Crigglestone Nursery School

Crigglestone Nursery School High Street, Crigglestone, Wakefield, West Yorkshire WF4 3EB

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The nursery is especially well led by the highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic headteacher.  By setting extremely high aspirations for both children and staff, leaders and managers ensure that the nursery is continually progressing.  The nurturing and caring approach by all staff means that they know each child and their family extremely well. Children settle swiftly into nursery and quickly become confident learners.  Children’s behaviour is exemplary because staff have such high expectations. Children have a love of learning and develop skills of independence, concentration and resilience early in their nursery career.  The new, high-quality two-year-old provision continues to develop. Outdoor provision now needs to be enhanced to match that seen indoors so that children’s learning is equally well supported in both areas.  Governors know the priorities for the nursery and closely monitor these to make sure that

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

leaders and managers keep planned improvement progress on track.  Parents and carers know that their children are safe and secure. They are given a wealth of supportive advice and guidance about their children’s development.  The highly skilled staff provide exceptionally strong teaching, learning and assessment. This means that children leave the nursery with skills and knowledge at least typical for their age with a significant proportion well above this.  Children make rapid progress from their different starting points, so they are extremely well prepared for the next stage of their education.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Continue to enhance the outdoor provision for the two-year-olds to support their progress in the development of communication, language and mathematical skills even more effectively.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

 The ambition of the headteacher, staff and governors is clear and shared by all. The vision is one that everyone involved with the nursery promotes. The provision of a broad and balanced curriculum which nurtures and follows children’s interests is at the core of everything that is done. This enables all children to attain, while ensuring that no child is left behind for any reason.  The stringent recruitment process means that all staff are clear from the start of their career with the nursery that there are the highest of expectations. Records of leaders’ and peers’ observations reflect this. Staff are very thoughtful about their teaching practice and so maintain these high standards. The investment in professional development effectively addresses any issues identified, meaning that teaching fully meets the needs of the individual child and that all children make significant progress.  Parents are made aware of these high expectations during the effective transition

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

arrangements as children start school. This means that the nursery has a well-earned reputation.  Leaders know that behaviour is one of the most important aspects for them to teach the children. Staff are consistently good role models, and children soon learn to follow their example. If children are struggling with behaviour, then there will be early conversations with parents. However, because of the highly successful approach to managing behaviour, this is rarely the case.  Managers and leaders use a variety of information to identify improvements to all aspects of the nursery. All staff and governors are involved, which means that everyone has an input and a clear understanding of where the nursery is heading. Governors ensure that everyone is accountable for their area of work. In response to the previous inspection, plans are clear and progress is measurable in terms of outcomes for the children. Governors can therefore effectively monitor progress

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

towards the improvement targets.  The curriculum is designed to ‘set no limits’ so that children can make the most progress possible. The focus is to ensure that children are ready for school and life in the local community and beyond. Children are encouraged to take risks, and staff to challenge thinking. Key skills are directly taught by expert practitioners, and the high- quality learning environments indoors and outside are designed to put these skills to use in real-life situations. This enables children to successfully reflect, think and develop their problem-solving skills.  Parents and children contribute to this development through termly questionnaires that ask, ‘What does your child want to learn?’ Parents state how useful this is in stimulating conversations about learning with their children and how well the nursery responds to these suggestions, following the interests of the children and engaging

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

them even more deeply in learning.  Staff regularly review the curriculum to ensure that it is meeting the needs of all the children. There is an efficient programme of review for each area of provision, leading to an analysis of strengths and areas for further action. There are strong links to the local community through activities such as ‘Singing in the park’, participating in local projects, such as reducing food waste, or carrying out traffic surveys.  The outdoor environment in the nursery provides many opportunities for physical development. The activity trail challenges those who are physically active. Children’s emotional health is carefully monitored and adjustments made to improve their well- being. For instance, this year, a new area has been provided for those children who need quieter approaches. Vigilant staff make sure that any changes in children’s behaviour are noted and opportunities found to explore with them the reasons why.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

The strong link with parents means that the nursery is very aware of any issues where a child needs additional emotional support.  The recently established pre-school for two-year-olds is of high quality. Leaders and managers have wisely used the specialist skills and knowledge available across the federation to ensure that this is the case. However, the outdoor area does not yet match that of the main nursery in terms of learning opportunities and resources.  Children are well prepared for life in modern Britain. They are expected to make choices and to respect the choices of others. They learn to respect differences, such as different traditions of marriage in a variety of cultures or living in different family structures. An early understanding of democracy comes from such activities as voting when choosing the name for the fish.  Middle and subject leaders are consistently given time and support to develop their

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

skills. They are expert at working alongside colleagues, modelling and monitoring practice to enhance their subject area. For example, leaders ensure that opportunities and resources for science, technology, engineering and mathematics are embedded in activities, particularly in the outdoor area.  Accurate assessments of progress and attainment take place every half term on a formal basis, with informal discussions about individual children more regularly. The accuracy of these is secured through moderation across the federation and the local partnership of schools. The executive headteacher also leads moderation across the southern area of the local authority, meaning that judgements are secure.  The additional funding the school receives for disadvantaged children is used effectively to enable these children to catch up to their peers. By the time they leave the nursery they have the skills and knowledge typical for children of this age, or

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

better.  Parents are integral to all aspects of the nursery. Through the online learning journals, they can see and make comment on the work their children are doing. They contribute with observations of their children at home. The nursery sends home activities personalised to children’s next learning steps, for example a mathematical game, a reading book or tasks to follow in the wider environment. This support helps parents to extend their children’s learning and development.

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Governance of the school

 Governance is exceptionally strong. Governors rigorously monitor the school development plan and question leaders and managers about the progress they are making towards the stretching targets they have agreed.  The detailed reports governors receive from the executive headteacher enable them to analyse and question how well children are making progress and where they have identified any differences, to follow these up.  Governors regularly visit the nursery to look at what is happening, talk to staff and parents, make sure that they have a fully rounded view of the nursery and gather evidence in support of their view.  The governing body commissioned an external review last year, the outcome of which was very favourable. They also undertake a regular skills audit and appoint new governors if any gaps are identified. The detailed governor development plan demonstrates well how the governors are focused on progress and ensuring that their

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Governance of the school

own knowledge and skills are kept up to date.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  The executive headteacher and governing body undertake a detailed audit of all aspects of safeguarding annually to ensure that requirements are met. This includes paperwork relating to any children who may be vulnerable or causing concerns. All staff and governor training is up to date, and additional safeguarding training is always delivered for new staff.  Staff are clear about the procedures they must follow should they have any concerns about a child, and are clear as to what level of concern should trigger which level of response.  Children are taught to say ‘No’ should another child or adult make them feel uncomfortable or be doing something they do not like. Children are aware of strangers on the premises due to the different labels they wear and are confident to ask who they are and what they are doing.  Parents know who the safeguarding lead officers are in the nursery, and which

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Safeguarding

governor is responsible for safeguarding, so they know whom to approach should they be worried about anything at nursery or at home.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

 All staff have exceptionally high expectations of the children. They have created a high- quality learning environment to enable children to consistently learn and practise new skills and knowledge.  Children make decisions and successfully solve problems. For example, when building a model volcano in the sand, children discussed with each other how to create ‘lava’. They settled on mixing washing-up liquid with water and adding red food colour. They realised that to get to the bottom of the water butt to ensure that everything was mixed together, they needed a long-handled implement. They solved this problem, finding a spade and using it as a mixing paddle.  Staff reinforced earlier learning from research, checking that children had a logical reason why lava should be red. They also asked if children remembered what lava smells like. Children responded that it smells like bad eggs because of the sulphur in it.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

 In adult-led sessions, children develop their phonics skills to a high level. They understand how letters represent different sounds and know how to use these when blending sounds together to read. This knowledge is then accurately applied when they are writing words and short sentences. Staff swiftly intervene to correct any misunderstandings. They make sure that children then correct their work or practise further later in the day.  Mathematics teaching is strong. Children are challenged in their thinking. They have excellent mastery of the skills, translating from practical work to abstract examples. For instance, during observations of mathematics teaching, children could describe different ways that they could double numbers. They challenged themselves to use numbers over 10, and successfully described and demonstrated the process they used to get the answer. They then recorded their results in symbols. This learning was then

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

reinforced in the outdoors when counting apples to mix in a ‘potion’ or sticks to represent candles in a cake.  These high standards are reflected in the new pre-school provision for two-year-old children. The excellent transition arrangements from home mean that staff know exactly what children can do when they arrive, and immediately begin to build on this. Children settle quickly and develop secure relationships with staff. They are beginning to work together when solving problems, such as how to build a bridge.  These youngest children engage in learning because staff make learning exciting and fun. For example, when using ‘What’s in the box?’ resources, adults promoted language strongly through songs and nursery rhymes. By repeating these regularly, they develop children’s confidence and enable them to be successful learners.  When outdoors, staff work with these children to develop their mathematical

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

knowledge. For example, they discussed the weight of water in a bucket when children were transferring water from the butt into the sand. However, these learning opportunities could be even better by enhancing the available resources.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.  Children are consistently engaged in their learning. In all observations across the two days of the inspection, at no time was any child off task or wandering between activities. This is because staff are skilled at following children’s interests and providing resources to inspire them to learn.  Children concentrate for long periods of time on each activity. Staff know precisely when to intervene to move learning on or extend vocabulary and when to stand back and let the play and learning flow. For example, the youngest children were observed playing with cars. They developed this play over time and included ramps to increase the speed of travel. Staff talked about this to increase vocabulary and brought in repetitive sounds such as ‘Beep! Beep!’ or ‘Oh! Oh!’ to support phonic development. This increased children’s engagement and learning.

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Personal development and welfare

 Children are very confident learners and willingly talk about what they are doing. For example, in the construction area, children have built motorbikes and enthusiastically describe elements such as where the engine is. Others had built a ‘bed’ bus. When asked what that was, they confidently explained it was ‘so that you can drive through the night without stopping’.  Children have a strong understanding of how to keep safe. In the outdoor area they are supported to independently risk assess activities in each area, using photographs. When physically challenged, staff encourage them to find ways of completing the task safely. For example, after building a bridge in the construction area, children were challenged to cross this safely. Some walked across and others decided to shuffle across on their bottom. All were praised for achieving the task while keeping safe.  Children safely use information technology in nursery. Parents are given a wealth of

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Personal development and welfare

information on the nursery website, so that they can also keep their children safe at home.  Emotional well-being is a high priority for the nursery. The nurturing approach taken with the children in every aspect of life ensures that children are confident and safe. As one parent told the inspector, ‘It is the bedrock for my child’s progress.’ All parents who spoke with the inspector agreed with this.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.  Children are taught how to get on with each other. They willingly share resources and help each other out if they are stuck. They understand how to work as a team. They take on the different roles and regularly check back with the ‘leader’ to make sure that they are following instructions accurately. For example, when making a ‘potion’ outdoors, one child leads in terms of deciding on ingredients and amounts. Other children then gather these together but check back to make sure that they are correct and which pan to use.  There is always a ‘hum’ of learning. Children know the routines to follow, such as walking calmly around the building, following instructions, listening and contributing in discussions. They apply these in less-structured opportunities, such as when playing outdoors or over lunchtime.  Attendance is high because children want to come to this nursery every day.

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Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

 From differing starting points, children make substantial and sustained progress. Currently, most children leave with skills and knowledge at least in line with those typical for their age. By the end of the foundation stage, 90% of children attain a good level of development, with a quarter of these children exceeding that, which is significantly higher than all children nationally.  The progress of children who are disadvantaged matches this and is the same as that of other children with the same starting points.  Children talk about their learning and can apply skills and knowledge learned previously. For example, when co-writing stories, children apply their phonic knowledge when spelling words, with the most able beginning to write sentences independently. These children can read fluently for their age and talk eagerly about the stories they are reading.  This year, mathematics was identified as a priority for children’s learning. On entry, just

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Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

less than half of all children had skills and knowledge slightly below those typical for their age. Currently nearly all children now demonstrate typical mathematical development, with a significant proportion above this.  Children are extremely well prepared for the next stage in their education.

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School details

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

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Headteacher Jo Gogarty (Executive Headteacher)

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School details

Email address headteacher@crigglestonecastle.wakefield.s ch.uk Date of previous inspection July 2018

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Information about this school

 Children attend the nursery either part or full time.  Since the previous inspection, the nursery has opened provision for two-year-old children.  Almost all children are of White British heritage and very few speak English as an additional language.  There are two children on roll with an education, health and care plan.  Since April 2013, the nursery has been federated with The Castle Nursery School. The schools share a governing body and the same headteacher but have different deputy headteachers. Staff can work across the two nursery schools.  The nursery works in partnership with a group of other schools locally to share good practice.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed a range of sessions or part sessions, one of which was a joint observation with the deputy headteacher and another with the headteacher.  Meetings were held with the chair of the governing body and four other governors, the leadership team and other staff. A meeting was also held with a representative from the local authority.  The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at several documents, including the nursery’s information on checks on the quality of teaching, records relating to behaviour and attendance, and documents relating to safeguarding.  The 46 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, were considered, and the inspector met with four parents. He also took account of both the school’s most recent questionnaire to parents and the 12 completed staff questionnaires.

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Inspection team

Geoff Dorrity, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector guidance 'Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

In the report, 'disadvantaged pupils' refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child's school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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