Golborne & Maxilla Nursery School

Golborne Children's Centre 2a Bevington Road, London, W10 5TN

p.1

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

p.1

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The acting headteacher’s excellent leadership and high expectations have enabled the school to build on the outstanding practice found at the last inspection.  Other leaders and managers, including members of the governing body, contribute extremely well to maintaining outstanding teaching and achievement.  Behaviour and safety are outstanding. Children feel very safe, and develop trusting relationships with the staff, and get on very well together.  Children become deeply involved in their learning and concentrate for long periods of time.  The quality of teaching is outstanding. Teachers plan sessions very carefully and the school is a hive of purposeful activity.  The school’s systems for assessing and tracking children’s attainment and progress are exemplary.  Provision for disabled children and those who have special educational needs is of very high quality.  Achievement is outstanding and children make

p.1

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

excellent progress to develop skills that are at least in line with those typically found for their age.  The achievement of the most-able children is outstanding in nearly all areas of learning. They make good progress in literacy, but teachers do not always challenge the most-able three-to-five-year- olds to apply their knowledge of sounds and letters to their reading and writing.  Partnership with parents is excellent; they express a high level of satisfaction with the school’s work. The staff provide many opportunities for parents to become involved in their children’s learning.  The curriculum is exciting and varied. Opportunities to learn in a woodland setting and through numerous trips into London and beyond do much to promote children’s learning and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

p.1

Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed a range of learning activities for two-to-three-year-olds and three-to-five-year- olds, both indoors and outdoors. She visited the garden at the federated Maxilla Nursery and observed a mathematics workshop for parents where they took part in activities alongside their children. This enabled her to gather evidence about different aspects of teaching and learning.  Meetings were held with the acting headteacher, the senior teacher, other staff who hold specific responsibilities and with two members of the governing body. A telephone discussion took place with a representative of the local authority.  The inspector considered 44 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and spoke with a large number of parents who queued up to share their views when dropping off their children at school on the first day of the inspection. The inspector also took into account 11 questionnaires completed by staff.

p.2

Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documentation. This included the school’s self-evaluation and development plan, records of children’s attainment, progress and behaviour, and evidence of systems for protecting and safeguarding children.

p.2

Inspection team

Margaret Goodchild, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

p.2

Information about this school

 All children in this school are in the early years provision.  The school makes full-time provision for 86 children and five children currently attend part time. It offers 29 places for two-year-olds, some of whom are funded fully by the local authority.  Children attend for three, four or five terms before transferring to Reception classes in primary schools. Those who attend part time do so for five half-days each week.  The proportion of disabled children and those who have special educational needs is broadly average. The school has a number of children with autistic spectrum disorders.  The proportion of children who are of a minority ethnic heritage is high, as is the proportion of those who speak English as an additional language.  Since the last inspection, Golborne has ceased to be commissioned by the local authority to deliver Children Centre Services. Extended services for children and families are provided at Holmefield House,

p.3

Information about this school

which is inspected separately.  The school federated with Maxilla Children’s Centre in March 2013. The two establishments have a joint governing body and a few staff work in both settings.  The Head teacher has been in an acting role since before the last inspection. The school has delayed making a permanent appointment as Golborne and Maxilla are consolidating their provision on a single site in the near future and a complete staffing restructure is currently under way.

p.3

What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Make sure that teachers always provide enough challenge for the most-able three-to-five-year-olds in reading and writing so that their progress in literacy is outstanding.

p.3

The leadership and management are outstanding

 The acting headteacher, other leaders, and members of the governing body have high expectations and strive for excellence in all aspects of the school’s work. They maintain a continuous focus on raising achievement and improving the quality of education so that the school is strongly placed to develop further. Leaders have created a culture where teachers can succeed and children are expected to behave extremely well.  Systems for assessing and tracking children’s attainment and progress are exemplary. Senior leaders gather a very wide range of data to check children’s achievement and analyse this closely. They use the resulting information exceptionally well to judge the school’s effectiveness, identify areas for development and to make sure children receive equal opportunities. The school ensures that there is no discrimination and that positive relationships are promoted.  The leadership of teaching and systems for checking teachers’ work are rigorous. Senior leaders regularly

p.4

The leadership and management are outstanding

check the quality of teaching and learning, and provide clear guidance to staff on how they could improve. Middle leaders make a substantial contribution to school development and have numerous opportunities to refine their skills through taking part in relevant training.  The school is a hive of purposeful activity, and the curriculum is exciting and varied. Plentiful opportunities for children to develop their basic skills are combined with frequent activities that make learning fun. Educational visits contribute significantly to children’s development. Recently, they visited the Science Museum to find out about space and different means of transport, and went to Chinatown as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations.  Work with the federated nursery school has extended the range of learning opportunities available. The two schools have worked together to enable children to spend some of their time learning in a woodland

p.4

The leadership and management are outstanding

setting, and children from Golborne regularly visit the exciting garden at Maxilla. These experiences are having a very positive effect on children’s development.  Children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding. Staff create an environment where children quickly grow in confidence and know that they are valued as individuals. They develop curiosity about the world around them, and show respect and care for one another. The school promotes British values very well. All the children learn the importance of tolerance for people who are different from themselves and join in celebrating a wide range of cultures. The school gives children the best possible start in preparation for life in modern Britain: it is equally welcoming to children and families from all backgrounds.  Partnership with parents is excellent, and they are delighted with how the school works with them and the

p.4

The leadership and management are outstanding

fact that ‘learning is at such a high and structured level’. They are fully involved in their children’s assessment and have regular opportunities to attend workshops to find out how to contribute to their children’s learning. During the inspection, a number of parents attended a mathematics workshop. They gained important information about how to support their children’s learning at home and worked alongside them in various activities. Parents of two-to-three-year-olds receive helpful daily information in home-school diaries about their children’s learning and welfare.  The school has exceptionally thorough methods for safeguarding and protecting the children and fully meets statutory requirements. Rigorous checks make sure children are kept safe, and staff liaise closely with other agencies and families where children are at possible risk. All staff have been through thorough vetting checks.  The local authority provides very good support to the school and has an accurate view of its effectiveness.

p.4

The leadership and management are outstanding

Regular visits by the early years adviser and other representatives of the local authority have contributed to developments in leadership, teaching and learning.  The governance of the school:  The governing body is effective and its members make an excellent contribution to the school’s development.  Governors are very well informed about the school’s work and have a thorough knowledge of what information about children’s progress reveals. By regularly tracking the progress of a group of children with varying needs, they gain a detailed awareness of the school’s effectiveness. Governors are equally well informed about the quality of teaching. They make sure that the appraisal of teachers’ work rewards the most effective practice and that any underperformance is tackled through high-quality support.  Having a joint governing body for Golborne and Maxilla has helped to forge very close links between the

p.4

The leadership and management are outstanding

two schools and is doing much to assist plans for the fusion of the two establishments into one. There is a very clear vision about how this will benefit the children and increase opportunities in the future.  Governors make sure that financial management is strong and that all statutory requirements are met.

p.4

Behaviour

 The behaviour of children is outstanding. They are confident and communicative but also focus very well. Children are highly motivated and become deeply involved in the many activities available. Parents praise the way their children come home from school full of enthusiasm for what they have been doing.  Throughout the school, children are significantly ahead of expectations for their age in their ability to persist at activities for lengthy periods of time. They try very hard and even the youngest children show high levels of concentration. Children learn and play happily together, taking turns, sharing and helping one another.  Staff are very effective in managing children’s behaviour and communicate high expectations. The management of children with autistic spectrum disorders is exemplary. As a result, the children become deeply involved in their learning and make excellent progress in tolerating and becoming comfortable with

p.5

Behaviour

new experiences.  A number of parents of disabled children and those who have special educational needs made a point of saying how delighted they are with how well the staff meet their children’s needs. Teachers write ‘social stories’ for individual children who need extra guidance with their behaviour. These are very helpful to parents who have struggled in the past, for instance, with their children running on ahead on the way home from school or being reluctant to go to bed.  Most children attend regularly and the school does its best to make parents aware of the importance of their children not missing any time.

p.5

Safety

 The school’s work to keep children safe and secure is outstanding. Home visits by staff before children join the school and well-established routines help children to feel very safe and to settle quickly.  Children develop very positive and trusting relationships with the staff, and all the parents who expressed an opinion said that their children feel safe at school. Staff thoroughly assess the risks associated with activities and children increasingly learn to judge for themselves how to stay safe.  Children develop very positive relationships with one another. They know that is it important to treat one another with kindness, and this is reflected in the fact that there are no recorded cases of bullying.

p.5

The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The school has maintained and built on the high-quality teaching found at the last inspection.  The systems for assessing children’s skills when they join the school are exceptionally thorough. Teachers collect very specific information about each child and use this to set them individual targets in communication, language and literacy; mathematical development; physical development; personal, social and emotional development; and in producing recognisable drawings.  Assessment is equally good throughout children’s time in the school. Staff regularly observe and record what children are able to do, keep a detailed check on their skill development and identify the next steps in their learning. Teachers plan activities very carefully for all the areas of learning so that they reflect children’s interests and promote the achievement of different groups.  The best features of teaching were evident during the inspection when a teacher introduced children to

p.5

The quality of teaching is outstanding

the idea of writing a story about superheroes. By inviting them to name little superhero figures and skilfully questioning them, she quickly drew the children into a creative and imaginative experience that produced detailed drawings and a great deal of constructive talking and mark making.  Equally good learning was evident when an adult worked with an individual child in the room for two-to- three-year-olds. She developed the child’s vocabulary and knowledge of the different sizes and the position of objects through exploring how Russian dolls fit inside one another. Language such as, ‘Well done, that goes next to that’ and ‘That one fits inside’ kept the child focused and absorbed for a considerable length of time.  The teaching of disabled children and those who have special educational needs is of excellent quality because a number of staff are highly skilled in working with these children. The staff identify the children’s

p.5

The quality of teaching is outstanding

needs very carefully and make use of various specialist approaches, including the use of pictures and visual timetables to support children’s communication and personal, social and emotional development.  The teaching of reading, writing and mathematics meets the needs of nearly all the children exceptionally well. Children have plenty of opportunity to draw and make marks, to explore letters of the alphabet, to become familiar with fiction and non-fiction books, and to listen to stories. Children who speak English as an additional language benefit from continuous daily opportunities to develop their language skills, and from a learning environment that is richly varied.  Teachers make sure that there are excellent opportunities for children to develop their mathematical skills, including through producing resources tailor-made to their different needs. Every week, staff provide five different mathematical activities to stimulate children’s learning. Counting, and learning to match and

p.5

The quality of teaching is outstanding

measure, are included in many activities, and children have daily opportunities to solve problems for themselves and to learn mathematical vocabulary.  Children’s learning records show that the most-able three-to-five-year-olds have experiences that are difficult enough for them in nearly all areas of learning. Teachers provide thinking skills sessions for these children and ask challenging questions that push them to think deeply and to explain their ideas carefully. The teaching of reading and writing enables them to make good, rather than outstanding, progress. This is because some children could go even further in developing and using their knowledge of letters and the sounds that they make, for instance in blending letters in their reading and writing.

p.6

is outstanding

 A minority of children join the school with skills that are broadly typical for their age. In nearly all areas, the other children’s skills are well below those expected for their age.  Most of the children make outstanding progress, including children of minority ethnic heritage. The school prepares children exceptionally well for the next stage of their education. By the time they leave, the large majority of children are in line, or ahead, of the attainment typically found for their age in all areas of learning. Whereas boys nationally tend to do less well than girls in the early years, both groups do equally well in this school.  Children’s vocabulary, and their ability to understand and to make themselves understood, progress at a rapid pace. They develop a wide range of skills and become increasingly confident learners who are able to think for themselves and express their imaginative ideas.

p.6

is outstanding

 Children develop increasing physical control when building, climbing and balancing, and improved coordination when using pens, paintbrushes and other tools. Through spending time in a woodland setting, they learn about nature and wildlife, discover the names of plants and birds, build dens and solve practical problems.  The achievement of disabled children and those who have special educational needs is excellent. Work with the speech and language therapist, as well as the support of teachers and other staff, enables them to make rapid progress.  Children who speak English as an additional language quickly expand their knowledge of English because they benefit from frequent opportunities for speaking and listening, and they practise their new language very regularly.  The majority of children make outstanding progress in literacy and mathematics. They learn to count and recognise numbers, match colours, sequence shapes, and develop a wide vocabulary to describe the

p.6

is outstanding

position of objects and to compare different sizes. Children come to love books and listen carefully to stories. They make a range of marks that increasingly resemble letters of the alphabet, and many talk in detail about the meaning of their drawings.  During the inspection, children made outstanding progress in drawing and developing stories about superheroes. One child explained his drawing as follows: ‘These are the superheroes’ footprints and they’re trying to rescue the baby dragon from the mountain. Mummy dragon is right down here. She done so bad to the babies. She done smoke and fire. Then there’s a straight line and I have to draw the road – I’m gonna draw a car, and there’s all smoking fire in the house…’.  The achievement of the most-able children is good in literacy and outstanding in other areas. In mathematics, they are able to do much more than is typical for children of their age. For instance, they

p.6

is outstanding

can count to over 100, find the total number from two sets of items, write numbers up to 10, and sort and classify objects based on colour and type. They are knowledgeable about the natural world, operate computer programs independently and produce detailed, imaginative drawings.  The most-able children handle books with care and can retell familiar stories confidently. They recognise rhyming words, can distinguish initial sounds, and know all the letters in their own name and that of others in their group. They generally write their name clearly and are beginning to use their knowledge of letters of the alphabet in their writing. Some three-to-five-year-olds are ready to move beyond this, however, by making greater use of their knowledge of letters and the sounds that they make (phonics) in their reading and writing.

p.6

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

p.8

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.

p.8

School details

Unique reference number 100472 Local authority Kensington and Chelsea Inspection number 448069

p.9

School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

p.9

School details

Type of school Nursery School category Community Age range of pupils 2–5 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 91 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Deborah Walker Headteacher (Acting) Veronica Hilliard Date of previous school inspection 14 May 2012 Telephone number 020 8968 5622 Fax number 020 8962 9248 Email address info@golborne.rbkc.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 .

p.9

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.

p.10

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

p.10

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

p.10

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’.

p.10

School details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

p.10