Victoria Park Nursery School

Inspection of an outstanding school: Victoria Park Nursery School & Family Hub Victoria Park, Parkway, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 1EH

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Outcome

Victoria Park Nursery School & Family Hub continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Victoria Park is a wonderful place for children to learn. They flourish academically, socially and emotionally in this calm and harmonious community. Each day, children arrive at school keen and enthusiastic. They know that a wide range of exciting activities await that will capture their interests and spark their imagination.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have very high expectations of what all children can achieve. Staff are highly skilled and make every moment a learning opportunity for children to enjoy. Children are busy learners who play and learn extremely well together. There is a palpable buzz in the fantastic outdoor area. For instance, children stop off to join the tea party in the tepee tent, pop into the ice-cream parlour while out on a bug hunt, while others carefully navigate their way across the hills and mounds.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff model kindness and support children to develop bonds with each other. They do not accept any form of unkind behaviour. Any minor upsets are swiftly dealt with. Staff do all they can to ensure that children feel safe and happy. Children behave extremely well. They understand the importance of turn taking and sharing. Children are exceptionally polite, well-mannered and give a very warm welcome to visitors.

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

Leaders, governors and staff are united in their vision to provide children with the best possible start to their education. Leaders are highly ambitious for all children to develop a love of learning and achieve well. Provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is exemplary. Staff are skilled at precisely identifying children’s individual needs. Through carefully planned support, all children access a broad curriculum successfully. 22 June 2022

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Leaders have created an exceptional curriculum that ignites children’s natural curiosity and develops their growing understanding of the world around them. They have precisely identified the essential knowledge and skills they want children to learn and remember well. Staff are well trained. They are experts in early childhood development and early education. Consequently, children achieve highly in all areas of learning. They are extremely well prepared for their move to primary school.

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Leaders’ focus on children’s communication and language is commendable. Staff provide an ongoing dialogue during play, repeating, echoing and building on children’s responses. They emphasise and continually model appropriate language and vocabulary extremely well. This means that children express their ideas clearly. Additionally, children develop a love of reading through regular opportunities to listen to, and retell, stories and rhymes. They know many of these by heart. This supports children’s speech and language development further. Children also learn Makaton to help them to communicate. This helps all children, including those with SEND, to share their ideas and feelings confidently.

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Relationships between staff and children are warm and nurturing. Staff encourage children to try hard and keep going when they find things difficult. For instance, children learn to play safely while navigating their way around, over, under and through the various outdoor equipment. Children are adept at taking safe risks. This helps children to build their self-confidence and resilience.

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Leaders have carefully considered children’s wider development. They have ‘brought the world to Victoria Park’. This means that children learn about different communities, festivals and religious celebrations. They know well their role and responsibility to look after the local habitats. For instance, currently they are keeping a watchful eye on the caterpillar chrysalises as they learn about the lifecycle of a butterfly. Children bake and share biscuits with visitors from the local care home, they visit the library and work with a wide range of professionals such as the dental nurse, fire service and the police to learn about different jobs people do.

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Staff morale is high. They are proud to work at this excellent vibrant nursery. There is a real sense of collaboration across the school. Staff know that leaders take their well-being seriously and they appreciate the decisions that have been taken to improve their workload.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Children’s safety and welfare are a top priority. Leaders and staff receive regular training. They know children and their families very well. Staff are vigilant. They look for signs of when children are upset about any aspect of their lives. Staff act quickly when they have any concerns about a child’s welfare and well-being. Where necessary, leaders make timely and appropriate referrals to other agencies to protect children from harm. They work closely with the ‘Family Hub’. This ensures that children and their families get the help they need. Leaders ensure that the procedures for the safe recruitment of staff are thorough. 22 June 2022

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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 September 2012.

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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. 22 June 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10211125 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 10 January 2017, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Victoria Park Nursery School is a maintained nursery school with provision for two- to five-year-old children. Children are currently being taught in two classes and attend either part- or full-time.  Since the previous inspection, a new headteacher has been appointed.  The school has a higher-than-average proportion of children whose first language is not English.  The school provides a breakfast club and after-school club.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with the headteacher, school leaders, staff and children. 22 June 2022

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 Inspectors met with four governors, including the chair of the governing body. They also had a telephone discussion with a representative from West Berkshire local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in the three prime areas of learning: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, and physical development. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with leaders, visited classrooms and outdoor learning areas, spoke to staff and talked with children.  To inspect safeguarding, inspectors checked the single central record of recruitment checks and talked to leaders responsible for safeguarding.  Inspectors considered the responses to the confidential staff survey and spoke to a range of staff about their views of the school.  Inspectors took account of the responses to Ofsted’s Parent View questionnaire and the additional free-text responses. An inspector talked with some parents at the start of the

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Inspection team

Louise Walker, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Mineza Maher Ofsted Inspector 22 June 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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