East Prescot Road Nursery School

Inspection of an outstanding school: East Prescot Road Nursery School 86 East Prescot Road, Liverpool, Merseyside L14 1PW

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Outcome

East Prescot Road Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a fabulous nursery school. Children are extremely happy. They develop high levels of independence and many skills that they need for their lives now and in the future. The school fulfils its values and its aim of giving children the ‘Roots to grow and the wings to fly’.

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What is it like to attend this school?

I was sitting by the fireside next to a clock on the mantlepiece in an outstanding home corner. Children selected the equipment they wanted and showed great concentration on their activities. Their excited laughter was infectious as they had a go, played and explored.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children behave very well. They feel very safe. They tell adults if they feel something is wrong. The staff deal extremely well in the rare times when children are upset, hurt or if someone may have been unkind. The overwhelming majority of parents said that there is no bullying.

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What is it like to attend this school?

All staff are extremely ambitious for the development of the children. An example of this is the quality of vocabulary that adults use with children but also expect children to use. Children with special needs and/or disabilities (SEND) thrive. They increase their language skills very well.

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

Reading is at the heart of the curriculum and is a high priority for the school. The aim behind the whole curriculum is to give children the language and vocabulary that they need for the future. Books, word labels and stories are everywhere. Staff use story time and book corners very well to share a wide range of books with the children. This includes stories, magazines and poems. Staff have clear reasons for selecting the books they read to the children. The book may have a girl as the star character, for example, to inspire the girls. It may have some tricky vocabulary which the adults want children to start using. Staff’s reading of books captivates the children who sit agog and listen and join in. 26 November 2019

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Disadvantaged children and those with SEND develop a very good understanding of nursery rhymes. They can repeat the rhymes with confidence and expression.

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Speech and language are also high priority for the school. Leaders are deeply knowledgeable about national research in this area. Leaders and staff use an excellent system to identify each child’s language skills. They follow this up with activities that build children’s knowledge and skills in a logical order. Staff use high-quality resources that match the needs of pupils. The children with SEND achieve very well, and use words, descriptions and sentences very well.

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Staff provide children with an outstanding range of activities to develop their physical skills. For example, children wash clothes outside and peg them onto washing lines. They climb on and under features in the outdoor area. They manoeuvre jugs to catch water before watching the water slide down a pipe. They are very lucky to have a ‘creative studio’ in which to learn. They use brushes, chalks and a range of instruments to create fabulous artwork, supported skilfully by staff. Disadvantaged children and those with SEND achieve very well. Leaders have made very good use of a link with the Tate Liverpool art gallery to inspire the children. They have also made very good use of trips and visits to the farm and the zoo. This develops children’s cultural understanding and knowledge of the world. Staff and children celebrate several cultural events, including the annual visit of the dragon to highlight the start of the Chinese New Year.

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Leadership of the school is exceptional. Leaders do not take children off roll to boost their results. They look after the well-being of staff and make their workload manageable. They have improved the school since the previous inspection. The local authority uses leaders and the school as examples of excellence.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

There is a very strong culture of safeguarding. Staff are very well trained and updated about local and national developments in protecting children from harm. Safeguarding is extremely well planned in the curriculum each half term. For instance, children learn to take risks safely and to cycle and saw wood safely. They also learn to be safe when on trips to the zoo and to the farm.

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Safeguarding

Staff identify quickly when they think a child, or a family may need help. They make very good use of other agencies such as primary and secondary schools, transport, health professionals and staff at the children’s centres.

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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 the school could now be better than good or that 26 November 2019

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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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This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged East Prescot Road Nursery School to be outstanding on 5–6 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.

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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. 26 November 2019

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School details

Date of previous inspection 5–6 November 2014

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Information about this school

 Since the previous inspection there have been some significant changes. The headteacher started shortly after the previous inspection. There has been a restructure of the staff, taking out the post of assistant headteacher.  The governing body also runs extended provision in the ‘Little House’ which provides before- and after-school care as well as care during the day for those not being taught in either nursery class.

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Information about this inspection

 We looked in detail into three areas of learning: physical development; communication and language; and early reading. This means that we looked at long-term plans for each area of learning, made visits to lessons, sat and spoke with children and spoke with leaders and staff.  We met some parents at the start and at the end of the day and considered the views of 32 parents who completed Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View.  We considered the views of seven members of staff who completed Ofsted’s online survey. We met teachers to talk about reading and a group of other staff to talk about 26 November 2019

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communication, language and physical development.  To come to a judgement about safeguarding, we looked through the staff and parent surveys. We met with staff to ask them about safeguarding training and what they would do to make sure children are safe. We looked the staff’s long-term plans to see how the school teaches children to be safe. We looked at the information around the school and met with the headteacher and members of the governing body. We also looked at the school’s training records.  We met with three representatives of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.

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Inspection team

Allan Torr, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Kathleen McArthur Ofsted Inspector 26 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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