Bridlington Nursery School

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

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Miss Judith Frost Headteacher Bridlington Nursery School Butts Close Bridlington East Yorkshire YO16 7BS

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Short inspection of Bridlington Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 16 January 2018, 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 November 2012.

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Short inspection of Bridlington Nursery School

This school continues to be outstanding.

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Short inspection of Bridlington 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 Bridlington Nursery School

You are a dynamic leader who puts the whole school community at the heart of what you do. Since your appointment three years ago, you have addressed the correct priorities, including the area for improvement identified at the last inspection, swiftly and effectively, while making sure that everyone is on board. You know your school extremely well. Inspection evidence shows that you have your finger on all the pulses. Your knowledge, enthusiasm and passion ensure that the school continues to improve in all it does. You have established clear, effective, understandable assessment and tracking systems which lead to focused discussions by staff on learning and progress. You are tenacious in monitoring and seeking out solutions where any child’s progress is not as rapid as expected. Staff are rightly proud and confident of the work they do, and the children benefit and shine from this. Staff confidence is very high because you listen to them and build on their best

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Short inspection of Bridlington Nursery School

ideas, skills and interests. Parents and carers comment on how much their children love attending the school, forming brilliant relationships with peers and staff. ‘They come home singing songs that they have learned and talk about their key worker very fondly’ and ‘I am very happy with my child’s academic progress, as well as their happiness and emotional welfare’ are just two of the many supportive comments made by parents to the inspector.

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Short inspection of Bridlington Nursery School

Extremely strong teaching is demonstrated through the high standard of learning that is taking place. In all observations during the inspection, staff skilfully challenged and stretched children to further their thinking and understanding. Mathematics teaching is a strength of the school, with children able to identify the attributes of a cylinder, as well as knowing the name of many three-dimensional shapes. Staff support and develop children’s critical thinking skills highly effectively. This means that children can confidently compare shapes, for example describing why a cuboid cannot roll while a cylinder can. Staff consistently use all opportunities to develop understanding of number, with most children able to count beyond 10 and recognise numerals up to 10. During the inspection, they demonstrated their understanding of numbers greater than 10 when using different body parts to count, with one child saying, ‘Because we haven’t enough fingers!’ Your own

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Short inspection of Bridlington Nursery School

accurate observations, backed up by robust data analysis and reviewing children’s work, demonstrate that teaching is consistently of a high standard.

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Short inspection of Bridlington Nursery School

The inclusion of all children is notable. The actions you take to make sure that all children are included, and that those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are effectively supported, mean that they are very confident in their learning. They respond well to the challenges set. You and your staff have developed an environment where learning is fun, which means that all children are consistently engaged in activities. Children know routines well and quickly build strong relationships with members of staff. There is no occurrence of any unwanted behaviour. Children sit and listen well because staff follow their interests and captivate them. For example, a group of children were presented with a real balloon after listening to a story about balloons. They discussed how to blow it up. They compared the rubber balloon and soap bubbles. Finally, they took everything outdoors and experimented further on how to secure the balloon against the

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Short inspection of Bridlington Nursery School

Outstanding rates of progress mean that, when children leave the school, they are all extremely well prepared for the next stage in their education, and a considerable proportion are even better than this in some areas of learning. When children may need some extra help, you make sure that the staff with the right skills give those children additional support and ensure that they get back on track. For example, those who need some help with their speech and language were observed working in focused groups with a member of staff who has specialist skills in this area. Parents say that the effect of this high-quality early learning stays with the children as they move into Reception classes.

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Short inspection of Bridlington Nursery School

You and the governors ensure that the school is fully compliant with all safeguarding requirements. You are relentless in securing the services that vulnerable children and families may need. This is successfully reinforced through the regular information exchange and effective partnership working with the multi- agency teams on site. Paperwork and records are well documented and of a high quality. Plans are always focused on improving outcomes for the child. You consistently monitor any out-of-the-ordinary behaviour or statements by children to identify any concerns and ensure that children are safe. Staff are well trained and skilled in how to support children’s emotional well-being and literacy, which means that children can find a way to express their wishes and feelings.

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Inspection findings

 You have effectively addressed the recommendation from the last inspection. You and the staff are proactive in developing home learning. Parents are given every opportunity to contribute to their child’s learning, from stay and play through to workshops and after-school clubs. Records of their children’s learning are freely available for parents to look at and add to with WOW moments from home. Meetings to discuss these records complement the more formal parent meetings where learning targets are shared. Parents say that they are given excellent information regarding both the strengths their children have and where there may be areas where progress is not as strong. They are given ideas and suggestions of how to support their children’s learning outside of school. This has been very effective in developing and improving outcomes for children across most aspects of the curriculum. However, you have identified that there is still

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Inspection findings

more work to be done, particularly around the areas of science and understanding the world.  Governors are very knowledgeable about their role. They know the school well through reading the headteacher’s reports. They check their understanding out for themselves through effectively using data analysis, meetings with staff and visiting the school. They are very good at challenging the school using this evidence. They support the outward-looking headteacher and have recently established a shared post for fundraising with a partner nursery school. This means that new initiatives focused on improving outcomes for children can be financially supported and sustained.  All children from their different starting points make extremely strong progress in all areas of learning. Disadvantaged children do better than other children in terms of progress and so leave the school in line with their friends. Typically, at

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Inspection findings

least a third of children leave with extremely high attainment.  All staff, including yourself, share extremely stretching targets to make sure that the majority of children make at least good progress during their time at the school. These targets are directly linked to the school’s plans for development and improvement. These plans are developed through robust consultation with governors and staff, ensuring that their ideas and contributions are included. The planned developments are monitored termly. As actions are completed, they are then signed off and maintained. This means that all staff and governors are engaged in the development of the school and the achievement of the very high standards it sets itself.

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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

 the use of the local environment is enhanced, in partnership with parents, to further improve children’s understanding of the world. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for East Riding of Yorkshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

The focus of the inspection was to check whether the outstanding standards identified at the previous inspection had been maintained and to find out how well children were progressing. I held a variety of meetings with you and your staff. I observed adult-supported learning jointly with you in the school. I considered a range of evidence, including the school improvement plan and leaders’ self- evaluation. I also reviewed other documentation.

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Information about the inspection

I met with members of the governing body and spoke with the school improvement officer. I considered the eight responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, and spoke with five parents. I also took account of the responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire.

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