Setting

Ms Fiona Godfrey Kate Greenaway Nursery School Copenhagen Street London N1 0UH

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 11 November 2015, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be outstanding in December 2012.

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

This school continues to be outstanding.

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

The leadership team has maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

Your personal leadership is a clear force for improvement and your ambition has ensured that the school’s improvement has been sustained over time. Staff are committed to supporting the development of every child. Your children learn through activities that enable them to test their ideas, make sense of the world around them, and explore and communicate their thoughts.

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

You and the deputy headteacher ensure that children experience an exciting but relevant range of activities, experiences and resources. The exceptionally well- planned outdoor space is inspiring and its design contributes positively to how your children learn and behave. Paths twist and turn around the growing beds, providing lots of opportunities for choosing which way to go if running, skipping, walking or on a bike. There is an element of decision making constantly at play. Your new tree house and carefully purchased resources encourage challenge and risk, engaging all children including those with special educational or behavioural needs. Two-year-old and three- to four-year-old children learn together amicably side by side.

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

Your leadership team has a firm grip on how to develop classroom practices. The previous inspection identified that more opportunities needed to be provided for children to talk about what they have been learning and become even more involved in thinking about how to make the most of learning for themselves. Your focus on planning around children’s understanding of the world was aimed at addressing this. Planning for learning in the local environment, outdoors and using natural resources has successfully addressed this area of improvement. How well you and your team Ofsted

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk have tackled this area has been accredited externally. The funding following this accreditation has contributed to the installation of an outdoor water adventure and exploration zone. You ensured designers consulted with the children and staff. The planning for this innovative feature resonates with leaders’ ambition to ensure the environment continually enables children to talk and think about how to make the most of learning for themselves.

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

Leaders and governors have an accurate view of the strengths of the school and areas that need further improvement. However, the successes of the school’s initiatives, shared with parents and the wider community, are too descriptive and do not provide sharp enough evidence of their impact on children’s achievement.

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

Leaders and governors ensure safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and kept continually under review. They have engaged the support of the local authority, commissioning a full safeguarding review to check the robustness of practices. Full use of the local authority’s expertise has been made in this area, which has enhanced effective administration systems for recording and storing information. Records are detailed, include the support and engagement of external agencies, and are of high quality. As a result, the school is well placed and well informed to take appropriate action, ensuring this is in the best interests of the child.

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Short inspection of Kate Greenaway Nursery School

Leaders ensure, through training and policy updates, that staff have an awareness of a wide range of risks. Leaders have established clear rules regarding the use of mobile phones and cameras, which are shared with visitors. All staff have undertaken training on the risks of female genital mutilation and are increasingly aware of the indications of extremism and radicalisation. Further safeguarding training focused on this area is already planned this term.

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Inspection findings

 You have fully addressed the previous inspection’s recommendations for improvement and increased the opportunities for children to talk about what they have been learning and to become even more involved in thinking about how to make the most of learning for themselves. Senior leaders have led improvements through staff training in a range of areas. As a result, staff are successful in creating ways to facilitate this. The installation of the water exploration feature and the indoor play-dough making zone, which enable children to use a wide range of vocabulary and develop their reasoning skills, are excellent examples of this. Your ‘scrap book’ practice, now fully developed, and the introduction of ‘floor books’ for collaborative learning around a theme ensure all adults, including the visiting violinist, seize every opportunity to capture children’s interests and comments. The carefully planned activities mean that younger children, although at an early stage of

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Inspection findings

their development, are confidently choosing to sing, make notes on a violin, talk and look through the ‘floor books’. The older children model taking turns, speaking clearly and, for example, explaining why they predicted an object would sink or float, thus gaining the interest of the younger children.  Governors fulfil their statutory requirements very well. They challenge, with rigour, leaders’ self-evaluation by matching their personal skills and expertise to check the different aspects of nursery provision. Link governors have an accurate view of the school, through visits to review provision and policies, and report back their findings at governing body meetings. Governors are fully committed to supporting the Nursery’s mission of providing friendly, safe and inclusive provision for the local community. You and your governors are currently considering the possibility of expanding the two-year-old and three-

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Inspection findings

to four-year-old provision through a building programme to address this. You and your governors have purchased and received good support from the local authority.  You and the deputy headteacher have a passionate commitment to ensuring that every child in the Nursery receives personal and academic support to help them excel. You and the deputy headteacher make careful checks on the quality of teaching, planning and assessment and how well children are learning. Professional development and performance management systems support staff very well. They receive well-judged guidance on how to develop. This results in strong progress from each individual child’s starting point and they are well prepared for their move to primary school. This is because staff are experienced, understand how young children learn best and plan meticulously. Staff track children’s achievement by gathering a wide range of evidence and they record this well in individual profile records. The records

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Inspection findings

contain rich evidence of what children know, understand and can do. The staff are skilled and knowledgeable in their planning for developing children’s curiosity and interest. All this takes place in a calm and well-maintained learning environment. Children’s behaviour and attitudes are outstanding as they are supported by staff to engage with their surroundings and form positive relationships.  You have created well-established relationships between home and nursery. Staff and parents speak daily as the children are dropped off or collected. Parents who arrived in the morning spoke positively about the Nursery. They value the regular chats with their child’s carers and the regular one-to-one discussions. As one parent said, ‘They make me feel my child is special and they are taking super care for every child.’ Another said the Nursery was a ‘safe haven’. Parents are right to be confident about, and highly satisfied with,

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Inspection findings

the quality of education their children receive.  The nursery development plan correctly identifies your main goals for ongoing improvement. It is supported by targeted action plans that have helped to sustain highly effective practice since the last inspection. Leaders’ self- assessment is accurate and their commitment to continuous improvement is highly commendable.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the impact of the school’s initiatives is communicated with greater clarity to parents and the wider community.

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Information about the inspection

During the visit, I met with you, your deputy headteacher, a representative of the local authority and four governors, including the Chair of the Governing Body. I spoke informally to parents at the beginning of the day. I considered the views of parents from Parent View and the 21 questionnaires completed by members of staff. Visits were made to the indoor and outdoor environments to observe children’s learning. I reviewed a range of nursery documentation, and scrutinised children’s work and safeguarding information.

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