College Green School and Services

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

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Mrs Wendy Yianni Headteacher College Green School and Services 161 College Road London NW10 3PH

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Short inspection of College Green School and Services

Following my visit to the school on 21 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 outstanding in September 2012.

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Short inspection of College Green School and Services

This school continues to be outstanding.

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Short inspection of College Green School and Services

The leadership team has maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the last inspection. This is the fourth occasion your school has been graded outstanding. This is an achievement that the whole school community should be proud of.

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Short inspection of College Green School and Services

You provide inspirational leadership, ensuring that staff tailor each child’s learning so that it is consistently exciting and memorable. You have forged a tight partnership between the school and children’s families. Feedback is a two-way discussion between home and school. ‘Happiness journals’ provide parents with a means of capturing children’s key achievements at home, including their learning and experiences. The journals also develop children’s thinking and language skills. For example, one task requires children to reflect after playing ‘… in the rain and catching rain drops on their tongue’. Consequently, home learning forms an important part of your ongoing assessments of children’s learning. Impressively, your staff regularly provide parents with advice on how they can support their child’s learning at home.

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Short inspection of College Green School and Services

Before you and your team decide to make changes to the school, you consider why they are being made and the impact this should have on children’s learning. You and your team make regular use of academic research and papers  for example, your recent use of articles from the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics.

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Short inspection of College Green School and Services

Through your endless quest for evidence-based best practice, you identified that children could make even greater progress in their art and design. With your staff and children, you researched and developed a high-quality art and design area. Consequently, children are fascinated by the new water/sink area. It allows them to explore capacity, measurement and volume alongside their artistic exploration of water. This has further enhanced children’s already excellent progress in art, design, language and mathematics.

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Short inspection of College Green School and Services

You and your governors have kept the school up to date with national safeguarding expectations. Governors maintain a close eye on the school’s work to keep children safe. They check how the school applies its agreed systems and procedures.

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Short inspection of College Green School and Services

Staff have a comprehensive and detailed understanding of child protection issues. They know which issues are of particular concern locally, but are alert to all safeguarding concerns. Importantly, staff are aware of how to identify concerns from young children, particularly those with limited vocabulary or spoken English.

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Short inspection of College Green School and Services

Record-keeping is thorough, detailed and well maintained. Staff engage effectively with other agencies such as the local ‘Prevent’ team and social services. Staff explore regularly scenarios which help them to consider how they would respond and deal with real-life child protection issues. Staff also consider if there are any learning points from local serious case reviews and national media reporting. Consequently, they are able to identify issues quickly and help families before problems develop, through accessing early help.

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Inspection findings

 Staff have an exceptional understanding of individual children’s skill levels on entry. Assessments begin before a child formally joins the school. Information is gleaned through ‘stay and play’ sessions and home visits. Leaders’ detailed assessment systems capture extensive evidence of children’s learning throughout the school. This information, including pictures of practical activities and learning, is shared with parents. Regular observations capture detailed evidence of how children are progressing.  Staff conduct a daily walk through the school, together sharing how and why they have set up learning activities. Their observations are used consistently to discuss individual children, their progress, interests and barriers to learning. Consequently, staff know individual children exceptionally well.

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Inspection findings

 On entry, children have skill levels typical for their age. A small minority of children have skill levels below those typical for their age, particularly those who were summer born or speak English as an additional language. Children, regardless of their skill levels when they begin school or their background, make excellent progress. By the time children leave this school, more than nine in every 10 children have skills above those typical for their age across the early years curriculum. This ensures that they are exceptionally well prepared for their transition to Reception classes in local primary schools.  Leaders and staff carefully consider the needs of individuals and groups, for example children who speak English as an additional language, those who are disadvantaged, the most able and the most able disadvantaged. Furthermore, where children speak English as an additional language, staff track carefully their

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Inspection findings

progress in acquiring spoken language. In such cases, staff also consider the specific needs of children who are at an early stage of language acquisition. These groups of children make especially strong progress from the time they join the school, particularly in their communication and language.  Staff help children to develop an understanding of risks and hazards. For example, staff help children explore places they will visit through the use of a pre-trip presentation. Together with staff they discuss how to avoid potential hazards. Consequently, children routinely take an age-appropriate responsibility for keeping themselves safe.  Children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development makes a strong contribution to their excellent behaviour and strong progress in personal, social and emotional development. Cultural development is particularly strong. For example, children made Greek bread during the inspection. This activity helped

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Inspection findings

children work effectively together through role playing a baker. They developed a better understanding of Greek culture, while developing their listening, measuring and mathematical vocabulary. Furthermore, children began to develop their understanding of simple scientific changes to materials. They understood that proving and baking a loaf of bread was an irreversible change.  Staff develop British values strongly through the school’s curriculum. Each month children explore a different value. Currently children are learning about ‘charity’. Children have raised over £1,400 for charity by completing 26 tasks daily for a week. While learning about the charity they fundraised for, they also developed their mathematical skills, for example keeping a tally while completing 26 laps of the school field. Parents have reported that this has contributed strongly to their children counting with determination beyond 10.

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Inspection findings

 Enrichment activities make a significant contribution to children’s attitudes to health and their readiness for primary school. For example, children participate weekly in yoga, karate and sports coaching. These sessions help to ensure that children make strong progress in their physical development and are highly prepared for the primary school sports curriculum.

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Inspection findings

 A strength in the school is how staff enable children to develop their personal independence and take on responsibility  for example, mixing their own paint colours, or washing up equipment they have used. However, leaders rightly recognise that children have fewer opportunities to select technology appropriately within different learning activities. While children make strong progress in technology, this development will better enable some of the most able children to achieve the early learning goal for technology before leaving the school.  Governors have a deep commitment to the school. They know it well because they are a visible part of the school’s daily life. Governors’ visits have a clear focus. They provide detailed feedback on their work to the full governing body and parents. This enables them to provide high-quality, informed challenge to leaders and check that school improvements have the planned impact on

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Inspection findings

children’s learning.  You ensure that staff training links explicitly to the school’s development priorities. This has helped to improve children’s progress further. For example, in the past year, staff have more effectively taught mathematics through activities in other areas of learning, for example when making bread in the bakery role play area. This has further improved the strong progress made by children in mathematics.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 planned improvements to support children’s computing skills enable them to develop further their ability to select and use technology for particular purposes.

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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 Brent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, the inspector carried out the following activities:

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Information about the inspection

 He formally met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, assistant headteacher and two further staff members.  He held a meeting with the chair of the governing body and seven other governors.  He met with a representative of the local authority.  He reviewed a range of documents including records showing the work of the governing body, the school’s evaluation of its own work and leaders’ plans for improvement, and information about children’s progress and attainment. The school’s single central record of pre-employment checks and safeguarding procedures were also reviewed.  The school’s website was scrutinised and confirmed that it meets requirements on the publication of specified information.  He considered 71 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and 14 responses to a survey of staff views.  He jointly visited a range of learning activities across the school with the headteacher and her senior leaders.

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