Rowland Hill Nursery School

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

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Ms Nisha Lingam Headteacher Rowland Hill Nursery School White Hart Lane Tottenham London N17 7LT

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 9 July 2019, 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 June 2015.

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

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

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

Since the last inspection, you have been appointed as the headteacher. You have worked tirelessly, supported by your staff team, governors and other local nursery schools, to develop the school further. You are rightly proud of the quality of the learning environment, especially the opportunities provided to children for outdoor learning. You have also worked hard with your staff team to further improve children’s language development. Other strengths of note include the level of care provided for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and your work with parents and carers. You actively involve parents in their children’s learning and development, for example, through your focus on raising aspirations for children.

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school. Their comments echo your identified strengths of the school. Typical comments include, ‘I am very happy with Rowland Hill Nursery and the progress my child has made here’, and ‘Staff are amazing, they work well together and take all children’s needs into consideration.’ Staff agree that the school has improved a great deal since the last inspection. They are proud to work at Rowland Hill Nursery school. The children are extremely happy in school. They demonstrate an eagerness to learn and are keen to talk about their learning activities.

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

The previous inspection report identified the need to further raise the good quality of teaching and children’s achievement. You and your leadership team have worked extremely hard to provide consistent, high-quality teaching and learning across the school. As a result, children make strong progress from their individual starting points. Over time, an increasing proportion of children are gaining sound knowledge, understanding and skills, which are typical and even advanced for their age. Consequently, these children are very well prepared to make a good start in a Reception class. You have also further improved the assessment systems to ensure that children’s progress is carefully monitored. You, your staff and governors use these systems effectively to inform teaching so that it meets children’s needs. Governors challenge you and your leaders effectively to ensure the best possible outcomes for children.

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

Since your last inspection, you and your leaders have worked closely with governors to improve the way you plan for improvement. You have correctly identified the school’s strengths and have taken effective action. As a result, children are making strong progress from their starting points. However, the priorities identified in your school plans do not always specifically indicate how you will ensure further improvements.

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

All safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Records show that leaders are tenacious in ensuring that children and families receive the support they need. You work closely with external agencies, such as social services, to provide this.

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

In addition to statutory training, you listen to staff members’ suggestions and provide additional training linked to the school and local area needs. This ensures that staff have a clear understanding of safeguarding practice. Consequently, they are confident to raise concerns about a child’s safety and well-being, should they need to. This is clear in the number of staff referrals you receive. In addition, the number of adults trained to the level of designated safeguarding lead provides a breadth of expertise across the school, ensuring that there is always somebody on the site who can deal with safeguarding concerns. This is particularly important given that the school is placed within a children’s centre location.

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

You also ensure that children learn how to keep themselves safe by providing a range of opportunities in the curriculum, for example, talks about road safety and online safety.

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Short inspection of Rowland Hill Nursery School

Governors monitor safeguarding regularly and ensure that all checks relating to the staff are carried out effectively.

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Inspection findings

 Firstly, we explored what leaders have done to promote children’s communication and language skills. This was because it was one of the recommendations in your last inspection. It is also one of your current priorities.  Together we visited classrooms and the outdoor provision to observe children learning within their environment. I spoke to children about their learning. They demonstrated high levels of concentration and enjoyment. This is the result of adults providing highly stimulating activities for children to engage in. For example, children eloquently talked to me about aphids and how they attract ladybirds. They impressed me with their use of correct scientific vocabulary. Such experiences support children’s language development and literacy skills well.  Adults are very skilled in providing a learning environment that meets the needs of children, including those with SEND. They use their checks on children’s learning

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Inspection findings

to plan a wide range of rich and stimulating activities that capture children’s imagination and interest. For example, adults support children to write and re-tell their stories. Equally, adults instil the love of reading in children in a variety of ways. During the inspection, both adults and children re-enacted the story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ using the well-known phrases from the story to support their role-play.  Next, we looked at what leaders are doing to further improve the quality of teaching and learning. You provide regular whole-staff training, including on the use of questions. On our visits to classes, I noted how effectively adults used questioning to deepen children’s learning, including the most able children. Typical questions adults ask were, ‘Why are the aphids on that plant?’ and, ‘How do you know the paint is mixed?’  Adults are adept at using children’s own interests well to stimulate their learning.

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Inspection findings

They provide a wide range of memorable opportunities to broaden children’s horizons. For example, a recent trip to the Royal Academy to look at sculptures resulted in the children recreating their own large wooden and fabric structure in the outdoor provision.  The children’s work shows that they make strong gains in their learning, particularly in communication and language. This is due to the strong teaching they receive and the way in which activities meet their needs. This includes the most able children and those with SEND.  Finally, we agreed to look at how leaders plan and evaluate school priorities and actions to secure further improvements.  You and your team know your school well. The school’s plans for improvement include a range of well-thought-out, focused initiatives to further improve the quality of education provided at Rowland Hill Nursery. Sometimes, however, the plans do not accurately reflect the real difference your actions are making to

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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

 they sharpen further the clarity of the school’s strategic plans to secure further rapid improvement.

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I held meetings with you and other senior and middle leaders. I met with four governors, including the chair of the governing body, and also met with the local authority adviser. With you and your assistant headteacher, I visited all classrooms and the outdoor provision to observe children learning. I spoke to children during their learning activities and looked at their work. I met with you and your assistant headteacher in your roles as designated safeguarding leaders and looked at documentation relating to safeguarding. I also met with the school business manager to look at staffing checks. Together, we looked at and discussed recent information about children’s progress and attainment. I checked the school’s website and documentation available to parents. I considered the views of 15 parents from Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey. I also read the responses to the questionnaire from six members of staff.

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