Effra Nursery School and Children's Centre

Inspection of Effra Nursery School and Children’s Centre 35 Effra Parade, Brixton, London SW2 1PL

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Inspection dates: 17 and 18 October 2023

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Previous inspection grade Good 17 and 18 October 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is a nurturing and safe place to be. Staff make sure that children are warmly welcomed when they join the school and helped to settle in quickly. Children are happy here and build trusting working relationships with staff.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff use the large spaces indoors and outdoors to provide a wealth of learning. Typically, they plan this well to build up children’s understanding cumulatively across different areas of learning. Children love getting involved in all the different learning available to them each day. They have lots of opportunities to find out about nature through regular visits to a community ‘nature-nurture’ garden and local parks.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children play well together and are encouraged to be considerate of each other. They are taught to be kind and that ‘sharing is caring’. Staff support children to manage their emotions and sort out any disagreements quickly and calmly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents and carers appreciate how closely the school works with them to support their children’s learning. Staff have children’s best interests in mind in everything that they do. Children are well prepared for the next stage in their education when they move to primary school.

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better?

Home visits and discussions with parents help staff to get to know each child and their interests. When children join the school, staff check what children already know and can do. They use this to plan suitable next steps in learning for each child. The school has high ambitions for all children. At times, limited precision about what children need to know and be able to do and the order in which it should be taught results in a lack of clarity about what children need to learn next. The governing body and school leaders work together to identify where further improvements to the work of the school are needed, including to the school’s curriculum.

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better?

The school is quick to identify any children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The needs of children with SEND are well catered for. The school works with external professionals to provide specialist help, such as music therapy, and speech and language support. The school recently set up a ‘nurture space’ where staff adapt teaching and resources to meet the needs of children with SEND and any children who may need additional support. Staff enjoy working at the school. Leaders are considerate of staff workload and well-being.

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better?

Staff are skilled in developing children’s communication and language skills. Staff seize opportunities to talk with children, modelling language and encouraging children’s communication. For example, staff asked children to talk about the cakes they had made using modelling clay. Children were encouraged to describe their cakes and explain why they had chosen certain colours. 17 and 18 October 2023

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Children learn about the world around them, such as why leaves change colour in autumn and why they fall from the trees. Children used new vocabulary that they had learned when acting out a role-play between two dinosaurs eating leaves from trees. Children enjoyed gathering an abundance of conkers and pine cones. They compared how many they had collected, using words such as ‘more’ and ‘less’. Children working in the outdoor spaces used magnifying glasses to look more closely at worms they had dug up. They handled them carefully.

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Staff encourage a love of books. They read frequently to children and use stories to support children’s learning. For example, children had fun counting the ducklings in one story and heard about Kenyan culture and heathy eating in another. Children choose books to take home and read with their parents. Older children were inspired by the story of Peter Pan to imagine their own pirates and create swords, hooks and dragons from a range of materials.

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Children behave well. They follow simple instructions and learn to listen carefully. Children follow routines such as ‘tidy-up time’ and are taught the importance of ‘doing the right thing’. Children’s curiosity is encouraged. Staff draw children into discussions and conversations about what they are doing and answer their questions. Leaders work closely with parents to emphasise the importance of attending school every day.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school has not identified precisely the components of knowledge and skills that children need to learn and when in all the areas that children need to learn. As a result, sometimes staff are unsure what children need to learn next. Leaders should continue their review of the curriculum to ensure that their curriculum thinking sets out all the key content that children need to know and when.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to 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. 17 and 18 October 2023

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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’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding ( this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 17 and 18 October 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 11 July 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is part of the Lambeth Nursery Schools Federation. The five federated nursery schools have a single governing body.  The headteacher took up post in January 2023. The headteacher is also the executive headteacher of all five schools in the federation.  There are currently no five-year-olds on roll.  The school does not use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision. 17 and 18 October 2023

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 This was the school’s first routine inspection the school received since the COVID- 19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with the headteacher and other school leaders. The lead inspector met with members of the governing body and had a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these areas of learning: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, mathematics and understanding the world. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with leaders, visited classrooms and the outdoor provision, spoke with teachers and staff and looked at examples of children’s work. Inspectors also spoke to children as they played and learned. Other areas of learning were also considered

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as part of this inspection.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders and staff; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children’s interests first.  Inspectors held discussions with various staff and took into account their responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.  Inspectors spoke to parents informally and considered the responses to the online survey, Ofsted Parent View.

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Inspection team

Jude Wilson, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Maureen Okoye Ofsted Inspector 17 and 18 October 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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