Bridlington Nursery School

Inspection of an outstanding school: Bridlington Nursery School Butts Close, Bridlington, East Yorkshire YO16 7BS

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Outcome

Bridlington Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Bridlington Nursery School provides exceptional support for children at the start of their educational journey. Practitioners develop strong relationships with children.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Adults build a stimulating learning environment that celebrates the achievements of children. This helps to build children’s confidence and self-esteem. Children love their nursery. They leave singing and happy at the end of a session.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Practitioners teach children the routines of the nursery in clear and accessible ways. They use language that children can understand. For example, they remind children to use ‘walking feet’ indoors if they inadvertently run.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Practitioners help children to build positive relationships and to respect one another’s feelings. If children fall out, they use thoughtful questions to restore relationships.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have developed a unique curriculum to raise aspiration and meet the needs of the children. They ensure that it lays the right foundations to prepare children for primary education.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders go above and beyond in supporting and engaging with families. They provide a range of drop-in groups where parents and carers can chat informally to staff. Parents can see how their children learn at ‘stay and play’ sessions. They can discuss support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and for children who speak English as an additional language. Leaders help families by signposting them to other services for support. This close working with families supports children’s learning and their wider development.

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

Leaders have created an inspirational curriculum. They incorporate the early years framework into four broad areas of learning or ‘cornerstones’. Each cornerstone aims to develop children into lifelong learners. There are five progressive steps that leaders 20 June 2023

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expect children to achieve as they progress through each cornerstone. Staff check what children know and remember as they learn.

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Leaders develop children’s love of language as they know this is essential to their wider development. They have carefully considered how children should learn about letters and sounds and how they are introduced to new words. Practitioners use a core text to introduce children to new vocabulary. They expose children over and over to new words until they can use them consistently in a conversation. For example, when two-year-old children start at the nursery, the first core text teaches nouns such as coat and shoes. This is so children can independently use these words to communicate. To support children with SEND, practitioners emphasise key words in the text, use soft toys as prompts or sign to them using Makaton.

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Practitioners raise children’s understanding of the sounds that letters make through activities such as listening games. This helps to ensure that children are ready to access phonics teaching in the primary settings.

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Practitioners support children who speak English as an additional language in many ways. For example, they encourage family members to come into nursery and share stories and rhymes in their home language. Leaders provide multilingual books that represent different cultures. Leaders engage children in religious festivals to promote children’s tolerance and respect of other faiths and beliefs.

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The mathematics curriculum, in the science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) cornerstone, is highly ambitious. The STEAM approach provides a wealth of opportunities for mathematics to be woven through the areas of provision. For example, in the construction area linked to the core text ‘Walking Through the Jungle’, practitioners support children to describe the shape and size of equipment. Adults absorb children’s interest in this creative method of teaching mathematics.

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Leaders identify the needs of children with SEND swiftly. Practitioners gather evidence electronically to document children’s progress. They quickly intervene to support children who may be ‘flitting’ between activities, offering sensory breaks and pastoral support.

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Practitioners use the daily group time to model turn-taking and sharing. Children enjoy participating in yoga exercises, which encourage children to manage their own behaviour. Leaders organise a baking club for parents and children to support the concepts of healthy eating and oral hygiene.

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Governors and staff recognise the benefits of being part of a collaboration. It enables practitioners to share knowledge, skills and expertise across the four settings. It positively builds opportunities for career development between the nurseries.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 20 June 2023

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Leaders provide annual safeguarding training so that all staff understand the indicators of harm. Through weekly staff meetings and daily staff briefings, leaders ensure that staff remain vigilant.

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Leaders recognise children with SEND or non-verbal young children could be more vulnerable to safeguarding issues. As a result, practitioners are alert to pre-existing injuries. Leaders have procedures in place to ensure that children and staff are appropriately safeguarded when engaged in intimate care.

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Practitioners teach children to recognise their emotions. They talk to them about what to do if they feel scared or unsafe.

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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 November 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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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. 20 June 2023

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School details

Local authority East Riding of Yorkshire

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Headteacher Claire White (Executive headteacher) Website www.bridlingtonnurseryschool.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 16 January 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Bridlington Nursery School provides education and care for children from age two to five years.  The executive headteacher leads a collaboration of four nursery schools in East Riding.  Each nursery has its own governing body. The chair and vice-chair of the four nursery schools form a strategic group responsible for the collaboration.  There are several newly appointed staff at the nursery.

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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 executive headteacher, staff and representatives of the governing body. The local authority representative spoke by telephone to an inspector.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these areas of learning: communication and language, personal social and emotional development and mathematics. For each deep 20 June 2023

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dive, inspectors spoke to the executive headteacher and the deputy headteachers, looked at curriculum floor books and observed specific children at different times of the day.  To inspect safeguarding, the inspectors considered the school’s relevant policies and records, scrutinised the single central record and checked the school’s procedures for the safe recruitment of staff.  The inspectors took account the views of parents through informal discussions at the end of the morning session and through parents’ responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Ofsted Parent View.  The views of staff were considered from meeting with them and from the responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Alison Stephenson, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Chris Pearce Ofsted Inspector 20 June 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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