Windham Nursery School

Inspection of an outstanding school: Windham Nursery School Windham Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 2HP

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Outcome

Windham Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children are extremely happy and settled here. Staff make sure that they are safe and well cared for. Children play together and explore their environment with confidence.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and staff expect all children to excel. Staff provide experiences throughout the day that create a sense of awe and wonder. These experiences give children a real thirst to learn more. For example, children gasped and giggled as the balloon helicopter they had made flew around the room.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The arrival of the school rabbits has provided children with valuable and exciting new learning opportunities. Children enjoy cleaning out the hutch and putting out food and water. They take their roles as carers very seriously.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the school. As one parent put it, ‘I can’t think of a better place for my child.’ Parents particularly value how staff involve them in their children’s learning. Typical comments praised the way that staff ‘go over and above what any other nursery does’.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children’s behaviour is exceptional. Unkind behaviour, including bullying, is not accepted. Staff help children to share, be kind to each other and build strong friendships. Adults encourage children to be independent and express themselves. Even the very youngest children become engrossed in the experiences offered.

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

Windham Nursery is an exceptional place. It inspires children to learn and achieve highly. Leaders are particularly proud of how learning is planned from children’s interests. Staff start by visiting families at home to find out as much as possible about each child. They use this information to sequence children’s learning carefully. Planning combines high expectations for children’s achievement with activities that children find highly relevant. Children leave the school very well prepared for the next stage of their learning. 27 November 2019

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Staff are experts in promoting children’s development. They design activities which build children’s knowledge systematically. Staff ensure that children apply their growing knowledge of the world in different contexts. For instance, we saw children draw on what they already knew to make doughnuts.

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Children cannot wait to join in with the high-quality activities led by adults. These activities are carefully planned to strengthen children’s early language development. Staff make ambitious choices in the words they want children to use. For example, during a drama activity, a child said, ‘I am going to be a herbivore as they eat plants.’ Another child, making a hedgehog, told me that the matchsticks ‘are for its spines’.

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Promoting children’s love of reading is a clear priority. Children explore a rich range of books, songs and rhymes. They enjoy singing the nursery rhymes they know by heart. Staff choose books that match children’s interests. They also introduce children to texts which foster new interests. Children hear the same texts more than once. This means that they join in confidently with repeated phrases and can tell the story themselves.

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Staff teach children how to hold books correctly and turn pages one by one. They make sure that children understand that words have meaning. For example, one child enjoyed telling me a story using the pictures and pointing at the words. Staff also provide plenty of opportunities for children to read and write their own names.

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Adults are ambitious for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Carefully planned activities enable these children to play and learn alongside their friends. Staff are skilled at developing children’s social and communication skills. For instance, teaching carefully incorporates resources such as balance balls, flashing lights and vibrating toys. These resources support children to express their ideas and learn to take turns.

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Leaders and governors know their school and community very well. Parents appreciate the activities that value the diversity in the local community. For example, children recently learned about and celebrated the festival of Diwali. All children take part in activities to support their wider development, including yoga, gardening and local outings. Children enjoy visiting the local pet store to buy supplies for the rabbits.

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Leaders manage staff workload well. One member of staff said that ‘well-being is central to the school ethos’. This was typical of staff’s views. Staff feel valued and listened to.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have developed a strong culture of safeguarding. Staff are well trained. They are clear about the actions they must take if they have concerns about a child or a member of staff. Leaders ensure that any concerns are followed up appropriately.

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Safeguarding

There are systems in place to ensure the safe recruitment of staff. Governors check safeguarding procedures regularly. Leaders are aware of risks within their school and community. They help parents to better understand how to keep their children safe online. 27 November 2019

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Background

When we have judged a maintained nursery school to be outstanding, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains outstanding. 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 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 the school to be outstanding in October 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. 27 November 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10104291 Type of school Nursery

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School details

Chair of governing body Ms Juliet Cassidy

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School details

Date of previous inspection 25 November 2015

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Information about this school

 Windham Nursery School is an average-sized nursery school. It includes a provision for two-year-old children. Children are taught in four classes and attend on either a full- time or part-time basis.  The school has additional resourced provision for children with SEND. The provision caters primarily for children with social and communication difficulties, including autism spectrum disorder.  The school provides extended care through a lunchtime club.  Since the previous inspection, there has been a change in headteacher.

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Information about this inspection

 During the inspection, we held meetings with the headteacher, year group leaders, the inclusion manager and the special educational needs coordinator.  We met with the chair and two other governors. We also spoke with a representative from the local authority.  The inspection focused deeply on reading, knowledge and understanding of the world, and communication and language. We visited lessons with leaders. We spoke with 27 November 2019

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children and looked at their work. We also met with staff to discuss the curriculum.  We met with school leaders, staff and governors to discuss safeguarding. We reviewed records, including the single central record of pre-employment checks.  We took into account the views of parents through informal discussions, as well as the 66 responses to Parent View.

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Inspection team

Helen Morrison, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Sue Brooks Ofsted Inspector 27 November 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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