Castleway Nursery School

Inspection of a good school: Leasowe Nursery School and Family Centre Twickenham Drive, Moreton, Wirral, Merseyside CH46 2QF

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Outcome

Leasowe Nursery School and Family Centre continues to be a good school. However, inspectors have some concerns that standards may be declining, as set out below.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children’s smiling faces as they arrive at school make it clear just how much they are looking forward to the day ahead. Staff plan activities which are exciting and fun. Parents and carers are pleased with the quality of education their children receive. New children settle well into the nursery and soon become familiar with the routines. Right from the start, children take turns, speak kindly to each other and talk about friends they have made. Adults know the children really well and expect a lot from them. Staff encourage children to be independent. Occasionally, when engaged in learning, staff offer children too much support. This prevents children from thinking deeply in order to extend their learning, and from working things out for themselves. Children behave well. If anyone is unkind, children are confident that adults will step in and help to sort out any differences. We saw no evidence of any form of bullying.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children enjoy going on visits and welcoming visitors to their school. Improving reading has high profile in the school’s plans. Children enjoy listening to adults reading books to them at story time, especially when they can join in and share the excitement of the story. However, we saw few examples of children picking books to look at on their own or to share with an adult.

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

Leaders are clear about the curriculum that they want children to experience. We saw children achieving well across the curriculum. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). These children’s needs are identified early on by knowledgeable and well-qualified staff who ensure that they experience the full curriculum. Staff work well with parents and outside agencies to make sure that children get off to the best possible start. 9 October 2019

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The curriculum is well planned, enabling children to build on what they already know. For example, children riding bikes outside counted the laps they completed after they had practised counting numbers one to five in an earlier mathematical activity. Children have a positive attitude to learning and take pride in their achievements. Encouraging children to read and develop a love of books is a key priority for the school. Story time is a focal point of the session that children look forward to. Well-chosen texts are shared with small groups and content is pitched at just the right level of children’s understanding. These sessions capture children’s imagination and interest. However, children do not get enough opportunities to build on this level of interest in books and print. We noticed that there are few books available for children to select from. Resources such as printed words and labels do not feature regularly around the classrooms and

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outside areas to help children develop their reading skills. Children enjoy learning about mathematics. They use their growing number skills and increasing vocabulary in all aspects of the curriculum, especially communication and language. Children routinely count how many friends are in their group or, through their play, work out how many slices of pizza are available to share in their imaginary kitchen. However, at times, staff do not allow children time to work by themselves when they are engaged in learning. This limits children’s opportunity to think more deeply and develop resilience. Governors are very supportive of the school and want the best for children. However, governors have not recently had the opportunity to access training to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. Staff told us that leaders listen to them and do their best to reduce the amount of work they are expected to do. They feel valued and well supported.

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Children celebrate festivals and family events as well as learning about different faiths and cultures. The school’s expectations are set out clearly in a sign in the entrance hall that welcomes everyone. It states that ‘no-one is the same, but everyone is equal’. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school. They say they feel fully informed and that staff prepare their children well for when they move on to their next school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The site is secure, and the identity of visitors is checked on entry. Staff recruited to work in school are checked thoroughly to ensure that they are safe to work with children. Staff know their children well and leaders have established a caring ethos where children’s safety and welfare is given the highest priority. Staff are well trained and understand the safeguarding policies and procedures. They know that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and act quickly should they have any concerns. 9 October 2019

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Access to books, early reading materials and printed labels are not readily available for children. School leaders have rightly targeted early reading as a priority for improvement but have not organised sufficient resources for children and adults to use. This is hindering children’s learning. Leaders need to make sure resources to promote early reading skills are attractive, readily available and encourage children’s love of reading.  Staff plan activities well and make it clear what they want children to know and remember. Occasionally, opportunities to improve children’s understanding are missed. Staff should ensure that children, as they learn and play, are encouraged to work out things for themselves before staff intervene and offer support. This will encourage children to become even more independent and resilient learners.  Governors show a passion and commitment to the school but lack an understanding of

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

parts of their role. Governance needs to be strengthened so that members of the governing body have the knowledge and expertise to hold school leaders fully to account. This is so the quality of education improves further, and the children get the very best start to their education.

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Background

When we have judged a maintained nursery 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 first section 8 inspection since we judged Leasowe Nursery School and Family Centre to be good on 20 November 2014.

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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. 9 October 2019

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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. 9 October 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10057997 Type of school Nursery

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 19–20 November 2014

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Information about this school

 Since the last inspection a new chair of governors has been appointed.  The school has provision for two-year-old children.

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Information about this inspection

 We visited lessons at various times during the day.  We held meetings with members of the senior leadership team, governors and staff.  We spoke with parents as they brought their children to school.  We looked at examples of children’s work and spoke with children when they visited lessons. We also listened to children read.  We held additional discussions with staff which focused on safeguarding. We also examined documentation relating to safeguarding.  We carried out deep dives in reading, mathematics and communication and language. Deep dives are the methodology by which inspectors identify why a subject is as it is. This entails discussions with subject leaders, visits to lessons, looking at examples of children’s work, discussions with teachers and discussions with children. 9 October 2019

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 We held a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority.  We took account of four written responses from parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. We took account of staff views following discussions with them. There were 18 responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire for staff.

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Inspection team

Mike Hewlett, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

John Shutt Ofsted Inspector 9 October 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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