Rosegrove Nursery School

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

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Mrs Sarah Jones Rosegrove Nursery School Havelock Street Burnley Lancashire BB12 6AJ

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Short inspection of Rosegrove Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 7 June 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 October 2014.

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Short inspection of Rosegrove Nursery School

Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I have identified some priorities for improvement which I advise the school to address. In light of these priorities, the school’s next inspection will be a full section 5 inspection. There is

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of

outstanding as a result of this inspection.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of

Rosegrove Nursery School continues to give children a wide range of interesting and worthwhile learning activities that are matched well to their needs and interests. Staff extend children’s experiences with exciting educational visits, such as to see castles or to take a train journey. Staff use the extensive, attractive and carefully organised outdoor areas fully as part of each nursery session. Staff work successfully as a team and spend much time talking and playing with children. Staff and leaders make the nursery calm. Children are happy. Parents and carers are highly satisfied with the quality of their child’s education.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of

Leaders make arrangements so that staff learn with and from other local nursery, infant and primary schools. Such links have recently helped staff at Rosegrove to sharpen the accuracy of their assessments, for example of children’s writing. Leaders review carefully the evidence from national and international research in the early years so they can inspire and assist staff in their work. Staff enjoy working at the school. They feel well supported in their roles and value the opportunities they have to learn by researching aspects of their own teaching.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of

Following a recommendation set at the previous inspection, leaders and staff now work very successfully with parents and carers to guide them about activities to complete at home with their children. For example, staff provided workshops to give advice to parents about supporting children’s mathematics and reading skills. School information demonstrates that since the previous inspection children have continued to achieve strongly across the areas of learning. Even so, we agreed that your information about children’s learning indicates that boys do not achieve as well as girls in their writing. In observing children’s learning, we noticed that boys participated in writing activities far less than girls.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of

You have identified correctly that some teaching does not equal the best in the school. On occasion, some staff do not engage children well to think and to solve problems. Although you are taking action to address these minor inconsistencies in the work of staff, it is too soon to see the impact.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of

Leaders ensure that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. They double- check that policies, procedures and practices at the school help to keep children safe. Leaders understand the risks to child protection that apply locally and governors are well aware of the action that the school is taking in response. Leaders and staff communicate frequently and extensively with parents. Relationships between staff and children are positive, calm and supportive. Leaders keep themselves fully up to date about national and local child protection matters. They give staff regular safeguarding information and training. Staff have a good understanding of how to spot safeguarding issues and how to report their concerns. Governors are determined that the school assists families as much as possible, so they have created a dedicated post for pupil and family support. This has enabled the school to give children and parents much worthwhile help. Leaders keep precise

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of

and comprehensive records of the school’s safeguarding work. They link fully with other agencies to protect children and families. Staff plan opportunities carefully to teach children how to keep themselves safe.

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Inspection findings

 Children continue to achieve well during their time at nursery school because of the skilful help from teachers and teaching assistants. Children make strong progress, including in their speaking and personal skills. Parents recognise the big steps forward that their children make. They praise staff for the quality of their support to children, for example in developing children’s ability to count and to say the sounds that letters make. In 2017, the overall picture of children’s achievement remained as strong as it did at the time of the previous inspection. Most children leave the nursery school well prepared for continuing their education at infant and primary school.  Most of the time, staff help children to learn successfully. However, on occasion, some staff do not fully support and extend children’s thinking and problem- solving skills. This results in some children not engaging deeply in activities and

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Inspection findings

being more easily distracted from their learning. You are aware of this minor issue and are helping staff to improve the consistency in quality of their teaching.  Since the previous inspection, the school has expanded to include provision for two-year-olds. Staff are caring. Their effective assistance gives the youngest children an important boost to their learning. Parents say that staff help children successfully to become more independent, communicative and able to look after their own needs, for example to use the toilet instead of a nappy.  Parents praise staff and leaders for the quality and frequency of communication from home to school. They are kept well informed about their child’s attainment and progress. They know how their child’s abilities compare against national expectations for typical development. Parents receive regular copies of documents that explain in detail their child’s recent learning. One parent said that

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Inspection findings

when she reviewed this information, ‘You can see that staff really know your child.’ Parents say that staff help them to know what activities to complete at home with their child.  Given you have set improving children’s writing as a priority this year, I wanted to understand how well this aspect of the curriculum is improving. In visiting classrooms, you and I found that staff give children a wide range of opportunities to develop the physical skills they need to coordinate their bodies when writing. For example, this includes opportunities to write with large marker pens on huge pieces of paper on the floor. Staff also give children opportunities to develop the use of their arms and fingers in making marks on the electronic whiteboard or to make letters with brushes in the sand tray. We observed that staff encourage and support children to write meaningfully in their play as well as in group activities. Staff are skilful in helping children to say letter sounds when they write

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Inspection findings

words. However, we noted that boys do not engage as much as they need to in writing activities. Your assessment information indicates that boys’ attainment in writing lags behind that of girls. We agreed that this aspect of teaching requires even more attention from staff and leaders.

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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

 staff teach boys to become motivated, skilful writers  staff support and extend children’s ability to think and to solve problems so they become more engaged in their learning.

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

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Information about the inspection

I met with you to discuss your self-evaluation, your plans for improvement and school information about children’s achievement. I met with you and the pupil and family support worker to discuss the work of the school to safeguard children and their families. You and I visited classrooms and the outdoor area to observe activities and spoke with children. I met with a sample of four staff. I met with eight governors, including the acting chair of the governing body. I met the school’s link adviser from Lancashire local authority. I met with three parents and talked with other parents as they dropped their children off at school. I examined the 16 responses to Ofsted’s online Parent View questionnaire. I considered a summary of responses from 40 parents to a recent school survey. I took into account six responses from staff to an Ofsted questionnaire. I checked a sample of your records about the safeguarding of children. I reviewed your records of checks on the

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Information about the inspection

suitability of staff and governors to work with children.

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