Seaham Harbour Nursery School

Inspection of an outstanding school: Seaham Harbour Nursery School Bottleworks Road, Seaham Harbour, Seaham, County Durham SR7 7NN

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Outcome

Seaham Harbour Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Seaham Harbour Nursery School provides children with a wonderful start to their educational journey. It is a happy, welcoming place in which to learn. Children feel safe and valued here. Parents and carers appreciate the care and support that the school gives to their children. Children are taught to be independent. They explore their thoughts and ideas through play. Children develop positive learning attitudes for the future.

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What is it like to attend this school?

All staff share the same vision for excellence. They put children’s learning at the centre of all that happens. They are determined to ensure that children fulfil their individual potential. This determination is realised. The curriculum is carefully planned to help all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make exceptional progress. Children develop the curiosity and courage to explore and talk about their learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school helps children learn to play together harmoniously. Through carefully planned activities, children learn about kindness and sharing. Staff model gentle, caring behaviour. This leads to children helping each other. Falling out is rare.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is proud of children’s regular attendance. Parents feel secure in the knowledge that their children love going to Seaham Harbour Nursery. One parent said that their child is ‘disappointed when they can’t go to nursery because it is the weekend’.

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

The school’s leaders and all staff have an excellent understanding of the importance of early education. From the moment children join the school, there is a focus on helping them to learn. Staff are knowledgeable about the statutory requirements for children in the early years. They use this knowledge to guide and support children effectively. The curriculum focuses equally on all important areas of learning. Children are encouraged to be curious and ask questions about the world around them. 4 July 2024

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Communication and language development is central to the school’s curriculum. Core books are identified for each half term. These provide starting points for learning. Stories are shared, enjoyed and retold by the children. Familiar songs are used to signal important times of the day, such as snack time. Children enjoy singing them and learning new rhymes. Booklets of familiar rhymes are shared with families to help children to continue their learning at home.

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Every moment is used well to promote learning. The school makes excellent use of its extensive environment, both inside and outside. Staff use the school’s high-quality resources well. Children use them well too. They enjoy exploring, digging, cooking and investigating, alongside their friends. Staff are highly skilled at developing children’s communication skills. They talk and listen to the children to identify their interests and encourage their natural curiosity. All aspects of the curriculum are explored by the children in the provision. They enjoy pouring water from large to small containers. They use tools confidently and enjoy playing with rollers and pump-action containers to paint on hands and paper.

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This is an inclusive school. Staff know the children well. They are highly skilled at adapting the provision to ensure children feel safe and supported as they play and learn. Children with SEND are quickly identified. The school works closely with professionals to ensure that it fully understands any complex needs. The school has developed a quieter space for some children. This space is used flexibly to give children quiet time to focus on learning or to enjoy sensory resources. At other times, children play or share snack time together.

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Independence is encouraged here. It is promoted in all activities. Staff have high expectations of what children can do and of how well they should behave. These expectations result in highly independent and confident children. They access all areas of the provision independently. They learn to be problem-solvers. Staff nurture the younger children. These young children learn how to do things confidently. Sharing is modelled and supported. Any disagreements are swiftly addressed with calm discussion and a smile.

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This is a school that does not stand still. Staff work as a team and continuously seek ways to improve the curriculum and provision for the children. Staff training is regular and supportive. There is great importance placed on staff’s well-being. The result of this is a team of staff who are proud to work at the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 4 July 2024

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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 April 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 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). 4 July 2024

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School details

Date of previous inspection 6 March 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Seaham Harbour Nursery School provides education for two-year-old children and three-to-four-year-old children in two separate buildings on the same site.  The school does not use any alternative provision.

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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 the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, the special educational needs coordinator and the designated safeguarding leads to discuss the quality of education, provision for children with SEND and safeguarding at the school.  The lead inspector met with members of the governing body, including the chair, and held a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority. 4 July 2024

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 Inspectors focused on how the school met the requirements of the early years foundation stage curriculum. They carried out deep dives into communication, language and literacy (including early reading); mathematics; and physical development, and focused on how the school supports children’s personal, social and emotional development. Inspectors also considered the school’s work in other areas of learning.  For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of learning sessions, spoke to teachers and talked to children about their activities and learning.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: 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 safeguarding that puts children’s interests first.  Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of documents, including those related to children’s

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behaviour and attendance.  Inspectors considered the responses to the online Ofsted Parent View survey, including the free-text comments, as well as responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey.

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Inspection team

Andrea Batley, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Deborah Ashcroft Ofsted Inspector 4 July 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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