Eastfield Nursery School

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

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Miss Emma Smith Headteacher Eastfield Nursery School Griffin Street Off Colliery Rd Wolverhampton West Midlands WV1 2HH

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 29 November 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 October 2012.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

This school continues to be outstanding.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

The leadership team has maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your hard work and determination to ensure that every child ‘blooms’ in the setting mean that all groups of children make outstanding progress in relation to their starting points. Children leave the Nursery as confident and independent learners who are curious and capable of expressing their needs and their opinions. Consequently, they are well prepared for learning in Reception classes of primary schools.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

You have successfully created an exceptionally caring ethos, underpinned by high expectations of all adults, ensuring that children are not afraid to try out new things such as ‘body painting’ in the ‘Terrific Twos’. Parents and carers say that their children make exceptional progress in acquiring vocabulary, such as using the term ‘illustrator’ when reading books.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

Adults’ limitless use of creativity, fuelled by the excellent support from your artist in residence, ensures that children are highly motivated to learn. You have guided your staff to pay particular attention to developing children’s basic skills of writing through play. During ‘spooky week’ children wrote spells, which fired their imagination and developed their creative flair. They wrote spells that included potions made of eyeballs and frogs. Children counted spiders hidden in jelly and squealed with delight every time they found one. Every day is filled with exciting activities such as drawing animals in trays of glitter. This also entices boys to write and practise correct pencil control through using ‘talking fingers’ (a name given to correct pencil grip).

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

You provide visionary leadership by appointing staff that bring a wealth of experience to help you implement your vision of ensuring that all children get the best access to high-quality learning experiences. For example, you have appointed a highly experienced leader of special educational needs. She immediately identifies children with developmental delays and makes sure that they receive the expert help that they need. This ensures that their progress is as rapid as that of their peers.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

The excellent planning skills of a newly appointed teacher in charge of teaching and learning have improved teachers’ skills in clearly identifying children’s developmental stages. As a result, tasks are matched to children’s needs so they make excellent progress. Your monitoring of teaching and learning and the tracking of children’s progress is very thorough.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

You and your deputy have already identified that there is a slight discrepancy between children’s outcomes in their language and mathematical development, and you are already looking at ways of closing the differences. You have a clear focus on improving outcomes in children’s mathematical development.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

The curriculum is rich and varied, with purposeful play at the core of all learning. There are endless opportunities for children to explore and experiment. You are in the process of updating your systems for tracking the progress of different groups of children. This means that governors have a more detailed picture of the progress of different groups of children from their starting points. The indoors and outdoors play areas are supported by high-quality resources which embrace children’s own ideas and interests, encouraging them to have a go and experiment.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

The use of forest school teaches these young children to develop their skills of citizenship and care for the environment. The ‘Woodlands Project’, where parents worked alongside their children in the forest school, has helped parents to see the value of learning through play and how to develop children’s language through the use of the outdoors.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the school. They say that their children have not only developed academically, but they can also see a marked improvement in their manners and their attitudes to learning. ‘My child wants to come to school even when he is ill. As soon as he wakes up he asks if he is attending nursery,’ said one parent, who spoke for many.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

The areas for improvement from the previous inspection report have been tackled successfully. You now have robust systems for monitoring and evaluating children’s progress. With the help from your local authority adviser, you are further refining your systems of tracking the progress of different groups of children from their starting points. You and your governors have invested heavily in creating an excellent outside classroom for learning, where children have the opportunity to develop their basic skills. This has ensured that boys are motivated to write, an issue identified in your previous inspection report that you have successfully addressed. However, as we saw in our joint observations, there are some missed opportunities, both indoors and outdoors, for adults to acquaint children further with the language and symbols of mathematics.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

You ensure that safeguarding of children is a high priority. All the required checks are made to make sure that staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children. You make sure that staff receive the required training, which is then revisited every two weeks in staff meetings. The training includes protecting children from radicalisation and extremism and the dangers of the internet. Parents are very appreciative of the signposting to various sites, so that they can learn more about keeping their children safe. The site is secure, safe and welcoming. Children can spot signs of danger, such as having to walk carefully on icy floors and not bumping into one another outdoors.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

You know your children and their families very well and you are especially vigilant with families that are vulnerable. You use a wide range of professionals and services to support each child’s physical and emotional well-being as well as their learning. Parents are confident that that you do everything possible to ensure that their children are safe, happy and healthy.

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Short inspection of Eastfield Nursery School

You assess rigorously all potential risks for the premises, for all indoor and outdoor activities, such as the wild garden and the forest school. Your systems for recording incidents of concern are equally thorough. The records are detailed and well organised, recording phone calls made and meetings with professionals. Discussions with parents, governors and the local authority all confirm their view that children are safe in the school.

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Inspection findings

 You have developed the outdoor learning environment considerably, placing a high focus on providing resources and activities to help children make rapid progress in their literacy and numeracy skills. This work has been particularly successful, especially at inspiring boys’ writing.  You, your deputy and governors have worked relentlessly to make sure that the outside area is a vibrant learning environment that stimulates children, giving them opportunities to explore their learning using all their senses. This further supports the excellent progress they make in their personal, social and emotional development.  Children’s knowledge of the world is also developed exceptionally well. In the mud kitchen children learn about the different consistencies of mixing mud with water. The wild garden has enabled children to use their skills of observation when planting seeds and watching them grow. You have ensured that there are plenty of

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Inspection findings

opportunities for children to practise the learning started indoors in the well- planned activities outdoors. Children make rapid progress in this area of their learning because the activities are well matched to their needs and interests.  Teachers plan exciting learning activities to develop children’s communication, language and literacy skills. For example, the home corner includes a picnic area where children develop their creativity in expanding stories and acting them out. The life-size gruffalo is a central figure in children’s play and develops their love of books. Consequently, all children make outstanding progress in their learning.  There is a wide range of opportunities for children to develop their writing skills, due to the high focus on literacy activities and the many visual prompts that you display in the outdoor environment. However, opportunities for children to develop their mathematical skills are not as well developed. Currently, there is a

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Inspection findings

lack of parity in the mathematical learning opportunities and display of mathematical language compared with that of English.  Children love learning about the natural world in the forest school. Photographs show children learning about seasonal changes, hunting for minibeasts, building dens and drinking chocolate around an open fire. Children enjoy greatly the outdoors and develop high levels of resilience using the adventure trails and learning how to land safely on two feet. Parents say that the outdoors has a very positive impact on their children’s confidence, as they are willing to try out new things. Children demonstrated high levels of confidence throughout the inspection.  The provision for ‘Terrific Twos’ is outstanding. Staff are highly skilled because of the high levels of supervision that you and your senior leaders undertake. Staff have a deep understanding of the needs of very young children. High-quality

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Inspection findings

resources develop children’s senses, such as mixing ingredients for flapjacks and seeing numbers on scales when measuring ingredients. This contributes to their excellent learning. The priority areas of communication and language and physical development, along with personal, social and emotional development, are skilfully woven into learning throughout the day. Children make rapid progress on the key areas of learning and are very well prepared for their next stages of learning.  Outstanding progress throughout the whole of the Nursery setting is largely attributable to your rigorous monitoring of all aspects of provision. No stone is left unturned. You ensure that as soon as you spot an area for improvement, systems are put in place to develop it. As a result, your school improvement is consistently evaluated and altered in light of your findings.  All children learn to behave exceptionally well, work independently, share

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Inspection findings

resources and play fairly. Adults act as excellent role models for the children in how to behave and get along with one another. They become as excited in teaching as children do in learning because they all love what they do.  You and your deputy are very successful in building strong relationships in the schools that you support and the community that you serve. The school goes from strength to strength. It is highly deserving of its excellent local reputation.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 more opportunities are provided for children to familiarise themselves with the language of mathematics through display and daily activities. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Wolverhampton. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you and your deputy, three governors, five parents and a representative of the local authority. I visited all areas of the school to see children and staff at work. I observed children’s behaviour around the school throughout the day and considered the views of 13 parents posted on Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View. I evaluated a range of documents, including safeguarding records and policies, your monitoring of teaching and learning, your school development plan and your school self-evaluation.

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