Triangle Nursery School

25 Clapham Crescent, William Bonney Estate, London, SW4 7JQ

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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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Triangle Nursery School is an oasis that provides excellent opportunities for young children to flourish. There are positive relationships between staff and children, and every child is nurtured and their contribution highly valued.  All children make outstanding progress. They have every opportunity to practise early literacy and mathematics skills and excel at these.  Those children for whom English is an additional language make excellent progress. Most develop communication skills that are typical for their age by the time they leave.  Children make excellent progress in developing their social skills. All staff continually model these so that children behave exceptionally well. They also make sure that children are completely safe in the school.  The team of teachers, early years educators and teaching assistants work very well together in continually checking the children’s progress. All the staff have excellent knowledge of children’s

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

stages of development so they know exactly how to plan for the next steps in learning for each individual.  The school is well resourced, and the excellent outdoor climbing and exploration facilities are used seamlessly with those indoors.  Leaders and managers are continually making further improvements and working in partnership across the federation to which the school belongs to maintain the excellent practice in both schools.  The governing body have ensured sustainability for Triangle Nursery School through the federation, which provides consistency of practice and flexibility in staffing across the two schools. They provide excellent challenge to senior leaders, and help them to improve teaching and raise children’s achievement.  Parents and carers say that the school is ‘fantastic’ and that they ‘can’t praise it enough’. Many say that their children’s achievements are beyond what they could have expected. Parents and carers really

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

appreciate the work the staff do and how well key workers know and understand their children.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed eight sessions of teaching and learning in the school, four of these jointly with the deputy headteacher. These were taught by two teachers and four early years educators. The inspector also looked at records of children’s achievement.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, the Chair of the Governing Body and one other member, and two representatives from the local authority. The inspector also held informal discussions with children and parents and carers.  The inspector took account of the 14 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and a recent questionnaire for parents and carers conducted by the school. The responses to the staff questionnaire were also analysed.  The inspector looked at a range of the school’s documents. These included: minutes of governing body meetings, records of assessment and children’s progress, planning for improvement, monitoring of

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Information about this inspection

teaching and learning, records of attendance, and safeguarding policies and procedures.

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Inspection team

Janet Dinsmore, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller than average-size nursery school.  Since July 2013, Triangle Nursery School has been in a hard federation with Holmewood Nursery School. This is a development since the previous inspection. There is one executive headteacher and a single governing body. The executive headteacher also oversees Treehouse Children’s Centre, and children’s centre services from the Jubilee and Windmill Centres.  There are 49 children on roll, 29 of whom attend full time. Children who attend part time come for mornings or afternoons and one full day in the week. Parents and carers are able to purchase additional time in addition to the 15 hours to which they are entitled.  The majority of children are from a range of minority ethnic groups, the largest of these being Black African, Black Caribbean and Other White groups. The majority speak English as an additional language and half of these children are at early stages of learning English. This is much higher than average.

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Information about this school

 The proportion of disabled children and those with special educational needs, about 1 in eight children, is average.  There is a higher than average proportion, almost half, of children who are eligible for free school meals. At the time of the inspection, no children were in receipt of the pupil premium. This is additional government funding provided for disadvantaged children who are looked after or known to be eligible for free school meals.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Extend leaders’ and managers’ ability to develop the skills of support staff by devising a framework that promotes their further development.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Leaders, including the executive headteacher, work as an excellent team across the federation. They fully use and continually develop the excellent practice. This ensures that both nurseries continue to be outstanding and go on improving. The executive headteacher successfully devolves responsibilities to deputy headteachers at each school.  Leaders use their in-depth observations that staff make exceptionally well to check children’s progress. They carry out a sophisticated analysis of the progress of all groups of children, which enables them to judge exactly how well the school is doing. There are clear plans for further development of the school that are based securely on this information.  Records of children’s progress are also used to make sure all groups, particularly disadvantaged children and those who are at an early stage of learning English, make outstanding progress. Leaders also use

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The leadership and management are outstanding

these records to check the performance of teachers.  The federation has ensured that Triangle Nursery School is sustainable because staff can now be deployed to either school as numbers fluctuate.  Staff are well trained and continually develop their skills to ensure that teaching continues to be outstanding. Several staff, for example, have been supported through training to become qualified teachers and early years educators.  Teaching assistants and early years educators benefit from the robust system which leaders have developed for setting targets and measuring progress against them. Leaders and managers are aware that they have not yet devised a framework that enables these staff to evaluate fully their own skills and to develop them further.  Leaders make sure that children benefit from a range of activities which cover all the areas of learning. They also ensure that children learn about life in modern Britain and that they are respectful and tolerant

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The leadership and management are outstanding

of others. They use parents and carers from their diverse community well to help them with this and everyone joins in the activities in the school to celebrate festivals from all cultures. This is one example of how well the school promotes equality of opportunity. There is no evidence of any discrimination whatsoever.  Arrangements for safeguarding children meet statutory requirements and the school uses its excellent relationships with local authority services to maintain this.  Parents and carers are extremely appreciative of what the school does for their children. There are numerous examples of excellent support for the whole family, which significantly benefits the children. Parents and carers comment on how much their children’s behaviour improves when they start at the school and the good support they receive, for example, for toilet training.  Leaders have established excellent partnerships with parents and carers. Parents and carers receive

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The leadership and management are outstanding

accurate reports about their children’s progress and each term priorities are agreed with parents and carers for the next stages of development.  The local authority highly values the work of the federation in supporting the development of its services. For example, the federation provides training for staff in other organisations and uses the skills of the executive headteacher to support other early years providers, children’s centres and schools.  The governance of the school:  Governors have a good range of skills which enable them to challenge school leaders and hold them fully to account. They visit regularly to check the school’s performance for themselves and work with external advisors to make sure their view is accurate. They manage the performance of the executive headteacher well by setting appropriate targets and making sure they are met.  Governors know that the quality of teaching is outstanding and how well groups of children progress

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The leadership and management are outstanding

while they are at the school. They know what skills are typical for this age group and make sure that all achievement is outstanding. They particularly check the progress of disadvantaged children and of those who are at an early stage of learning English.  Governors make sure that good performance by staff is rewarded through progression up the pay scale. They have made sure that replacement staff bring additional skills and maintain the outstanding performance. Their responsibilities for keeping children safe and secure are paramount for them, and they make sure that the correct checks on staff and their training are carried out.  Governors make sure that the additional funding the school receives for disadvantaged pupils is used to good effect.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of children is outstanding. They arrive eagerly for each session and immediately get involved in activities. Children learn to cooperate and share. They are beginning to work together well in pairs and small groups, which prepares them extremely well for the next stage of their education.  Any minor falling out is dealt with extremely well by staff who consistently emphasise the importance of very high-quality relationships and teach children to listen to each other. Children from a wide range of backgrounds get on really well together. The school’s promotion of their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is excellent. For example, children can discuss the differences in religious practices between Christians and Muslims.  There have been notable examples of improvements in children’s behaviour and relationships because children and parents and carers receive the help they need to make this happen. Parents and carers

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Children understand how to assess risk for themselves.  They understand how to use the climbing equipment safely because the rules for this are clearly displayed in ways that children understand. They can construct slopes and balance activities with large blocks very safely knowing, for example, what will cause planks to tip or be unstable.  The site is safe and secure and parents and carers know that their children are safe.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The team of teachers, early years educators and teaching assistants plan excellent activities to maximise children’s progress. The resources are very well set up in the morning so that children are highly motivated as they enter the school for each session. They quickly and eagerly get involved and adults follow and develop their individual interests very well.  All staff have an excellent knowledge of children’s development at this age. This means that they can reshape activities very quickly to extend the children’s understanding. They question children precisely to develop their language skills. Every opportunity is used to develop early reading, writing and mathematical skills as they are expertly incorporated into many activities.  Staff, some of whom speak several languages, have excellent knowledge of developing language skills in bilingual learners. This means they can promote this very well. Signs, for example, are in languages

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

represented in the school and there is a good range of bilingual books that parents can borrow to support language learning at home.  The whole teaching team check children’s progress rigorously, accurately and often. Staff hold high-quality discussions at the end of each day in order to judge how well children have made progress and make sure that suitable plans are made for the following day. This means that areas of development that need to be accelerated and any slowing of progress for any child are quickly identified by the key workers so that children receive the precise support they need.  Children are always encouraged to try new activities that extend their interests and skills.  The excellent outdoor area is well designed and used to provide many opportunities for children to climb, investigate, grow plants, enjoy music and perform.

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is outstanding

 Children arrive in the Nursery with skills at levels lower than those typical for their age, especially in social and mathematical skills. All groups of children make excellent progress so that by the time they leave they have skills that are at least typical for their age group.  Children make outstanding progress as they begin to learn to read and write. They are always encouraged to try new skills for themselves and more-able children write and use their emerging knowledge of phonics (the links between letters and sounds) to record their names and other words. For example, they addressed Christmas cards to members of their family.  Children really enjoy sharing books. They often read in the library area, identifying familiar objects and enjoying stories about snow and seasonal festivities.  Children have excellent opportunities to develop the full range of mathematical skills. They have a good

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is outstanding

understanding of number and counting, and also of the importance of pattern and shape in sequencing and construction activities. They can identify numbers and enjoy recording how they take their turn when using the bikes.  All children make excellent progress in developing their communication skills. They learn to listen and respond in conversation exceptionally well. Their vocabulary and understanding is continually developed, for example when discussing how doctors check how a ‘baby in your tummy’ is developing.  Personal and social skills development is a key priority in the school and children make accelerated progress in these from starting points which are often low.  Disadvantaged children make outstanding progress. There is no gap between their achievement and that of other children at this school.  The most able children are continually challenged so that they can achieve their full potential.

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is outstanding

 Disabled children and those with special educational needs also make outstanding progress. This is because staff are knowledgeable about how to adapt activities for their individual needs.  Children new to learning English make exceptional progress, most acquiring vocabulary and language that are typical for their age by the time they leave the school.  All children develop the skills and knowledge which ensure that they are very well prepared for the next stage of their education.

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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 100550 Local authority Lambeth Inspection number 448068

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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 3−4 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 49 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Peter Gibb Headteacher Sue Donovan OBE Date of previous school inspection 1−2 March 2012 Telephone number 020 7622 1393 Fax number 020 7622 0767 Email address admin@triangle-nursery.lambeth.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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