Bradley Nursery School

Inspection of an outstanding school: Bradley Nursery School Bradley Road East, Nelson, Lancashire BB9 7QH

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Outcome

Bradley Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school. However, the inspector has some concerns that standards may be declining, as set out below.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children really enjoy playing and learning together in this very safe, warm and caring school. Children learn in small groups, each with their own friendly and kind member of staff who gets to know them in detail. The parents and carers with whom I spoke said that staff care for their children exceptionally well. Parents feel welcome at the school and said that staff listen to their concerns and go out of their way to help. Leaders encourage parents to take an active part in their children’s learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and staff aim high. They want children to become confident, independent learners by the time they start at primary school. Teachers encourage children to try things for themselves, such as doing up their coats when they go outdoors and cutting up their fruit snacks. Even so, the curriculum is not planned well enough to help adults know what they should teach children and when this should happen.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children behave very well. There is no evidence of any bullying. There are always plenty of staff present to sort out any small arguments among the children before they become serious.

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

Staff, at all levels in the school, are highly committed to developing children’s speaking and language skills. Many children speak English as an additional language. Staff are skilled at teaching children unfamiliar words in English through stories, rhymes and songs. Staff also join in with children’s play sensitively. They encourage children to talk as they play and support them to ask questions about the world around them. Most children achieve well during their time at the school.

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

In the outdoor nature garden, staff support children to explore among the trees, hunting for bugs and having games of hide and seek. Children learn that, with the right 22–23 January 2020

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waterproof clothing, it is fine to jump in puddles and get very muddy. Learning at the school is fun. Children learn to keep themselves safe. They know that they can enjoy a cup of hot chocolate around the campfire, but that they must not go too near to the flames. Children take sensible risks. They find out that climbing and swinging are great fun, so long as they take care.

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The early years curriculum is not well planned. Consequently, staff do not know precisely what children need to learn and in what order. This makes it hard to evaluate if children are learning what they should in every subject. This weakness has been recognised, and the school’s curriculum is in the process of being reviewed.

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Children love books. They thoroughly enjoy the frequent opportunities that staff give them to share books with their friends or with an adult. Story time is a highlight of the school day. Children join in with familiar rhymes that staff share. They even try to guess what words come next in some rhymes. Children learn about letter sounds and some children are able to recognise simple words.

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Staff give children worthwhile opportunities to learn about numbers, shapes and measuring. For example, with help from staff, children set the microwave timer for 30 seconds and then counted backwards from 10 to ‘blast off’ when their dough was cooked.

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Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged children exceptionally well in their learning. Staff do as much as they can to make sure that all children enjoy the school and are fully included in all activities. Children gain much from trips, visits and meeting with visitors to the school. Last summer, a visit to the library resulted in many families becoming members and encouraged children and their parents to read more. Children also visited a local theatre and afterwards made their own music and dance in their play.

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Children are keen to learn. The vast majority of children behave sensibly and quickly respond to instructions from staff. They quickly learn to share their toys and take turns. On those exceedingly rare occasions when there is a small squabble between children, teachers sort it out quickly, and then children play happily together again.

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Staff are positive about working at the school. They appreciate the support that they receive from leaders to manage their workload.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Safeguarding is given high priority at this school. All staff complete up-to-date safeguarding training. They are vigilant and know how to spot the early signs of neglect, abuse or radicalisation. Staff know the procedures to follow if they have a concern about safeguarding. Good levels of support are given to vulnerable children and their families. Representatives from the local emergency services visit the school to talk with children about their work and to advise children how to keep themselves safe outside of the 22–23 January 2020

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school. The school buildings and site are secure There is a filtering system in place to ensure that children are kept safe when online.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Not enough thought has been given to the design of the curriculum to ensure that it covers all of the areas of learning. School documents do not give staff enough understanding of what children need to learn. The quality of children’s learning is better in some key person groups than in others. Leaders should give careful consideration to ensure that the design of the curriculum meets the needs of the children and covers all seven areas of learning. Curriculum plans should give staff clear guidance about what should be taught and in what order.

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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 on 27 and 28 November 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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How can I feed back my views?

If you are the school and you are not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted . 22–23 January 2020

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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. 22–23 January 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10122141 Type of school Nursery

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School details

Date of previous inspection 27–28 November 2012

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Information about this school

 The school includes provision for two-year-old children.

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Information about this inspection

 I held meetings with the headteacher, teachers and support staff. I met with two members of the governing body.  I did deep dives in early reading, communication and language, and mathematics. I spoke with leaders and staff about these areas of learning. I visited sessions in all three classrooms and the outdoor areas. I spoke with children and looked at some examples of records of their learning.  I considered the 22 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, and the eight free-text responses. I examined records in relation to safeguarding. I spoke with parents bringing their children to the school on the first day of the inspection. 22–23 January 2020

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Inspection team

Jan Corlett, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 22–23 January 2020

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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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