St Anne's & Avondale Park Nursery School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs Katy Blackler Executive Headteacher St Anne’s Nursery School Sirdar Road London W11 4EE

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Short inspection of St Anne’s Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 21 February 2017, 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 May 2013.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s Nursery School

This school continues to be outstanding.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s Nursery School

Ofsted judged St Anne’s Nursery School to be providing an outstanding quality of education in 2007, 2010 and 2013. I can confirm that you and your team have maintained the outstanding quality of education for the fourth time. The key areas that the last inspection asked the school to work on have been successfully addressed. You have ensured that the school’s outdoor teaching is of the same high quality as that taking place indoors. These notable successes come despite significant changes in leadership and governance since the last inspection. The previous headteacher left the school in 2014 and the school has since federated with Avondale Park Primary School. The schools now share your leadership and a joint governing body. St Anne’s moved to its new shared premises with Avondale Park Primary School in September 2016.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s Nursery School

You and your senior leadership team have shown exemplary leadership, skilfully maintaining the morale of staff and parents during a period of significant change. While structures and systems have been changed, you, your senior leaders and governors have maintained a culture of ambition where the needs and interests of children are at the heart of everything that is done. Parents talk with pride at their children’s progress. One summed up the views of many when he explained, ‘The fact my daughter is at this nursery is like winning a jackpot. My daughter is so happy. The learning activities change so frequently I am excited to see what they will be doing each day. She is doing so well because the staff really know her. Everything is so well thought out!’. Safeguarding is effective.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s Nursery School

You, your designated safeguarding officers and governors have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed, and of high quality. You have a very clear understanding of the school’s local context and the safeguarding issues that are most likely to affect your children and families. You ensure that staff have a deep understanding of all child protection issues but have rightly spent time building staff confidence in those aspects that are a priority for your school.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s Nursery School

Staff and parents have benefited from additional workshops relating to female genital mutilation. This has helped staff to be confident in their duties and the potential warning signs that may indicate this issue. However, parents also spoke of the benefits of this workshop and how it had changed their perspectives, as one explained, ‘I have a better understanding of the dangers of female genital mutilation and the long-term effects it could have on my daughter. This was such a useful workshop; I will ensure it never happens to my child.’ Parents also spoke of their faith and trust in the school to deal with issues when they arise. The most common statement parents said to the inspector was, ‘I know that the school will keep my child safe.’ Governors are rigorous in ensuring that all policies and procedures are fit for practice, including the procedures for vetting new staff prior to their appointment. Overall, inspection evidence shows that the school is highly

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Short inspection of St Anne’s Nursery School

effective in the promotion of pupils’ safety.

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Inspection findings

 The first line of enquiry focused on the accuracy of staff assessments about learning and children’s progress across the nursery. You have accurate and detailed assessments of children’s skills on entry to the nursery. Staff gather wholesome evidence from parents, health visitors and where appropriate social services. This has helped you to be sure that children still typically begin their time in Nursery Year with skill levels typically well below their peers.  Children start Nursery Year with particularly low skill levels in their personal, social and emotional development, physical development, speaking and listening, and attention. Staff provide a wide range of well-focused activities to stretch and develop children’s learning in these areas. Teaching also helps the small proportion of children who have skill levels typical for their age, around one in 10 children at the nursery. Owing to skilful and engaging teaching, all children make

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Inspection findings

excellent progress from their starting points.  The focus of additional funding for disadvantaged children explicitly concentrates on providing them with further opportunities to develop their skills. This funding is used to great effect and impact, for example in St Anne’s own outdoor and off- site forest school. This has been key in enabling children to grow their confidence and make strides in their physical development. A key aspect in this success is the involvement of parents, who value being able to support their children’s learning in these sessions. You have also used the funding to support parental involvement, for example through crèche facilities when parents are working with their children.  The second line of enquiry focused on ensuring that leaders, managers and governors had maintained the previous strengths of the school, while continuing to improve the education of the children. Since the last inspection, no time has

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Inspection findings

been wasted. You have ensured that the outdoor provision is high quality and enables children to learn equally well in the classroom and outdoors. This is true across the early years curriculum.  Governors have a tight and focused understanding of how Nursery children are progressing. They provide strong challenge to ensure that funding is used to its greatest effect. As a result, it is clear that the early years pupil premium funding is helping children, including the most able disadvantaged, make excellent progress. This focuses explicitly on the areas of need, so that typically they finish Nursery at or above the skills expected for their age. This represents excellent progress from their starting points.  You have engaged parents exceptionally well. This is true both of the significant changes and in your work to involve them in their children’s education. Your staff provide a plethora of workshops across the academic year. Parents say that

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Inspection findings

these are memorable and develop their ability to help their children learn across the curriculum. Parents say that they feel ‘empowered’ by this work. Indeed, parents are advocates for the workshop sessions, which are exceptionally well attended. For example, the annual London zoo sessions help parents plan and deliver their own education visit for their child: ‘This changed the way I look at learning. It helped me help my son learn in everyday life.’  Parents are uniformly positive about the progress of their children’s learning, the behaviour of children and the difference the school makes to them as families. Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, highlighted this highly positive feedback against all areas of the nursery’s work.  You and your senior leaders are highly effective at drawing together evidence of the school’s effectiveness. You use a wide range of information to help you know the school’s strengths and areas for development. You agree that you have in the

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Inspection findings

past paid less attention to using these same skills to evaluate and plan to improve children’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development. While the development of children’s SMSC is evident in learning activities, you accept that more explicit evaluation will help to strengthen further these aspects of the school’s work as you evaluate the nursery’s new early years curriculum.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that they evaluate the impact of their new early years curriculum in developing children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Kensington and Chelsea. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, I held meetings with you, your deputy headteacher and assistant headteacher in charge of the nursery. I met with governors, including your chair of governors, and a representative from the local authority. I met informally with children in each classroom and observed some during their reading activities. I visited all classes, accompanied by your assistant headteacher. I met with members of staff, including a new member of staff who joined in September 2016. I met with several parents and I took into account the views of parents shared in Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View. I looked at a wide range of school documents, including those related to safeguarding, records of the monitoring of teaching, and those relating to children’s attainment and progress information.

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