Rosemary Lane Nursery School

Inspection of school: Rosemary Lane Nursery School Rosemary Lane, Easington Village, Peterlee, County Durham SR8 3BQ

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Outcome

Rosemary Lane Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Rosemary Lane Nursery School is a delightful place for children to come to learn. Parents and carers have wonderful things to say about this school. It is an exciting, caring and safe place where everyone is dedicated to children’s learning and well-being. All staff are focused on helping every child to achieve highly, whatever their starting point.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children cannot wait to come into the nursery. There are exciting experiences to explore, such as making an outdoor den from sheets over tree trunks. Children know where to find the books, toys and equipment they want to use. Every minute of the day includes opportunities that help them develop, think and try new things. Every activity teachers set up for children has a reason for being there.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s promise of ‘listening, sharing and pride’ is seen in how children trust and care for the adults. Children are safe and happy. They behave very well and know that they should treat each other well. If children are unkind, adults help them to see how they can make things right.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Skilled teachers support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities so they can take a full part in learning and can achieve as highly as others. Parents praise how much staff keep in touch with them and involve them in everything they do for their children.

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

Leaders are certain about what the school needs to achieve. Their curriculum is very exciting and widens children’s experiences and understanding of the world around them. It engages children to enjoy and learn new things. The curriculum helps children to learn and practise skills for communication and language, early reading, writing and 15 February 2022

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mathematics. Leaders understand the backgrounds of their children and their different starting points. They have high expectations of what their children can achieve.

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Leadership and governance are strong and effective at Rosemary Lane Nursery School. This means that parents can be confident that their children will have an exceptional start to their education.

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Reading is at the heart of everything children do at this school. Adults are very skilled at encouraging children to explore and enjoy books. They use stories with lots of rhyme and encourage children to use beat and rhythm. This helps children to learn how letters and words sound. Children who are new to reading discover books carefully chosen for their pictures and characters. Teachers position these books so that children notice and explore them.

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Children have lots of fun with mathematics. They sing number songs, such as ‘Mr Crocodile’, and build towers to see how many before they fall. They explore shapes and measure all kinds of things. Children use beanbags to count to 10 and roll dice then count the dots. Adults talk about numbers, shapes and measures naturally when they join children in their play.

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Promoting children’s communication skills is central to the school’s excellent work. Staff have high-quality training in communication. They understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the starting points of some children. For example, staff have identified that children’s speech development was delayed when they had to spend a lot of time indoors. They are making sure that children catch up quickly.

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Adults’ focus on children’s physical, personal, social and emotional development is excellent. In the Blue Teddy group, the two-year-old children have excellent experiences outdoors. There is an extensive range of equipment that helps them strengthen their bodies, such as crates to build a bridge to walk over. The three- and four-year-olds have an amazing climbing frame to explore and a planting area to pot their rosemary plants together.

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Staff feel that leaders are very supportive about their workload and well-being. Leaders have introduced a new way of sharing the progress that children are making. It is more useful and allows staff more time to be with the children. The new way has also worked extremely well with parents and carers. Staff value leaders’ thoughtfulness and the time they are afforded to discuss their well-being.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders ensure that keeping children safe is a priority in the school. All staff receive training and regular safeguarding updates. They know what signs to look for if they have concerns about a child. Staff know what to do if they are concerned about a child’s welfare. 15 February 2022

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Leaders seek advice early from other agencies to ensure that children are kept safe. They make sure that vulnerable children and families receive the support they need. Parents say that their children are safe and happy.

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Background

When we have judged a 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 or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, 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 deem the section 8 inspection as 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 December 2013.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View 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 .

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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. 15 February 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10211378 Type of school Nursery

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Councillor Angela Surtees

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School details

Date of previous inspection 7 February 2017, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Rosemary Lane Nursery School provides morning education for two-year-olds. All three- and four-year-olds have a funded place for 15 hours per week. Where parents are entitled, the school offers a funded place for 30 hours per week. The majority of children now have funded places for 30 hours per week.  The school has appointed a new deputy headteacher since the last inspection.  The number of children attending with complex special educational needs has increased.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors carried out deep dives in early reading, communication and language, and mathematics.  For each deep dive, inspectors met with subject leaders, looked at curriculum plans, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to children about their learning and looked at examples of children’s work. 15 February 2022

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 Meetings were held with the headteacher and the deputy headteacher, members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority. Inspectors spoke with staff, the special educational needs coordinator and the designated safeguarding lead.  Inspectors considered information recorded related to safeguarding. They also viewed curriculum plans and leaders’ plans for improvement.  Inspectors took into account responses to the Ofsted staff survey, written comments made by parents and responses to the Ofsted online survey, Ofsted Parent View. Inspectors spoke informally with some parents during the school day.

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Inspection team

Ann Muxworthy, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Amy Keith Ofsted Inspector 15 February 2022

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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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