Kintore Way Nursery School

Inspection of an outstanding school: Kintore Way Nursery School & Children’s Centre 97-102 Grange Road, London SE1 3BW

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Outcome

Kintore Way Nursery School & Children’s Centre continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children have such a good time at this school that they ask for it to be open at weekends. It is clear to see why children thrive here. Leaders’ high expectations are realised. Staff are highly skilled at supporting children’s learning and development. Staff build on children’s interests and find exciting and imaginative ways to make learning meaningful. In doing so, they inspire children’s curiosity. For example, one group of children explored what might have caused the holes in the tree bark. Another group thought about how they might make their construction of Tower Bridge stronger and stronger.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s work with families is a shining example of how to make sure children, particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), get the help they need. No matter what their age, level of need or starting points, children achieve highly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Whether they attend all week or for some of the week, children settle in really well. They are happy, safe and very well cared for. Staff help children to build friendships and understand the importance of being kind to others. This makes the school a welcoming place to be. Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about everything the school provides for their children.

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

Staff waste no time in getting to know children and their families. They work closely with parents to find out about each child’s needs and interests. Leaders’ approaches for identifying and meeting the needs of children with SEND are highly effective. 4 and 5 May 2023

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Leaders have planned a thoughtful and ambitious curriculum, which helps children to flourish in each area of learning. Staff use their expertise to introduce children to new ideas and experiences. They are skilled at building on what each child knows and can do. Leaders keep a close check on how each child is getting on. Children are very well prepared at each stage of their journey, including the move to primary school.

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Staff promote children’s language and communication needs exceptionally well. They adjust their interactions to meet each child’s needs. For example, when children were playing with toy animals in the sand, staff extended some children’s learning by encouraging them to describe and compare the animals’ bodies. For other children, staff introduced new words, such as ‘sand’ and ‘down’, as they watched the sand run through their fingers.

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Children develop a love of stories, rhymes and songs. Storytime sessions are thoughtfully planned to meet the different ages and stages of children’s development. For example, some children listened to the story ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?’ and repeated the phrases in the story. Others used symbols and objects to help them spot different colours and animals in the book. Outside, the two-year-old children enjoyed cuddling up for a story on the large, tiger-shaped cushion. Older children liked reading ‘The Tiny Seed’ after they had seen that their own seeds had grown into poppies. They used words such as ‘roots’ and ‘leaves’ accurately as they made their comparisons.

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Staff quickly respond to children’s fascinations. For example, the children were excited to find a snail in the garden. Staff encouraged them to use magnifying glasses to take a closer look. Children decided together what the snail might want to eat. They knew to be gentle with the snail and to think about its feelings. There are plenty of opportunities for children’s imaginations to flourish. Staff know exactly how to foster this. For example, after reading ‘The Naughty Bus’, children used chairs, tyres and wheels to create their own bus. Staff encouraged children to use words such as ‘fast’, ‘slow’ and ‘bumpy’ as they pretended to travel from Bermondsey to Peckham.

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Staff teach children about cooperation. For example, children created a boat from large wooden blocks. They took turns to use the much-loved wheelbarrows to fetch the things that they needed. Staff embrace the diversity that exists within the school. This helps children to learn about themselves and others. Leaders invite parents into school to celebrate their cultures. For example, children enjoyed learning words to songs in Spanish and cooking and then eating Jamaican patties.

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Leaders value the dedicated and hard-working staff team. Staff feel extremely well supported by leaders.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Staff make sure that any concerns are reported immediately. Leaders take swift and appropriate action to ensure that children are safe. When parents or children are in need of help, leaders spend as long as it takes to support them. Leaders have established 4 and 5 May 2023

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productive partnerships with local children’s centres. They are very good at signposting families to different services. Parents comment that communication with the school is excellent, particularly the help they receive in working with children with SEND and social services.

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Children are taught in an age-appropriate way about consent and keeping themselves safe. For example, older children know why it is important to close the toilet door when it is in use. They know that it is fine to say ‘no’, ‘stop’ or ‘I don’t like that’.

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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 an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually, this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be outstanding in May 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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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. 4 and 5 May 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10227961 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 Fayola Duncan (co-chair) Simonette Sesay (co-chair) Headteacher Rebecca Sherwood (executive headteacher)

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School details

Date of previous inspection 25 April 2017, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is part of a hard federation with another maintained nursery school in Southwark. The executive headteacher leads both schools.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and has taken that into account in his evaluation of the school.  The inspector held meetings with the executive headteacher, deputy headteacher and other senior leaders. He met with the co-chairs of governors.  The inspector carried out deep dives in these areas of learning: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development and understanding the world. For each deep dive, the inspector discussed the curriculum with leaders, visited sessions in all rooms, spoke to staff and looked at documentation related to the curriculum. 4 and 5 May 2023

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 The inspector scrutinised the single central record of staff suitability checks. He met with leaders responsible for safeguarding. The inspector held meetings with staff.  The responses to Ofsted Parent View were considered. The inspector met with parents at drop-off time in the morning.

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Inspection team

Gary Rawlings, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 4 and 5 May 2023

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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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