Osborne Nursery School

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

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Mrs Sharon Eeles Headteacher Osborne Nursery School Station Road Erdington Birmingham West Midlands B23 6UB

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 30 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 good in September 2012.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You, very ably supported by your deputy headteacher, are unrelenting in your drive to give every child the best possible start to their education. Your evaluation of the school’s performance accurately pinpoints where the school’s strengths are, but also where the next steps must be taken to continue to improve the school. You leave no stone is unturned to ensure that the journey of improvement continues, with the children at the heart of everything you do. You, your deputy and the governors provide leadership of the highest quality and, as a result, the school is going from strength to strength.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

You and your staff focus on celebrating the diverse cultural backgrounds from which your children come. This is achieved exceptionally well. Learning about different cultures and faiths through celebrations such as Chinese New Year, Diwali, Eid and Christmas is central to your curriculum. For example, children experience the variety of foods and customs from these different cultures. The community spirit within the school is an example to all.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

Parents and carers speak very highly of the care and support their children receive. As one parent said, ‘The genuine care for the children is really apparent.’ This was echoed by comments made by parents spoken to during the inspection. Warm and extremely strong relationships exist between staff and children. All parents who responded to the Ofsted online questionnaire said that their children are happy, safe and well looked after. Staff encourage children to be confident and independent learners and children show a high level of trust in all staff. This helps children to make excellent progress in their personal, social and emotional development.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

At the time of the last inspection you were asked to develop the challenge for children during free-choice activities. You have focused training and development for staff in this area. Staff understand the need to respond to children’s learning and that when children show that they can do something, further challenge needs to be provided to take the learning further forward, especially for the most able children. This is achieved very well by some staff. However, you recognise that some staff require further support to ensure that all children, whatever their ability, are consistently challenged in their learning.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

The previous inspection also identified the need to develop leadership and management, specifically focusing on developing staff training needs, making sure all staff are held accountable for school performance and that staff follow school policies and procedures. Many aspects of this have been successfully addressed. All staff now understand their responsibility to follow the school’s policies and procedures, which are consistently applied. In addition to this, staff now recognise their responsibility to ensure that all children make the progress they should.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

Your encouragement and professional development for your staff is exemplary. You know your staff’s development needs extremely well. Your detailed monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning enables carefully targeted guidance and support to be put in place. You provide bespoke training for all staff, based on individual needs. You then check that this training is improving the quality of teaching. Consequently, the overall quality of teaching and learning is good, and is continuing to develop.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

You have developed appraisal systems which hold all staff to account robustly. Staff understand that they are accountable for children’s progress. They appreciate the support and guidance they receive to develop their practice and proactively seek to develop their skills and expertise. There is a shared commitment across the school to improve outcomes for all children. All staff who responded to the staff survey show overwhelming support for the leadership of the school. There is a strong and committed team at Osborne Nursery school. However, you recognise that there is still more to do to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning across the whole school is consistently at the level of the very best.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

You and the governors set up the two-year-old provision in September 2017. You have taken swift action to provide effective teaching and learning for these children. However, you recognise that this provision is still at an early stage of development. You have prioritised support and training to improve the quality of teaching and learning, but also further developments to the learning environment. While provision for the very youngest children in the school is effective, you and the governors have rightly identified the need to further develop this area. Safeguarding is effective.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

There is an extremely strong culture of safeguarding within the school. All staff recognise the need to protect children, and know that protecting children is everyone’s responsibility. You ensure that all staff receive regular training to make certain that their knowledge and understanding of how to keep children safe is up to date. You go even further by checking that they understand this training through a ‘safeguarding quiz’.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

You make detailed checks on everyone who works within the school. Any concerns that staff raise about children are followed up swiftly, and you do not rest until the right support is in place for vulnerable children and families.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

You also ensure that children learn about how to keep themselves safe. For example, children receive visits from the local police to teach them about safety in the community. Children and their parents learn about how to use computers safely, especially when using the internet.

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Short inspection of Osborne Nursery School

Children are taught how to keep themselves safe when learning in a variety of ways. For example, when learning in the forest school area, children reviewed, and then followed, the rules of the forest school to play hide and seek safely. Children in the construction area put safety glasses on before using saws to cut wood. Children understand very well that they can enjoy exploring and learning in exciting environments and activities, while staying safe at the same time.

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Inspection findings

 The governing body has developed rapidly since your appointment. Governors have an astute understanding of the school’s performance, both the strengths and the areas for further development. Governors undertake skills audits to identify their key strengths. These skills are then carefully matched to their roles and responsibilities on the governing body.  Governors review all aspects of school performance and understand how outcomes are being improved. They receive detailed information about children’s progress from you, which they scrutinise and check. Governors then challenge you and your deputy with precise and well-targeted questions to ensure that school development priorities are directed in the right areas to improve outcomes for all children.  Governors recognise the need to further develop the provision for two-year-olds. They know that the current provision is effective, but also where improvements

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Inspection findings

need to be made. Governors provide highly effective challenge and support to you, which is helping the school to improve quickly.  You make highly effective use of every possible school support opportunity. For example, you work within a local collaboration of schools to enable you to see what best practice looks like. You then apply this best practice within your school. Equally, you welcome reviews of what you are doing in your school by outside partners to check that the school improvement actions you are carrying out are having a positive impact on children’s outcomes. As a result, your school development priorities are improving the provision for children almost on a daily basis. This is leading to rapid improvements in the overall effectiveness of the school.  You track children’s progress across all areas of the early curriculum in great detail, including for the most able children. You check the standards children

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Inspection findings

achieve against their actual ages to make sure that they are reaching the levels they should. You help staff to recognise the skills and abilities of children, and focus on ensuring that learning activities challenge and develop their learning. You have the highest expectations of what all children can achieve, whatever their starting points.  Training such as ‘OWL’ (observe, wait and listen), is encouraging staff to reflect in greater detail on what children can do. They can then provide more challenge to help all children, especially the most able children, to make the progress of which they are capable. The level of challenge for the most able children is further developed through small group work. For example, for those children who are ready, staff provide additional opportunities to improve their reading and writing skills. However, you know that some teaching does not provide sufficient challenge for children. On a few occasions this leads to children becoming

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Inspection findings

disengaged from learning.  The majority of children start school with skills and abilities below those typical for their age, and in some cases well below. However, over their time at Osborne Nursery school the vast majority of children make at least secure, and in many cases good, progress. You have a holistic approach to developing children’s learning, with an equal focus on developing their personal, social and emotional development, as well as children’s academic progress. As one parent said, ‘Staff helped my child to become a well-rounded little person who is now thriving in Reception.’  You and your staff provide a wide range of learning experiences to help children make progress in all areas of their learning. One parent commented: ‘The Nursery gives the children real life experiences so they can learn, like going to the park, the shops and the library.’ This means that children leave the nursery

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Inspection findings

extremely well prepared for the Reception Year in their next schools.  You have developed a shared vision of the provision within the school with your staff. One of the key foci of your vision includes, ‘Children and staff will have fun and enjoy their learning.’ This radiates throughout the school. As one parent said, ‘I am beyond happy with my choice of school.’ This sums up the wonderful start children receive to their education at Osborne Nursery school.

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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 recently formed two-year-old provision is further developed, including developing the quality of teaching and the learning environment  leaders continue their high focus on developing the quality of teaching and learning to ensure that all teaching is consistently good or better  all children are challenged, especially the most able children.

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

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection I met with you and your deputy, five members of the governing body and your school support partner. You joined me on brief visits to lessons. I talked to children and observed their learning. I observed children’s behaviour at lunchtime. I spoke to parents before school. I reviewed a range of documentation, including the school’s own evaluation of its performance, the school development plan, documents relating to keeping children safe and the most recent information about their achievement. I considered 19 responses from the Ofsted online questionnaire from parents, and their comments made through the text message service. There were no responses from the children’s questionnaires. I considered 16 responses to the staff questionnaire.

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