the table politely, learning to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. As a result, their personal development is very strong.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding.  There are no recorded incidents of bullying or racism. Children say they feel very safe and parents signalled their unanimous agreement in the parent questionnaire and informal discussions.  Many opportunities exist for children to assess and manage risks while engaged in adventurous activities. Children sensibly collect eggs from the hens they have reared from chicks, mindful of being gentle with the hens and remembering to wash their hands when they finish.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 An excellent balance exists between activities led by adults and those chosen by children. Staff continually discuss how well children are progressing and change plans daily and often, as play develops according to children’s needs and interests.  An example of this was when a group of children were playing with the cars and they discovered a spider. This led them on to talking with an adult about where spiders might live. Following on from this conversation, they began searching for a suitable home for the spiders. After that, they eagerly searched for new facts about spiders from the information in the books on hand. Such activities extend children’s respect and understanding of insects and life around them extremely well.  Activities are very carefully linked so that children are constantly learning through many opportunities to play and explore. For instance, when working out how to free the super heroes from containers, their

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

thinking and creativity are carefully fostered as they find new ways of solving the problem.  They learn rapidly because adults join in their play extremely sensitively, following children’s ideas, posing questions and extending their language extremely well.  Children learn new skills quickly because adults work alongside them, coaching them and offering just the right amount of support. An excellent example was observed as the children found the best way to crack open and examine the contents of the four eggs they collected from their hens. ‘You could crack it on the side of the dish or use a knife’, was a comment from the group  Children concentrate really well and listen carefully because of the excellent relationships and high expectations of adults. This helped a small group of the most-able children make significant progress when learning the sounds that letters make and trying to write words beginning with the letter they heard.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Children’s learning of early literacy and numeracy skills is seamless because this is cleverly planned into the wide variety of exciting activities. They are encouraged to draw and tell the story of their play in readiness for writing. A good example of this was the use of rhyme maps to encourage the children to draw pictures to describe what is happening in nursery rhymes.  A wide variety of observations and photographs of each child’s progress is carefully recorded in their learning journeys. These help adults to plan the next steps for development and illustrate important milestones in children’s learning. Parents value being able to contribute to these, especially in giving information about the interests of their child.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children join the nursery with skills which are usually below and, for some, significantly below those expected for their age, particularly in their social, emotional and communication skills. They make rapid progress because of the outstanding provision.  School information shows that, during their time in the nursery, any gaps in attainment close in all areas of learning and for all groups of children. By the time they leave the nursery, all children reach a level of development that is in line with, and for a significant proportion above that which is typical for their age, across all areas of learning.  The most-able children are especially well challenged, so that a significant proportion is well on the way to meeting the Early Learning Goals that would normally be expected by the end of the Reception Year when they enter Year 1.  The excellent liaison and relationships between health providers, Pippins day care, parents and the

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

nursery fully support families of children who are disabled or those who have special educational needs, and, as a result, they make excellent progress from their starting points. Children receive very effective support because, as well as using their own expertise, adults are skilled at implementing advice from other professionals.  A warm welcome awaits both children and parents at the beginning of each session. Children leave their parents and settle quickly, even though some are very new. They enjoy the nursery so much that some cry when the session is finished and they have to go home.  Children, and, particularly the most able, confidently choose their own activities and become self-assured and independent. They move purposefully between the different areas because they are stimulated by the well-prepared activities which quickly grasp their interest and curiosity.  They are extremely confident, for example, when making cakes and comparing their sizes and shapes or

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

trying to work out how to get the nuts off the screws in the super hero challenge. A parental comment was ‘the staff have succeeded in bringing my child out of her shell’.  Children gather together happily practising their social skills for the ‘wake- up shake-up’ session as they sing their songs and carry out counting and action games. Joining in number songs with the actions means that no opportunities are missed to reinforce counting and problem-solving skills.  During short focused activities in small groups with an adult, they demonstrate great concentration and listening as, for example, they listen to the story of the cat that lost her purr, relating the story to their own experiences and furthermore, practising their letters and sounds and early reading skills.  Copious opportunities are offered for children to develop their dexterity and control and pre-writing skills. A wide range of media on offer ensures that children extend their learning through imaginative play,

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

whether sticking, cutting, using iPads and computers, mark-making to write shopping lists or using modelling material.  Adults talk to children continuously, explaining what they are doing, making suggestions, asking questions and joining in children’s activities. This significantly extends children’s vocabulary and continually develops their language and ability to communicate clearly.  Children enjoy daily uninterrupted time to play and explore a wide range of activities which make them have to think very hard. Exciting opportunities for learning and developing exist in the spacious and well- planned outdoor area. Children strengthen their muscles and develop their control and balance as they climb, dig and run around obstacles.  They develop a real sense of awe and wonder for the natural world as they pick fruit from their apple trees or dig and have a taste of the carrots they have planted.  Children are quick to ‘have a go’ as they develop their critical thinking and creativity, for example, building

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

dens, investigating insects or making mud pies in the mud kitchen.

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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 failing

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Grade Judgement Description

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 119070 Local authority Lancashire Inspection number 447883

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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 51 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair E Lingard Headteacher Sarah Jones Date of previous school inspection 18 April 2012 Telephone number 01282 436928 Fax number 01282 436928 Email address head@rosegrove-nur.lancs.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

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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