Tanglewood Nursery School

Tanglewood Nursery School Melbourne Avenue, Chelmsford, CM1 2DX

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Overall effectiveness

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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Children make exceptional progress in the prime areas of learning. When they leave the school, they are ready for the next stage in their learning.  The school, through its curriculum, successfully encourages children to be curious, independent and active learners.  Children who have special educational needs make exceptional progress.  All the adults who work with the children help them to learn through their highly effective relationships and the stimulating learning environment.  The school is successful at developing children’s language skills.  Children’s personal, social and emotional learning is strong because of their relationships with staff.  Teachers manage the children’s behaviour exceptionally well and ensure that it is exemplary. The children are happy, safe and confident learners who show clearly that they want to learn.  The headteacher, her managers, and the governors know the steps they need to take to make teaching

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

the best it can be. Aspects of early writing have improved as a result of their actions.  The school’s leaders know the importance of outside learning. Their actions here have improved children’s progress.  Parents are overwhelmingly proud of the school.  Children who attend the specially resourced provision to improve their speaking and listening skills make outstanding progress.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Although teachers’ assessments of what children can do when they enter school are excellent in most areas of learning, they are not as detailed in mathematics.  Children’s progress in developing their early mathematical skills in number is not as rapid as in other areas of learning.  Children who learn very quickly do not always have the activities they need, particularly in mathematics, to help them to extend their learning and do even better.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed children learning in a wide range of activities in the inside and outside areas of the school. They tracked the progress of children.  The inspection team observed 11 sessions, or part sessions. The lead inspector observed three sessions jointly with the headteacher.  Meetings and discussions took place with the headteacher, staff, the Chair of the Governing Body and a representative of the local authority.  The inspectors looked at key documentation, including the school’s evaluation of its performance and its development plans, safeguarding procedures and documentation relating to governance. Inspectors took account of the school’s data on children’s progress, teachers’ planning, and booklets recording the children’s learning journeys.  Inspectors considered the 72 responses to Parent View, Ofsted's online survey of parents; this included 48 text responses. The inspectors also spoke with a number of parents during the inspection. The inspectors

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Information about this inspection

also took into account the responses of 19 staff to the staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Teresa Kiely, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Tanglewood Nursery School is larger than most nursery schools.  Most children are from White British backgrounds and a very small number are from minority ethnic backgrounds. A few children are in the early stages of learning to speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of children who need extra help (either at early years action, early years action plus, or those who are undergoing assessment for a statement of special educational needs, or who have a statement) is above average.  There is specially resourced provision for children with special educational needs. The school supports up to 16 children who have identified speech and language difficulties. They receive extra language support and help, along with their daily nursery experience.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching and children’s progress by:  making sure that teachers gather more specific information on children’s early mathematics when they enter the school so that teachers can fully meet children’s needs in this area of learning  identifying and appropriately supporting and extending children who are more able in early mathematics

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The leadership and management are good

 Leadership is good. The leadership team has encouraged all the staff to create a learning environment where exceptional behaviour flourishes and children achieve well.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher is passionate about young children’s learning and development. She knows how children learn best. She knows the strengths of the school. She has successfully identified what now needs to be further developed. She is addressing how mathematics can be even further developed. Children are now learning number through planned mathematical games and activities. She has the full support of her staff team.

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The leadership and management are good

 Children who need to catch up in their skills are managed exceptionally well, whether they are part of the specially resourced provision, or learning entirely in the school. Partnerships between all those who work with these children are highly effective.

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The leadership and management are good

 Children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very well promoted. Children of all abilities play exceptionally well together. The introduction of the forest garden has helped children to understand the natural world; it has also enabled them to learn how to take risks safely.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school regularly checks the quality of teaching and gives teachers targets to improve their work. However, teachers’ tracking, and leaders monitoring of children’s progress in the specific area of mathematics has not been as effective as it has been in other areas of learning.

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The leadership and management are good

 Teachers identify quickly when children need more language or behaviour support and effectively put this into place. Parents are closely involved in describing their children’s skills when they start school. However, the information recorded about children’s knowledge of number, is not as detailed as it is in other areas of learning.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school's curriculum supports children’s good and better progress across the Early Years Foundation Stage areas of learning. It prepares the children well for life and learning in the next stage of their education. The headteacher has made changes to the leadership team to bring about further improvements. For example, she has recently appointed teachers to take overall responsibility for leading literacy and numeracy development.

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The leadership and management are good

 More-able children, although actively engaged in learning through play, are not fully encouraged to begin more formal learning when they are ready, for example, for more challenging early mathematics. Recently introduced challenge groups are now better meeting the needs of more-able children.

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The leadership and management are good

 The local authority has provided ‘light touch’ support to the school.

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The leadership and management are good

 Parents value the work of the school. One parent spoke for many when she said about bringing her second child to start at school, 'It feels like coming back home again’. Parents say that the workshops the school provides for them encourage them to continue to help their children to learn at home.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  Governors know the school well. They take an active interest, visiting the school to encourage and support its work. Governors question their own effectiveness, and have put plans in place to make their governance even better. They know how well the children are doing, particularly in the prime areas of learning. They make decisions about how to use money wisely. They understand the performance management for all staff, and review targets effectively for the headteacher. Safeguarding arrangements are very effective. The governing body carries out its statutory obligations to keep children safe and ensure equality for all.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The behaviour of children is outstanding. Children enjoy coming to school. They show, through what they do, that they are interested and motivated to learn. They learn just as well when they are learning independently or when they are under the eye of the teacher.  Adults carefully manage children’s transition into school. Within a short space of time, children are happy and settled. They know the routines and show confidence in learning regardless of whether they are learning inside or outside the classrooms. Adults quickly identify and sensitively support children who need more attention. This means that the school, at the start of each academic year is quickly able to establish a positive climate for learning.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 When children play together in pairs or small groups, they learn how to help and support one another. In the outside large garden, they share their toys cooperatively. Relationships with everyone are highly effective and contribute to children’s positive behaviour. Children are very happy. They talk confidently with adults about what they are learning.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The school’s work to keep children safe and secure is outstanding. Parents say that their children are safe in school. The school works hard to provide the children with a range of experiences that will enable them to deal safely with situations. The school’s work here is exceptional because of the planned risks they enable children to take. This prepares children very well for the next stage in their learning because they know, from their own experiences, how to stay safe. Outside they learn how to use the rope swing in the forest garden safely. Inside they learn to make things, using hammers and nails safely. There is an air of mutual trust in the school.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Most children attend school very regularly. The school follows up children’s absences carefully.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is good because the school staff have a shared understanding of the characteristics of effective learning. They encourage children to be interested in learning by giving them practical and challenging activities that make them think. As a result, the children achieve particularly well in the prime areas of learning and reading and writing.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Children make exceptional progress in developing their social and emotional skills. Staff work hard to encourage children to communicate successfully with one another. They know how to make learning exciting yet playful. Staff have high expectations of children who respond positively and behave exceptionally well.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The learning environment, prepared by the staff, motivates children to learn effectively through play. Children learn inside or in the outside area and the staff follow their play choices, deepening their knowledge and encouraging them to think about what they are learning. They talk with them as they dig in the sand together, or when they are making treasure boxes inside.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Staff support children’s learning and development by paying attention to their needs. They sing songs and rhymes with children that lay solid foundations in reading. Staff help children to snuggle up when they read books to them during the day, and this encourages other children to come and listen. The school encourages children to learn about storytelling as this will help them with their writing when they are older. They learn how to tell stories together.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Staff and other professionals working in the specially resourced provision provide additional language support that is very effective. Parents value this work with their young children highly. Other children, who need more individual attention, receive this in a nurture group that helps them to develop the necessary skills for them to learn well when they are at school.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers think carefully about what they are providing for young children. They regularly discuss how to make learning even better. Staff regularly assess and record what children are learning. However, because teachers do not build up a full picture of each child’s mathematical development on entry to the school, they are not fully able to provide what children need to learn next in number, in order to help the children to make outstanding progress.

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is good

 Children start the school with a range of skills, knowledge and experiences. The school carefully finds out about how children are doing in the prime areas of learning, and knows that many children have not developed the skills expected for their age. When children start Reception class in local schools, headteachers say that they are well prepared for school.

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is good

 Disabled children and those who have special educational needs make outstanding progress in their learning because of the special help they receive. Children in the specially resourced provision also make outstanding progress because they receive an exceptional learning programme that meets their speech and language needs.

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is good

 The very small numbers of children from minority ethnic groups, and those who do not speak English as their first language, receive the help and support they need, and make good progress in their learning.

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is good

 Children make outstanding progress in their personal, social and emotional learning. This is because of the care and attention that the school pays to this area of learning, right from the time that children start at the school. Staff are successful because of the positive relationships they have with children, and the skill and expertise they show in settling children into the school.

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is good

 The school pays close attention to the development of children’s language skills. They know how to develop children’s speaking and listening skills when they are working individually with children, or when they are in a small group. Staff spend time talking with children, encouraging them to describe what they are learning, and encouraging reluctant speakers to begin to engage in conversations.

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is good

 Children make particularly good progress in their early reading and writing skills. This is because of the close attention staff pay to developing the necessary language skills they need to help them with literacy. They learn, through creative painting and drawing, how to hold a pencil correctly. The school has improved the way that children learn writing through storytelling.

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is good

 Children’s physical skills are encouraged through a range of activities that help them to make good progress. Outside, children run and jump together. They sift fine sand with their friends and use wheelbarrows filled with sand to make imaginative constructions.

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is good

 Children’s progress is good, however, their progress in early mathematics is not as rapid as it is in other areas of learning. Although adults plan activities that will help them to learn number, the school’s own records shows that teachers have not been quite as successful as they have, for example, in the prime areas of learning. The school is now addressing this issue.

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is good

 The school does not identify more-able children clearly enough. This means that activities guided by adults and the ways in which these children learn through play are not always sufficiently challenging.

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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 114698 Local authority Essex Inspection number 448115

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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 164 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Ann Davidson Headteacher Susan Sutton Date of previous school inspection 12 July 2012 Telephone number 01245 352788 Fax number 01245 490248 Email address admin@tanglewood.essex.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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