Hartcliffe Nursery School and Children's Centre

School report Hartcliffe Nursery School and Children's Centre Hareclive Road, Hartcliffe, Bristol, BS13 0JW

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 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 Early years provision Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school.  The achievement of all children is outstanding. Regardless of their starting points, or any barriers to learning, each child receives the care and support he or she needs to make excellent progress.  There is outstanding provision in a wide range of activities for all children. They choose tasks where they work on their own that are also linked to their interests.  Outstanding teaching enables children to develop excellent social skills and a growing self-reliance. The highly skilled staff ensure that learning is interesting, challenging and fun. Teachers’ skilful questioning extends children's understanding.  Children come into school in the morning excited and ready to enjoy learning. Praise is used intelligently to develop children’s self- confidence, resulting in high levels of well- being. Children are excited and willing to try new experiences.  Children are given a love of reading through the

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

excellent story-time sessions, as well as through many other opportunities to use and share books.  Disabled children and those with special educational needs receive high-quality support enabling their full inclusion in school life.  Behaviour and safety are outstanding and children have excellent relationships with the adults in the nursery. The care and support provided by the school are exemplary.  The curriculum is inspirational. Children are offered an enormous range of activities which stimulate their curiosity and capture their imagination. All contribute extremely well to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  Parents and carers are highly supportive of the school. Many speak of how warm and welcoming the staff are, how they help parents as well as children and make everyone feel equal.  Outstanding leadership, excellent links with the onsite nursery and children’s centre, and the

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

unstinting dedication and commitment of all staff enable the school to prepare children extremely well for the next stage in their education.  Leaders and governors have been successful in maintaining the outstanding features noted at the previous inspection and have improved teaching and children’s achievement. They share a clear direction for the development of the school and are fully committed to the school’s motto of ‘Starting Small, Thinking Big’ and that each and every child reaches their full potential.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed a wide range of sessions in the nursery over the two days, including joint observations with the headteacher.  Discussions were held with the Chair of the Governing Body, a representative of the local authority, members of staff and the children.  With limited response from parents to the online questionnaire, Parent View, the inspector spoke to parents and carers to seek their views on the quality of education provided by the nursery school. She also took account of the 17 responses to staff questionnaires.  The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documents, including data on children’s current and previous progress, the school’s development plan, performance management documentation and records relating to children’s behaviour and safety.

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Inspection team

Carol Warrant, Lead inspector Additional inspector

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Information about this school

 Hartcliffe is an above-average-sized maintained nursery school.  The school brings together on one site early years education and care with support for families. The school’s headteacher and governing body are also responsible for an early years setting and for a children’s centre. Neither of these was part of the school inspection. Their reports can be found on the Ofsted website.  Most children are from White British families.  The proportion of disabled children or those with special educational needs is above average.  An above-average proportion of children are eligible for free school meals.  As this is a nursery school, there is no pupil premium funding or sports premium funding from the government.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Reinforce the importance of regular attendance for some children and their parents.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher provides very clear and strategic leadership to the school. She is extremely well supported by the knowledgeable deputy headteacher and senior and middle leaders. They have very successfully built on the strengths of the school identified at the previous inspection. As a result, all staff are ambitious for the school and morale is high.  Senior and other leaders act as excellent models for other staff through their own teaching and their skills in improving the work of others. There are extremely rigorous procedures to measure and analyse children’s progress and other aspects of the school’s work. They are used well to plan for further school improvement.  The impact of leaders’ approach to ensure equal opportunities for all children is reflected in the outstanding progress made by all groups of children. There is no evident discrimination in the school.  Staff are held fully accountable for the progress their children make and they have to meet rigorous

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The leadership and management are outstanding

criteria in order to achieve the next salary level. Teaching has improved due to sharply focused staff training.  The curriculum is rich and exciting and promotes all aspects of literacy and numeracy extremely well. Children’s physical, health and well-being are especially well promoted through the very good use of the outdoors. At their own level, children are helped very actively to understand basic British values.  The curriculum is further enriched by visits, such as to the florist shop, and through invited visitors. The extended visit of a professional artist resulted in many moments of awe and wonder for the children and great pride in their many artistic creations. This additional provision helps to improve even further children’s confidence, resilience, creativity, knowledge and understanding.  The school involves parents well in their children’s learning through training and supporting them in many

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The leadership and management are outstanding

ways. Consequently, parents hold the school in high regard. One parent’s view typifies that of many: ‘It’s fantastic here; they really care about all the children.’  The well-established partnerships with other nursery schools, the children’s centre and other agencies contribute significantly to the success of the nursery.  The school is given light-touch support from the local authority because of the outstanding outcomes of three previous school inspections. The headteacher, staff and members of the governing body have benefitted from the additional support that they have asked for.  The governance of the school:  The governing body is fully informed through detailed headteacher’s reports, its own regular systematic checks on the school’s work and very precise analysis of children’s progress and other aspects of the school's work. Governors ensure that safeguarding requirements, led by the Headteacher, are met in full and supported by excellent record keeping. The governing body

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The leadership and management are outstanding

manages finances very well by ensuring the budget is used to promote the highest standards of children's achievement. Governors are involved in knowledgeable decisions as to whether teachers and staff should be rewarded with salary increases and review targets for the headteacher. In conjunction with the school team, the governors ensure that all safeguarding requirements are met.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of children is outstanding. Their confidence and their self-esteem are raised because they know that they are valued as individuals and because they are made to feel unique. As a result they not only value themselves, but also respect the feelings of others.  Children are encouraged to try things for themselves. They quickly learn to put on aprons when enjoying messy activities and outdoor suits and wellies when the weather is cold or wet. They take part in ‘eco’ activities, such as gardening and taking care of the chickens.  Behaviour is very well managed by staff. Children have very positive attitudes to learning, inspired by outstanding teaching and highly stimulating activities.  Although children’s attendance is not statutory at this age, the school has made a deliberate effort to improve attendance because leaders have noted that more frequent absence has slowed down the learning of some children. Attendance is improving, although a small number of children do not attend

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Behaviour

regularly enough to make the most of their learning in the Nursery.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep children safe and secure is outstanding. The school’s work, in partnership with the Children’s Centre, with vulnerable children and their families is exemplary. Children feel safe and their parents agree. Staff and governors are very well informed about safety arrangements.  The governing body and site supervisory staff regularly inspect the school and grounds to check on safety and security. Safety training for staff and governors is regular and thorough.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers’ planning emphasises the pleasures of reading, writing and using numbers. The indoor and outdoor areas are used interchangeably to increase children’s knowledge and understanding. Children were observed being quietly absorbed when looking at and sharing books, both in the indoor and outdoor areas.  High expectations of what each child can achieve are at the heart of what teachers and staff do to make sure children achieve their potential. Activities are targeted at children making fast progress and improving their skills.  Early identification of needs and accurately targeted high-quality support ensures children who are disabled or who have special educational needs make progress which is at least as rapid as that of their classmates.  Carefully planned activities ensure that the most able children are challenged to reach their full potential.  Staff routinely encourage children to persevere, think and experiment with different ways of doing things

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

to become more skilful. Children develop their skills well when they are encouraged to find answers for themselves and to use information and communication technology confidently to practice their number skills and to take photographs of each other and their work.  The outdoor landscape is deliberately and successfully planned to encourage learning, for example, to practice children’s physical skills, role play and to learn through a range of activities. The presence of trees, flowers, chickens, art and music deepens children’s knowledge of the world around them and adds to their joy of learning.  Parents are involved because they speak to staff regularly and are kept up to date about how their children are getting on in their learning through each child’s very comprehensive learning diary.  Children learn mathematical, early reading and writing skills in most of the things that they do because

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

staff incorporate these into activities. Children use mathematical language, for example, when drawing maps of their ‘treasure island’ and counting the fish they caught in the ‘sea’ around the island.  Family workers and support staff are part of a team who regularly update their knowledge, plan with teachers and closely examine what exactly is required to help children thrive. Support for potentially vulnerable children and their families is especially impressive and makes a highly significant contribution to the well-being and successful learning of these children.

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is outstanding

 Children make exceptional progress from starting points that are well below those typical for their age. By the time they leave the nursery, their knowledge and skills are usually in line with, or above, those typical for their age.  Children make excellent progress in developing their personal and social skills. This lays a firm foundation for their future learning. For example, they learn to work together and share ideas in a wide range of activities.  They enjoy joining in real-life situations, such as bathing dolls which they had previously covered in thick paint, and highly imaginative tasks. They take great delight in building dens and climbing the ‘spider’s web’. They show great perseverance and extended concentration in many areas of their learning.  Children speak to each other clearly, purposefully and with an increasingly varied vocabulary in response to teachers’ carefully framed questions and excellent example. For example, the children revel in

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is outstanding

discussing the consistency and texture of mud in their ‘Mud Kitchen’.  Their basic skills are very well developed and children confidently count and make early writing marks.  In small-group time, with their key person, they show that they are aware of the needs of others by helping each other. They are given responsibility such as handing out fruit and drinks to each other. They play extremely well together and are gently encouraged to be polite.  The high quality of teaching and planning is focused specifically on each child, and progress over time is rapid. Children’s interests are taken into account to increase their curiosity and enthusiasm for learning.  Children with special educational needs make outstanding progress because they are exceptionally well taught and supported, based on each child’s particular requirements.  The most able children make outstanding progress because they are challenged to achieve their potential

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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 108906 Local authority Bristol Inspection number 448097

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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 Janet Bremner Headteacher Marie Thomas Date of previous school inspection 3 July 2012 Telephone number 0117 9038633 Fax number 0117 9038634 Email address hartcliffe.early.years@bristol.gov.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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