London Colney Nursery School

London Colney Nursery School Inspection report

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117075 Unique Reference Number Hertfordshire Local Authority 326518 Inspection number 26–27 March 2009 Inspection dates Sheelagh Barnes Reporting inspector

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Nursery Type of school Community School category 3–4 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 42 School (total) The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Barbara Cooper Chair Ms Barbara Fitton Headteacher 8 March 2006 Date of previous school inspection Alexander Road School address London Colney Hertfordshire AL2 1JG 01727 822196 Telephone number 01727 822197 Fax number

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3–4 Age group 26–27 March 2009 Inspection dates 326518 Inspection number .

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. 2 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by an Additional Inspector.

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Description of the school

London Colney Nursery is a smaller-than-average school providing for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage. About half of the children come from minority ethnic backgrounds and speak English as an additional language. Most of these children speak Sylheti or Urdu at home. The proportion of children who need extra support with their learning is around one in ten. Free school meals are not provided on site, but around a third of children are known to be eligible for free meals when they transfer to their next schools. The school has been awarded the Hertfordshire Quality Standard, Healthy School and the Investors in Children awards. There is a childcare centre on site, run by the governing body, which opened in 2000. This has also been awarded the Hertfordshire Quality Standard. A maximum of 24 children may attend the centre at any one time. It is open each weekday from 08.00 to 18.00 for 52 weeks of the

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Description of the school

year. There are currently 35 children aged from birth to under five years on roll at the childcare centre. Children attend for a variety of sessions in the baby unit or young explorers and the majority also attend the Nursery School. All children share access to two secure enclosed outdoor play areas.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009

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Grade: 2

London Colney Nursery is a good school and gives good value for money. The school's leadership places great importance on welcoming children from all backgrounds and abilities and including them well in all activities. This means that children thoroughly enjoy and are fully involved in nursery life. They are cared for, guided and supported well by staff and any discrimination is tackled effectively. Parents are generally supportive of the school and pleased with the way their children settle. One parent summed it up by saying, 'My child always comes home excited to tell me what he has been doing in school that day.' Good links with specialists, with other schools and agencies effectively ensure children's well-being and that their various needs are met. The school and day care staff work well to draw the community together and this has been a significant improvement since the previous inspection. For example, parents attend

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Grade: 2

courses and support groups in the children's centre to develop their own knowledge and understanding as well as accessing the childcare. This all has a positive impact on children's progress, their attitudes to school and to their learning. Children achieve well because the staff challenge them successfully and teaching is good. As a result, standards are in broadly line with or just below expectations for children's ages by the end of the Nursery Year. When children start at the school, a significant number have levels of knowledge which are below those expected for their age. This is particularly the case in language and communication skills. Children catch up quickly during their time in the baby unit, at young explorers and Nursery because teaching is effective. Teaching is particularly good in developing children's skills in using information and communication technology (ICT). There are daily

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Grade: 2

opportunities to use the exciting programs and teachers are very good at giving children time to complete tasks for themselves, with quiet support and encouragement. This effectively builds the children's self-esteem and confidence. The good range of activities which are provided for children to explore allows them to develop their basic skills well, across all six areas of learning, for this age. Occasionally, however, opportunities are missed for children to take responsibility for justifying the choices they make in selecting what activities they will undertake, or to talk about their evaluations of how much they have enjoyed the activities and how well they feel they have got on in completing them. Children's good personal development is clearly seen in their positive attitudes to learning and good levels of concentration. Children behave outstandingly well because staff manage their behaviour excellently. A good range of resources, indoors and out is used successfully to

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Grade: 2

stimulate and interest children in a variety of ways, ensuring their emotional and learning needs are met. Children adopt healthy lifestyles well because the school encourages them to eat well and take regular exercise. They are well prepared for the next phase of their education because of their sound levels of understanding in literacy and numeracy, the high standards they attain in competence using ICT and their well developed social skills. Leadership and management are good and governors are interested and supportive. Their effectiveness is diminished, however, by the fact that the school has only been able to fill a third of the places on the governing body. However, the quality of school self-evaluation, led by the headteacher, is good. The school has rightly identified that continuing to work to raise parents' understanding of the importance of regular attendance is vital if children are to benefit

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Grade: 2

fully from all the school and day-care centre offers. Clear, effective leadership from the headteacher and senior leaders mean that staff all feel part of a strong team where their ideas are valued. The nursery is in a good position to continue to improve in the future. 4 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Establish the importance of regular attendance so that all children benefit fully from what the nursery offers. ■ Involve children effectively in justifying the choices they make and evaluating how well they have completed tasks undertaken. ■ Work to fill all of the places available on the governing body to support senior leaders in their monitoring roles.

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Grade: 2

Attainment on entry is below the standards generally expected for children's ages. Standards are well below those expected for many children in communication, language and literacy skills, especially in the medium of English. Children settle well into the baby unit, young explorers and Nursery and make good gains in their learning, due to the good quality of the provision. Achievement is particularly good in personal and social development, in ICT skills and in speaking and early language skills. This is because of the strong emphasis placed upon these areas of learning by the school. There is a good emphasis on questioning children in such a way as to develop their opportunities to respond at length. This is having a positive impact on their language development, although, on occasion, opportunities are still missed and children give one word answers. Achievement is good in mathematical development, physical development,

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Grade: 2

knowledge and understanding of the world and creative development. However, standards by the time children transfer to their next school are broadly in line with those expected for most areas of learning, but below for aspects of communication, language and literacy. Children who need extra support with their learning and those with English as an additional language achieve well and attain the challenging targets the school sets them.

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Grade: 2

Children's personal development is good. The school encourages boys and girls to make choices and to learn to take on responsibility for some aspects of their day from an early age. For example, young children help themselves to vegetables at lunchtime, spread their own bread or bun with butter and take responsibility to help at tidy-up time. Children generally relate well to each other and play together or alongside each other amicably. Their behaviour is excellent. Disputes and bad feelings are rare and are dealt with speedily. Children who need extra support with their learning and those at early stages of learning English are integrated fully in all aspects of school life. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. Children thoroughly enjoy being in school. Attendance is broadly satisfactory, although a small proportion of parents take their children on extended holidays during term time, which significantly lowers overall

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Grade: 2

attendance rates. Children develop a good understanding of the need to stay safe and of the value of adopting a healthy lifestyle through such things as regular hand washing and choosing healthy food. 5 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009

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Grade: 2

The good quality of teaching is the major reason that children make good progress in their learning. Adults have good relationships with the children and are consistent in their expectations. There is a particularly good emphasis placed on developing children's personal, social and language skills. This has a direct and positive impact, particularly on children's behaviour. Daily opportunities to work with computers and other programmable equipment, and teachers' skills in allowing children to try things out for themselves result in children making particularly good progress in this aspect of their learning. Assessment is regular and accurate and forms an integral part of the school day. Staff use their knowledge of individual children effectively when planning to ensure that learning is enjoyable. Weekly evaluation and planning ensures that boys and girls of all ages and from all groups, including those who speak English as an additional language and those who find learning harder,

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Grade: 2

benefit fully from the opportunities available. Planning ensures that children are given work that is at just the right level for them. The curriculum is good. It provides a clear structure for the teaching of all six areas of learning. There is a good balance between indoor and outdoor activities and also between those activities which are adult directed and those which are child initiated. There is particularly good emphasis on teaching children about healthy and safe lifestyles. This basic curriculum is supplemented well by a good range of interesting and exciting extra activities, which grip children's interest. Children learn about festivals and special days such as Chinese New Year, Christmas and Eid. These have a positive impact on their learning about the world around them. Children are given good opportunities to develop independence and self-help skills in child-initiated learning sessions. However, opportunities for them to take responsibility for

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Grade: 2

justifying the choices they make in their learning are more limited.

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Grade: 2

Children's happiness and safety are promoted very effectively. There are good ratios of adults to children, especially in the baby and day-care rooms. Provision for children who need extra support with their learning and those who are learning to speak English as an additional language is good. Social integration of children from different groups is good and they are fully involved in all school activities. The systems the school has developed to monitor children's academic progress are rigorous and used well. Good new systems have been brought in to monitor attendance to improve it further. Staff use the information from assessment well to ensure that children's needs are met fully. However, opportunities to involve children in evaluations of their achievements are sometimes missed. Health is promoted well so children learn to make good choices, such as in their diet. Good care is also taken to ensure that children know who

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Grade: 2

to turn to if they need help with a problem and this makes them confident and happy. The school has good links with parents. It provides good information for them about the work their children are doing and the progress they are making. All required documentation and systems are fully in place and the requirements of registration for care are fully met. 6 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009

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Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good. The headteacher has a clear, realistic view of the school, based on regular and accurate monitoring. She is aware of the school's strengths and the areas for improvement. Information gained is shared openly with staff and governors and used effectively to highlight areas for improvement in the development plan. The governors are strong supporters of the school and feel confident to question the leadership. However, only a third of the governors' posts are currently filled despite regular attempts to enlist volunteers. This limits the effectiveness of the work governors can undertake to support the leadership of the school. The strategy for community cohesion is developing effectively. The headteacher and staff have developed good links with the local and wider community, particularly through the children's centre, which has recently been opened on the school site. There are good links

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Grade: 2

with other service providers and, as a result, equality of opportunity for all children is promoted well. There has been a good level of improvement since the previous inspection and the school has a good capacity to continue to improve still further. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009 .

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Grade: 2

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 8 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009

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Inspection judgements

School Overall Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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EYFS?

Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well being? 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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Achievement and standards

2 How well do children in the EYFS achieve? 3 The standards[1] reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 2 How well learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities make progress

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children?

2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 The extent to which learners enjoy their education 3 The attendance of learners 1 The behaviour of learners 2 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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The quality of provision

2 How effectively are children in the EYFS helped to learn and develop? 2 How effectively is the welfare of the children in the EYFS promoted? 9 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009

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Leadership and management

2 How effectively is provision in the EYFS led and managed? How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education 2 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 2 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination eliminated 2 How well does the school contribute to community cohesion? How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities Yes Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? No Does this school require special measures? No Does this school require a notice to improve? 10 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

30 March 2009 Dear Children Inspection of London Colney Nursery School and Children's Centre, London Colney, AL2 1JG Thank you very much for making me so welcome when I visited your school recently. I really enjoyed talking to you and watching you work. It helped me to learn a lot about your school. This letter is to tell you about what I found. You really enjoy school and like the things you do. All of the adults get on well with you and plan really exciting things that help you learn a lot. Teaching is good. Because of this, you do really well, especially in learning how to get on with each other, learning about reading and writing and learning to use the computers. Your behaviour is excellent and you are good at trying to do things for yourselves. Those of you who are learning English or those of you who find learning harder are really helped well by all of the staff. Your mums and dads are pleased with the Nursery and with how well you are getting on. This

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

is because Ms Fitton and all the other adults are doing such a good job in making sure your school gets better and better all the time. There are some things that would help your school become even better and I have asked Ms Fitton and the other staff to try to:

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ help make sure more of you to come to Nursery more regularly

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ to help the older ones of you to take more responsibility for the things you choose to do in free-choice time and to take more responsibility for deciding for yourselves how well you have managed with your work ■ to try to get more people to be governors of your school to help Ms Fitton and the other staff make your Nursery even better. I would like to wish you the very best for the future. Yours sincerely Mrs Barnes Lead inspector 11 of 11 Inspection Report: London Colney Nursery School, 26–27 March 2009

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