Eastwood Nursery School

Inspection of an outstanding school: Eastwood Nursery School 168 Roehampton Lane, London SW15 4EU

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Outcome

Eastwood Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children thrive in this school. They and their parents and carers are given a warm welcome every day. Leaders and staff are determined to give the children in their care the very best possible start to their education. Children typically have a smile on their faces and love taking part in the many well-planned and rich activities on offer. They enjoy their constant interactions and dialogue with adults.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff identify and meet children’s learning and development needs extremely well. This includes making adaptations for and giving extra support to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Children gain an extensive amount of knowledge across each area of learning. They are very well supported in the development of their social skills. This means that children leave the nursery extremely well prepared for school when the time comes.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff establish clear routines and teach children how to behave well. As a result, the way children conduct themselves is exemplary. They learn and play collaboratively, showing care and consideration to one another.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents have high praise for the school. For example, they highlighted the ethos of care and support for their children and themselves. They also welcome the many opportunities that they have to be involved in their children’s education. They rightly said their children blossom in this school.

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

Leaders have designed a rich and ambitious curriculum. They plan with precision what they want children to know and be able to do across all areas of learning. Through home visits and initial observations, staff assess children’s starting points thoroughly. Each child’s key person plays a pivotal role in building a triangle of trust and support between the child, school and home. Key persons know their children incredibly well. They keep a close eye on children’s development and keep in touch often with parents. 4 May 2023

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Teachers are highly skilled. They reflect on children’s learning every day. They make adjustments to reinforce learning for children who fall behind, including those with SEND. Staff do a lot to keep children’s enthusiasm and curiosity alive. They use children’s initial interests as hooks in designing learning activities that match the ambition of the curriculum. They do not leave it at that though. They encourage and support children to broaden their horizons. They guide them to learn through many other activities and to develop a very wide range of new interests.

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Children love listening to stories and staff encourage them to join in. Chosen books serve as a springboard for broadening children’s learning. For example, in one class, children were enthusiastically joining in with a re-read of a rhyming story about cats from different countries in the world. Staff used this to engage children in discussion about the different places. This led to children using magnifiers to find the countries on the globe and telling the adults where their parents had come from. They then searched to find those places on the map.

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Children independently access and use all the resources available to them. These are plentiful, especially in the expansive outdoor area. Adults are very skilful at working alongside the children. They ask children questions to deepen their thinking. They model and use key vocabulary so that children expand the range of words that they understand and use.

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Leaders are extremely committed to inclusion. They make adaptations to address needs, so all can access the curriculum. For example, children in the specially resourced provision come in a half hour earlier than their peers to use the outdoor equipment when it is quieter. Over time, they gain confidence and get to mingle with their peers throughout the day.

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The ambiance across the school is purposeful. Children are inquisitive, imaginative and engaged. They sustain their concentration on activities and follow staff’s instructions without question.

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Provision for children’s wider development is very strong. Children mark different cultural events and festivals, such as celebrating Christmas and Eid. Staff have planned to take children to the theatre, and children recently visited a local home for older people where they danced and sang with the residents. Children enjoyed choosing several artefacts to be buried in a time capsule as part of a local regeneration project. Staff have had specific training on how to teach children about differences and diversity. They read suggested books and hold age-appropriate conversations with children.

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There is a deep sense of unity among the staff. They said that their workload is reasonable and that leaders are considerate of their welfare.

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Leaders are not complacent and seek excellence. The governing body has specialist professional expertise in early years education. It makes a strong contribution to the school’s work. 4 May 2023

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Designated safeguarding leads make sure that all staff are well trained and vigilant. Staff report any concerns they have about a child, no matter how minor they might appear. There is a local authority social worker on site once a week, supporting leaders’ work. Leaders make prompt referrals to external agencies as needed. They also use the family worker and internal therapists, such as the occupational therapist and the educational psychologist, as appropriate, to promote children’s safeguarding and welfare and that of their families.

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Safeguarding

Leaders deliver workshops and information to parents about risks and how to support their children. They also teach children about safe practices, for example when they do pond dipping.

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Safeguarding

There are appropriate vetting procedures in place for the appointment of staff.

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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 July 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. 4 May 2023

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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 May 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 30 January 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Since the previous inspection, the school has become part of the Wandsworth Federation of Maintained Nursery Schools. The headteacher of this school is also the executive headteacher of all three nursery schools in the federation.  The school has a local authority funded specially resourced provision for up to 11 full- time equivalent places for four- and five-year-old children with speech, language and communication difficulties and/or autism spectrum disorder.  Leaders do not make any use of 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 carried out deep dives in these areas of learning: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, and understanding the world. Inspectors discussed the curriculum with leaders and staff, visited classrooms and the outdoor provision, looked at examples of children’s learning, visited story times, and 4 May 2023

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spoke to children as they played and learned. Other areas of learning were also considered as part of this inspection.  Inspectors met with the chair of the governing body and with a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors spoke to leaders and staff about their work to keep children safe and ensure that they behave well. They also looked at safeguarding documentation, including records of concerns about children’s welfare and the pre-employment checks carried out on staff appointed to work at the school.  Inspectors considered a range of documents that leaders provided in relation to behaviour, the curriculum and the provision for children with SEND, including those who attend the specially resourced provision.  Inspectors spoke to parents informally and considered the responses to Ofsted’s survey for parents, including written comments. They also considered the responses to the survey for staff.

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Inspection team

David Radomsky, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Julie Wright His Majesty’s Inspector 4 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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