Atkinson Road Nursery School

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

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Ms Jean Wynne Headteacher Atkinson Road Nursery School Atkinson Road Benwell Newcastle-upon-Tyne Tyne and Wear NE4 8XT

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 7 March 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 good in November 2013.

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

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

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

You are dedicated to raising the achievement and improving the outcomes of children at Atkinson Road Nursery. It is this drive that has enabled you to sustain the consistently good outcomes for children and groups of children over time.

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

You know the children well and provide good care and support for their emotional and academic needs. You have established a great rapport with the wider community and use its resources well to support children’s learning. This is exemplified best by the work undertaken in your ‘forest school’ provision.

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

Relationships are a strength of your school. Adults demonstrate great affection for the children they support, while making sure the school’s high expectations for good learning behaviours are not compromised. You quickly establish warm and welcoming relationships with those families new to the school and new to the country. As a result, children are thriving and are learning to get along with each other well. Parents endorse this view.

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

Curriculum provision offers children rich opportunities to explore and learn. Resources are varied and are well matched to children’s interests and abilities. Daily evaluation of teachers’ planning ensures that children’s needs are met promptly. The impact of your planning is illustrated best by the amount of confident and happy children who are beginning to demonstrate growing independence.

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

Since the school was last inspected, you have introduced a twelve-place provision for two-year-olds. You already have a waiting list for this, which demonstrates the popularity of your school and the high regard held for you within the community.

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

You are working hard at improving rates of attendance at the nursery and have implemented a number of strategies to help you in this. You have set challenging targets for improvement and are well on the way to achieving these with your oldest children. You recognise there is still much to be done to improve the attendance of your youngest children in order to reach your high expectations.

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

Governors are well informed and apply their duties thoroughly. They offer you support and challenge and share your ambition for the school. Their detailed programme of monitoring ensures that they have an accurate picture of strengths and weaknesses and a deep understanding of the needs of the children in their care. Together, you and your governors are exploring all options to secure the financial viability of the nursery.

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

Leaders have ensured that safeguarding procedures are in place and that all staff recognise their responsibilities in keeping children safe. Rigorous checks are completed to ensure that new members of staff are suitably vetted to work with children. You access support and guidance from external agencies in a timely manner and are diligent in your record keeping.

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Short inspection of Atkinson Road Nursery School

The curriculum is used wisely to ensure that children are developing a growing understanding of how to keep themselves safe. The ‘forest school’ provision is ensuring that children have a growing awareness of their environment and of how to play safely outdoors.

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Inspection findings

 Attainment on entry remains below that typically found in children of this age, particularly in the strand of learning associated with communication and language, specifically speech. You have prioritised your work with speech, language and communication and provided extensive training to ensure that all staff are good role models in developing children’s early language skills. The impact of this work is evidenced by the rapid progress most children make in this area.  Progress overall is good. All groups, including disadvantaged children and children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, are making equally strong progress across all areas of learning. On average, children gain an additional term of progress above that which is expected.  Attainment over time has remained good. Almost three quarters of your oldest children reach age-related expectations in all areas of learning. Those children

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Inspection findings

who are below age-related expectations have made expected progress from their starting points. This is because the system you introduced to track children’s progress is used well to respond to their individual needs.  Progress of children accessing the two-year-old provision is not as strong as you want. This is because higher rates of absence are impeding the progress children can make.  Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well and make good progress. Their progress is rapid in communication and language as a result of the extensive intervention you provide. Disadvantaged children make equally good progress compared with their peers. This is because the additional funding you receive is used to provide additional hours of nursery provision.  Only a small proportion of children are identified as most able, including disadvantaged most able. Outcomes are strongest in communication and

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Inspection findings

language and in understanding the world, where there has been focused intervention. However, progress for this group is not yet consistent across all areas of learning.  The quality of teaching is good. You have strengthened procedures for managing the performance of staff and ensured that the targets they receive include some relating to children’s outcomes. You have also invested in training and created a strong team ethos where staff are proud to be associated with the school and proud of their achievements.  Questioning of children by staff is effective in ensuring that children sustain interest in activities and understand what is expected of them. However, staff do not consistently question to challenge the thinking of the most-able children. Staff know the children well and offer a raft of additional enrichment activities and support. Nevertheless, the impact of these activities is not measured

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Inspection findings

precisely enough to truly gauge their value for money.  Planning is a seamless process that follows through children’s interests and needs and is adjusted accordingly on a daily basis. This means that children are happy in the nursery and enjoying their learning. Children particularly enjoy outdoor provision, and you look for additional funding streams to supplement your resources. The recently installed water chute is most popular with children and supports children’s growing curiosity in the world around them.  Relationships are a strong feature of your provision and your ‘Nursery promises’ underpin the work you do to keep children safe and happy within the setting.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:  the impact of interventions is measured precisely to gauge value for money  challenge for the most able children is consistent across all areas of learning  good attendance is encouraged, in keeping with your own high expectations, particularly for the youngest children. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Newcastle upon Tyne. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I held discussions with you and several members of the governing body. With you, I observed children in the indoor and outdoor provision. I talked to children about their learning, and conducted scrutiny of their learning journals. I examined your safeguarding documents and your information about assessment and attendance. I took account of eight responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and 31 responses to your own parental questionnaire as there were too few responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View.

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