Knowle West Early Years Centre

Inspection of a good school: Knowle West Early Years Centre Leinster Avenue, Knowle, Bristol BS4 1NN

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Outcome

Knowle West Early Years Centre continues to be a good school. There is enough evidence of improved performance to suggest that the school could be judged outstanding if we were to carry out a section 5 inspection now.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders bring the community together and create strong partnerships to help children thrive. The centre is a friendly, welcoming place. There are beautiful tapestries representing the local areas created by different generations. Parents meet and chat in the parent café.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders are ambitious for children. Leaders help each child to improve by encouraging staff to research how children learn. Staff work well together to learn from each other. They plan activities that help children to do more and learn about the world. As a result, children are confident and have a thirst for learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff make sure that children are safe. They show children how to behave and respect others. Staff provide strong structures and routines. These set a calm tone in the school. Staff use quiet voices. They are patient and kind. Children enjoy learning. We saw children wearing all-weather clothes, outside in the rain. They made up their own stories as they splashed in puddles and played with toy dinosaurs with great joy. Adults play alongside the children to encourage and support each child.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders have high expectations. They make sure that staff have the right professional support to be able to care for every child. A key to this is the detailed knowledge of each child that staff build. Staff are quick to identify when children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) need extra support. Leaders work in close partnership with parents. They check that children receive the help they need to achieve well. For example, leaders ensure that children who need it receive extra specialist speech and language support.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders have made many improvements to the learning spaces. Staff told us that their 24 September 2019

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aim is to make learning ‘irresistible’. The outside area is an exciting place for children to be active and play. There are interesting spaces to act out stories and explore. There is a well-sequenced curriculum for physical development. The mix of tyres, ropes, trees and mud kitchens helps the children to gain strength and stability. Other activities help the children to explore and improve their balance.

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Staff help children to think for themselves and work out problems. For example, at the start of the year, staff show children where to find the things they need. Children then help to make labels and begin to get things out and put things away. Children learn during each part of the school day. Snack times, for example, are opportunities to learn. Staff make sure that children share and help each other.

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Staff make reading a high priority. As soon as they start school, children learn stories and staff encourage their interest in books. For example, we saw two- and three-year-olds sharing stories with staff. Some looked at books, enjoying them and joining in. Others helped staff to make up stories using objects. They joined in, deciding who could live in a tiny cottage.

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Staff feel trusted and supported in their work. Leaders encourage staff to contribute to the decisions made about teaching and learning. They understand why things happen the way they do. This creates a strong bond between staff that helps create the high expectations that we saw across the school.

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Governors represent the local community very well. They have sound local knowledge and care about the school. Their support contributes well to the emphasis that leaders place on strong partnership working.

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However, some governors are not clear about their role when making visits to the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The designated safeguarding leads form a cohesive team to oversee safeguarding. They make sure that staff have read the policies, documents and updates about safeguarding. There are safeguarding training events planned throughout the year. Staff know when to report concerns. There is a well-organised system to report any concerns. Leaders respond quickly and work well with other agencies. Staff meet each week to discuss safeguarding issues and this helps to strengthen their understanding of how to keep children safe.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Provide support for governors so that they are clear about how to fulfil their roles when making visits to see the school at work. This will help to ensure that leaders receive the challenge and support they need as they continue to develop the school’s effectiveness.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that the school could now be better than good or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged Knowle West Early Years Centre to be good in February 2012.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

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. 24 September 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10058349 Type of school Nursery

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.knowlewestchildrenscentre.bristol.sch. uk Date of previous inspection 10 January 2012

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Information about this school

 The school includes provision for two-year-olds.

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Information about this inspection

 We had meetings with the headteacher, deputy and other senior leaders. We also met with curriculum leaders and other teachers. Together with leaders, we observed learning across the school. We also observed snack times and lunchtime.  We met with several governors including the chair of governors. We also met with an adviser from Bristol local authority, who works with the school.  We had a meeting with staff to discuss workload.  Throughout the inspection, we looked at how well leaders create and maintain a strong culture of safeguarding. We met with the designated safeguarding lead and safeguarding team and the governor who leads on safeguarding. We checked that the school’s safeguarding policy is in place and understood and implemented by all staff. We talked to staff and parents about the school’s work to keep pupils safe.  We gathered parents’ views at the start of the day and took the views expressed in the

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staff and pupils’ surveys into account.  We agreed with the headteacher to look at some areas of the school’s work in more detail. Together with senior and curriculum leaders, we carried out deep dives into early reading, mathematics, and physical development. Deep dives include a series of connected inspection activities such as: discussions with leaders, visits to lessons, work scrutiny and discussions with teachers.

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Inspection team

Tonwen Empson, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Tracy Hannon Her Majesty’s Inspector 24 September 2019

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regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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