Sheringham Nursery School & Children's Centre

Inspection of an outstanding school: Sheringham Nursery School & Children’s Centre Sheringham Avenue, Manor Park, London E12 5PB

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Outcome

Sheringham Nursery School & Children’s Centre continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The children and their families are at the heart of this school. Children confidently welcome visitors and invite them to share a book or join in their activities. Families value the wealth of support and advice that is provided. This helps them and their children to overcome barriers so that children can thrive. Everyone is incredibly proud to be part of the Sheringham Nursery School community.

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What is it like to attend this school?

High expectations permeate throughout the school. There are no limits placed on what children can achieve, including for the high proportion of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Children engage in a multitude of exciting activities with a sense of purpose and determination. They are curious, inquisitive and keen to learn. Children relish the ambitious opportunities available to them. For example, staff support children in using knives and food cutters to prepare and eat their own snacks. At the woodwork bench, children independently access and use hammers and nails to create their own models.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Relationships between children and their key person are strong. Children are kept safe and trust the adults around them. Adults are positive role models. They expertly support children’s social and emotional development through helping children to express themselves, listen to others, and ultimately understand their emotions and those of others. This helps children to get better at managing for themselves how they behave and react in different situations.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children leave this provision very well prepared for the next stages of their education.

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

The curriculum and wider offer at this school are carefully thought through and based on extensive, credible educational research. Staff ensure that every aspect of the curriculum is intentional and interwoven. Leaders have set ‘curricular goals’ that identify the 22 and 23 May 2024

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outcomes that they want children to achieve. The small chunks of learning needed to achieve these have also been clearly set out. As a result, children develop deep knowledge and skills across all areas of learning. This includes children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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The school prioritises the development of children’s language and communication. It is the bedrock of the whole curriculum, teaching and provision. Staff have a deep understanding of how young children learn. They ensure that interactions with children are of high quality and contribute to children’s development. Staff expertly model and continually develop children’s vocabulary with the aim of reaching a continual back-and- forth conversation. Children’s language is further developed through explicit teaching sessions that promote talking and use stories to support children’s mathematical understanding, for example. The curriculum also identifies and maps out essential books and rhymes so that children experience a range of high-quality texts and language. Children are surrounded by stories and books, which they thoroughly enjoy being immersed in. They know that at any point, they can request a story to be read to them,

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The school has a highly inclusive ethos. Leaders and staff are equally ambitious for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Children with SEND are well supported by expert staff who ‘scaffold up’. This means that children with SEND play and learn alongside their peers, accessing the same high-quality provision and opportunities. The close working relationship with the children’s centre enables additional needs to be identified, often before children join the nursery. The school works closely with families to quickly put support in place, involving external agencies and specialists where needed.

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The provision for children’s personal development flows through all aspects of nursery life. Every activity and interaction skilfully develop children’s wider development and understanding. This is clear, for example, in how staff promote children’s independence, the relationships children build with the adults and each other and how children learn to understand their feelings and emotions. Children are taught and shown by the adults around them to value and appreciate diversity and difference. Promoting children’s wider development also goes beyond the nursery setting. For instance, the ‘bike project’ enables families to continue to support their children’s physical development outside of school, reinforcing the many benefits that children can gain from riding a bike. Children and their families experience a range of educational visits, including visits to different places of worship, the local park and the seaside.

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The governing body, leaders and staff are relentless in their drive to continually improve. Leaders reflect on their research work and the support that they give to other schools. They ensure that their work directly benefits the children and families here.

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Leaders prioritise staff professional development and, through this, ensure that all staff are highly trained and experts in what they do. 22 and 23 May 2024

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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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 June 2014.

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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 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). 22 and 23 May 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Katherine Vincent

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School details

Date of previous inspection 31 October 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school has provision for two-year-olds.  The school is part of a network of schools that support the use of research and evidence to improve teaching practice.  The school leads one of London’s ‘Stronger Practice Hubs’, as part of the Department for Education’s Early Years Education Recovery Programme.  The school does not use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

The inspector carried out this ungraded inspection under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. ◼ 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 inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 22 and 23 May 2024

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◼ The inspector met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and the assistant headteacher. The inspector met with a group of governors, including the chair, and spoke to a representative from the local authority. ◼ The inspector carried out deep dives in these areas of learning: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development and physical development. For each deep dive, the inspector held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers and support staff and looked at samples of children’s learning. The inspector also discussed the curriculum in some other areas of learning and looked at samples of children’s learning across the curriculum. ◼ To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and children; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around

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safeguarding that puts children’s interests first. ◼ The inspector reviewed the responses to Ofsted Parent View. ◼ The inspector reviewed the responses to the online staff survey and met with staff at various times throughout the inspection. ◼ The inspector reviewed a range of documentation related to governance, behaviour and attendance.

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Inspection team

Julie Wright His Majesty’s Inspector 22 and 23 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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