Abbey Green Nursery School

Inspection of Abbey Green Nursery School Green Lane, Manningham, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD8 8HT

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Inspection dates: 13 and 14 December 2023

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

The quality of education Outstanding Behaviour and attitudes Outstanding Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Outstanding Previous inspection grade Good 13 and 14 December 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Abbey Green Nursery School provides an exceptional level of care for its children and their families. Children thrive in this warm and nurturing nursery school. They are happy and safe. There are exceptionally positive relationships between staff and children. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the education that their children receive. They too feel valued and part of the community that leaders have created.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders are highly ambitious for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Children learn in an environment that is inclusive and designed to meet their individual needs in full. Staff carefully consider children’s precise next steps in their learning. They skilfully ensure that children achieve these.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Strong routines are in place. Children know, and follow, these well. They are respectful of the school’s high expectations. Children learn and play together harmoniously. They learn to share and take turns. Children take very good care of the equipment and toys that they use.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school promotes high levels of independence. Children make their own choices about the activities they would like to engage in and the resources they would like to use. They become absorbed in their learning, whether this be by themselves, with other children, or with a guiding adult supporting them.

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better?

Leaders are responsible for Abbey Green Nursery School, as well as Midland Road Nursery School. They work with staff, families and children across both sites. Staff at both schools have an exceptional understanding of the starting points that children have. They have designed a highly ambitious curriculum for all children across both nursery school communities.

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better?

Staff are knowledgeable about child development and how children’s learning builds over time. They work skilfully with children within the learning environment to ensure that activities build on children’s knowledge. Staff ensure that their teaching and the learning environment are carefully adapted to meet the needs of all children. As a result, children at both schools are exceptionally well prepared for the next stage of their education.

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better?

Children’s early communication and language skills are given the highest priority. Staff expertly listen to children as they talk and purposefully extend their vocabulary. Staff know that this repetition of key words supports children to learn and remember more. Where adults identify misconceptions, such as a child confusing a lion with a tiger, they use this as a learning point to extend children’s knowledge further.

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better?

The school develops a love of reading across all age ranges. Children are immersed in stories, songs and rhymes. They share books with adults and use props and 13 and 14 December 2023

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actions to retell stories. Even the youngest children independently choose to look at books, pointing excitedly to the pictures, eager for the adult to read to them. Leaders have carefully chosen the core books that children will access as part of the curriculum. These include deliberate choices that reflect and celebrate the diverse nature of the setting and the wider community.

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Children at Abbey Green develop the confidence to take, and manage, their own risks when playing. They show high levels of resilience during their everyday play. For example, children challenge themselves to climb the bigger steps to the outdoor area or choose to ride the larger bicycles. All the time they are gently encouraged by the adults who work with them to manage risk and stay safe. Woodland and wildlife days provide children with regular opportunities to develop their independence and important physical skills. Children put on overalls and wellington boots by themselves. They learn to attach ropes and materials to build shelters.

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The school’s approach to personal development is well considered. Children learn how to manage their own self-care and hygiene from a young age. This includes learning how to brush their teeth properly and how to make healthy food choices. Carefully selected stories and wider experiences support children’s learning in different areas of the curriculum. Leaders work with parents to inform them of these key messages. For example, they speak about online safety so that parents can continue to support their own children with the use of modern technologies at home safely.

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Leaders deliberately plan a range of educational visits that carefully link to children’s learning and development needs. Both schools take parents and children to local parks, then on train journeys to other nearby towns and cities, before travelling further afield to the seaside. Parents recognise that this gives them the confidence to be able to take their children to places and engage them in experiences outside of their immediate community.

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Parental engagement is a key part of leaders’ work at the school. The pastoral offer is strong and goes beyond supporting the children. The school ensures that the community has what it needs to deliver the best it can for the children. Parents are effusive in their praise for leaders. This extends to parents and carers of pupils with SEND. The rapid, early identification of children with SEND ensures that a personalised learning curriculum is quickly in place for those children who need it. This takes place within the fully inclusive learning environment. One parent summed it up by saying, ‘This school changes lives.’

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Leaders are passionate that all children and families receive the best care that they can provide. Staff and governors share this relentless aspiration. The governing body has taken significant steps to ensure that it is well equipped to challenge and support leaders. Staff are proud to work at both Abbey Green and Midland Road Nursery Schools. They feel valued and appreciated by leaders. Leaders are strategic in ensuring that all staff have the training they need to continue to be highly effective. 13 and 14 December 2023

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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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.

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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). 13 and 14 December 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 18 October 2022, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is federated with another local maintained nursery school, Midland Road Nursery School. The federation is known as Manningham Community Nursery Schools. The headteacher and other senior leaders work across both sites. Both schools operate under the same governing body.  The school has a specialist provision for children with SEND, and it receives additional funding from the local authority. It caters for children with a wide range of needs, including speech, language and communication needs, and social, emotional and mental health needs .  Most children attend either morning or afternoon sessions. A small number of children attend all day.  The school does not use any registered or unregistered providers of off-site alternative education.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. 13 and 14 December 2023

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 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspection of Abbey Green Nursery School was carried out at the same time as Midland Road Nursery School. Both schools operate under the same leadership and governance arrangements.  Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and special educational needs coordinator. The lead inspector met governors and spoke with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these areas of learning and development: communication and language, physical development, and mathematics. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited classrooms and the outside provision, spoke to staff, and spoke to some children

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while they were learning. The inspectors considered information about the curriculum in some other areas of learning.  Inspectors observed children’s learning throughout the day. They spoke with key persons to talk about children’s learning and development.  Inspectors spoke to leaders about wider opportunities for children.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, 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 checked that the statutory welfare requirements were being met.  Inspectors checked the plans for some pupils with SEND and checked what staff were doing to meet their specific needs.  Inspectors spoke to some parents outside the school and evaluated the responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Ofsted Parent View. Inspectors also considered the

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Inspection team

Sarah Gordon, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Peter Heaton Ofsted Inspector 13 and 14 December 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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