Baylis Court Nursery School

Inspection of a good school: Baylis Court Nursery School Oatlands Drive, Slough, Berkshire SL1 3HS

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Outcome

Baylis Court Nursery School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Baylis Court Nursery warmly welcomes families into their vibrant community school. Children are happy and safe in this nurturing environment. A calm and purposeful space is provided, where well-established routines consistently reinforce positive behaviour. Staff have high aspirations for all children. The school has recently spent time designing a new curriculum, focused on what they want children to learn. The school’s goal is for children to learn about the community they are part of and the wider world, while preparing them for their Reception Year and beyond.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Learning extends beyond the classroom, often connecting to the diverse community the school is part of. For instance, the school recently organised a ‘stay and play’ session linked to a religious festival. Children explored food and traditions, sharing these experiences with their families. Opportunities such as these help children to build their understanding of the world around them and to recognise what makes people the same as and different to others.

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What is it like to attend this school?

During focused sessions and play, children keenly take part in a variety of meaningful activities. They role play, count forwards and backwards, ‘cook’ in the mud kitchen, climb, and observe caterpillars transforming into butterflies.

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

The school’s provision reflects leaders’ careful consideration of their children and the local community. Many children are learning English as an additional language, and some have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Therefore, the development of children’s communication and language is prioritised as soon as they join the school.

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

Staff promote children’s early language development through songs, nursery rhymes and stories. Adults extend and develop children’s understanding of words through playing alongside them to model new vocabulary. As a result, children are beginning to use more words and understand their meaning. For example, younger children are encouraged to 8 May 2024

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sing the alphabet song while pointing to letters. This is alongside older children who can make ‘pizza’ and ‘grass soup’ in the mud kitchen, pointing to words on pictures to explain what they are making.

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Through a combination of adult-directed tasks and activities tailored to children’s interests, adults teach children a range of important knowledge and skills. This is particularly successful in mathematics. Learning is broken down into the key building blocks of what children should learn. This helps adults check precisely what children have understood before introducing new material. However, in some areas of the curriculum, adults are not as able to carefully pinpoint what each child needs to learn next. Leaders recognise this and the need for further improvements to the curriculum to ensure pupils learn well across all areas of learning.

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Leaders and staff regularly take time to discuss what each child has been learning. This valuable information is used to consider what children need to learn next and identify any additional help. Adults support children, including those with SEND, through individual and small-group sessions to ensure that they make the progress they are capable of, and most do. Children in the Dragonfly Resource Base benefit from playing and learning alongside children in the main school as well as receiving tailored support to meet their individual needs.

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High levels of care and mutual respect between children and staff mean that children enjoy learning and have positive attitudes. Children move around the nursery calmly. This is because not a moment is missed to learn about and practise good behaviour. For example, during snack time, children learn how to take turns.

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The nursery has high expectations for children’s personal development. Recent activities, such as a visit from the dental nurse, contribute to children’s overall well-being. Most children engage in activities demonstrating the school’s’ values of curiosity and resilience, even when faced with unexpected challenges. This includes the importance of not giving up when climbing on the climbing wall or building a tower.

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Regular attendance at Nursery for some children is low. Leaders are working closely with parents and carers to improve attendance. The school recognises the importance of this so that children and their families get into good habits in readiness to move on to their new schools. However, the school’s work on this is still very new and the full impact of the work is not yet known.

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Staff enjoy working at this school. They feel valued and supported by leaders, including those responsible for governance. Staff feel listened to and are confident that their workload and well-being are considered carefully as further improvements are made to the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 8 May 2024

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Too many children do not attend the school regularly. This means that they, including some disadvantaged children, miss large periods of their learning. The school should continue to explore how they can support children and families so that children attend the school more often.  The planned curriculum does not consistently and precisely identify what children will learn and when. Consequently, some children do not always benefit from activities that are precisely matched to their existing knowledge and understanding. For some children, this means they are not learning as much as they could. The school should ensure adults have the knowledge and expertise required to recognise when children have been successful and to then precisely pinpoint the next steps in learning.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. 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 good in January 2015.

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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’ 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 8 May 2024

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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). 8 May 2024

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provision

Appropriate authority The governing body

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provision

Co-Chairs of governing body Dianne Lister Lynne Tindall Headteacher Aimee McElwee

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provision

Website www.bayliscourtnurseryschool.co.uk

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provision

Date of previous inspection 1 November 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher has been in post since September 2023.  The school has a specialist resource provision, funded by the local authority. This provides support for up to four pupils with autism who have an education, health and care plan.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 8 May 2024

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 The inspectors met with the senior leadership team, members of staff, and one member of the governing body.  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 pupils’ interests first.  The inspectors considered the responses to the online survey, Ofsted Parent View, and parents’ written comments.  The inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development and mathematics. For each deep dive, the inspectors met leaders, looked at curriculum plans, visited lessons and spoke to adults in the school.  The inspectors also looked at pupils’ work and curriculum plans and spoke to leaders about some other subjects.  The inspectors gathered evidence to explore the impact of pupils’ behaviour and the

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school’s wider curriculum.  The inspectors looked at the school’s own evaluation and development plans.  The inspectors took into account the views of staff during meetings with them and from the responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.  The inspectors also met with the one of the co-chairs of the governing body and spoke to a representative of the local authority.

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Inspection team

Clare Haines, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Paul Shaughnessy Ofsted Inspector 8 May 2024

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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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