Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

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

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Mrs Diane Lister Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre Ladbrooke Road Chalvey Slough Berkshire SL1 2SR

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

Following my visit to the nursery on 10 July 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 nursery was judged to be good in January 2014.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the nursery since the last inspection. Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I am of the opinion that the nursery has demonstrated strong practice and marked improvement in specific areas. This may indicate that the nursery has improved significantly overall. Therefore, I am recommending that the nursery’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

You and your deputy work tirelessly to coach, mentor and inspire staff to build on their knowledge, understanding and skills. Your staff share your drive to provide the highest quality care and learning for children. All staff enthusiastically plan and deliver a high-quality curriculum. Precise and accurate teaching is well supported by inspirational indoor and outdoor discovery and learning. You ensure that all children have access to all the learning opportunities.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

Staff track children’s achievements diligently, making sure that any extra help that children need to catch up is effective and provided promptly. As a result, children achieve very well during their time in the nursery and make rapid progress. They acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to succeed in their future learning, including their move on to school.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

Leaders and staff know the children and their families extremely well. You successfully engage parents in their children’s learning, providing a variety of opportunities for parents to come into nursery to talk about their children’s progress. Your regular information sessions are growing in popularity. A significant number of parents have signed up for your next session, ‘Preparing your child for school’.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

The nursery provides a vibrant and caring environment for children to learn. Children arrive for their session excited to see what the day holds for them. Staff encourage them to be curious and find things out for themselves. This was evident, for example, as children used boxes, large plastic cylinders and tyres to fly themselves to the moon.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

The activities you and your staff plan in the nursery are well thought out and build on the children’s interests. The carefully selected resources you provide help the children to develop their speaking and listening skills as they work collaboratively. During my visit, the children were very keen to tell me what they were learning about aliens and outer space. For example, a small group of three-year-olds had set up a bowling alley and were using a home-made silver ball that had ‘fallen from space’, to knock down the skittles. Careful questions from an adult extended the children’s knowledge and understanding of number, as they moved on to count the skittles they knocked down, find the number from a selection of number cards and write the number. However, staff do not consistently use questioning effectively to challenge children to extend their learning.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

There is a real buzz of purposeful activity across the nursery. The two-year-old children in the youngest class were fully absorbed as they used toy animals dipped in paint to trace their journey around the jungle. The teaching staff supported children’s learning very effectively. They promoted children’s social development well, encouraging them to share and take turns. Every opportunity is taken to engage children in conversation and to extend their vocabulary.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

The provision for the children in the assessment unit is exceptional. Children with a diverse range of complex needs are extremely well supported by very dedicated and skilled staff. During ‘Hello Time’, children choose different musical instruments to beat out the rhythm as they sing the song. Staff model this very positively and precisely and children join in, laughing and singing along. Learning is well planned by staff, so that any specific teaching sits alongside the children’s own learning choices. Consequently, these children are making rapid progress from their different starting points.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

You identify precisely the main strengths of the nursery as well as those areas that could be improved further. With your deputy, you regularly gather first-hand information to inform your judgements, and then involve all staff in checking their accuracy. As a result, everyone is clear about how they can make their practice even better.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

At the time of your last inspection, the inspector recognised the many strengths of the school. You have been successful in maintaining these strengths. You have addressed the area the inspector identified for improvement, notably improving opportunities for all children to increase their language skills further. Safeguarding is effective.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The safeguarding governor regularly checks that everything is in order and all governors carry out spot checks when they visit school. You have adopted robust procedures to check that staff are suitable to work with children. Staff are well trained in child protection and their knowledge is up to date. They effectively supervise the children in their care and have a good knowledge of first aid.

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Short inspection of Chalvey Nursery School & Early Years Centre

The culture of the school ensures that safeguarding has the highest priority. Staff are able to identify when a child may be at risk of harm. They understand how to promptly record and report any worries about children’s well-being. You swiftly follow up any concerns with the appropriate actions involving different agencies when possible.

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Inspection findings

 During this inspection, I looked at: the effectiveness of safeguarding; the opportunities children have to increase their language skills; the achievement of current children.  Communication skills are now very well established. Children develop a good knowledge of popular stories and nursery rhymes, and a wide range of action songs. One parent wrote: ‘My child has developed so well. She has learned how to communicate and put words together properly. Her confidence is getting better and better every day.’  Staff work very effectively to support children who speak English as an additional language, providing a range of resources and activities that reflect and value the diversity of children’s experiences. Staff make very good use of signing and visual symbols to support children’s understanding, and develop their spoken language skills.  Children have lots of opportunities in the nursery to write. They use the writing

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Inspection findings

areas confidently and some are beginning to develop early reading and writing skills beyond mark-making.  Your work with staff since the last inspection to develop ‘an environment that creates curiosity, interest, memories and experiences’ has made a significant contribution to raising children’s achievement in speaking and listening. This is because well-planned activities, matched with effective resources, support children to discuss their learning with each other and with adults.  You have wisely invested time in helping staff to develop the ways in which they ask children questions. Adults’ questions are focused on helping children to think about their learning more deeply and investigate further. Occasionally, a small number of staff do not do this as effectively as they might. Consequently, children are not consistently encouraged to extend their learning.  When children enter the nursery their knowledge and skills are well below those

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Inspection findings

typical for their age group. All children, including the most able, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those in receipt of free school meals, make very rapid progress because they receive very high quality care. Staff provide them with a wide variety of learning experiences to stretch their thinking.  Your assessment and monitoring information indicates that the large majority of children are currently meeting or exceeding national expectations in all areas of learning.

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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

 all staff use questioning consistently to consolidate and deepen children’s 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 Slough. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you, your deputy, the leader of the assessment unit and five governors, including the chair of governors. I spoke with two representatives of the local authority. Together, you, your deputy and I observed learning across the nursery, talking to children and staff as we did so. We looked at children’s ‘learning journeys’ and cross-referenced this information with progress data information. We looked at the school’s moderation folder to check the accuracy of assessments. I took account of responses from parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, although there were only two responses. There was one free-text comment. I spoke to 12 parents as they collected their children. I considered the views of 11 members of staff who responded to Ofsted’s online survey. I analysed a range of the school’s documentation, including information about children’s achievement, your school improvement plan and your self-evaluation. I checked the effectiveness of your

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Information about the inspection

safeguarding arrangements, including those related to recruitment and background checks on all adults working in school.

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