Duke Street Nursery School

Inspection of an outstanding school: Duke Street Nursery School Duke Street, Chorley, Lancashire PR7 3DU

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Outcome

Duke Street Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is an incredibly happy school in which children feel safe and thrive. Each child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), is welcomed, accepted and valued by the expert staff. Children find that staff are deeply and genuinely interested in their opinions and ideas. Staff treat children as important people. Children learn that they can ask questions, such as what inspectors were doing at the school and why.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is calm and peaceful, as well as being full of play and conversation. Children become keen to explore and experiment because staff skilfully support and extend their thinking. They are inspired by their time at the school and become eager to learn even more.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s highly successful focus on behaviour begins in the classroom for two-year- olds, where staff capably guide children on how to manage their own feelings and behaviour. Children become kind, cooperative and thoughtful. Should the need arise, staff give children gentle reminders about the school’s rules. Children’s behaviour is exemplary.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children develop a rich array of important foundational knowledge from their learning activities. They achieve highly because of the school’s high expectations. Children are very well prepared to continue their education at primary school.

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

For more than two decades the school has provided an excellent education for children. Its work continues to be first-rate. This is because leaders, governors and staff use their deep understanding of early years education to continuously refine the school’s provision. Staff enthuse children about their learning. Children develop an impressive wealth of knowledge, such as about stories, songs, numbers and the features of the world around them. 4 July 2024

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The school strives to include children, such as those with SEND, in all that it does. It seizes every opportunity to help each child excel in their learning of its curriculum. At the earliest possible time, the school identifies the needs of children with SEND. It acts swiftly to ensure that children receive the support that they need for their development and learning. As a result, children with SEND flourish while at the school.

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Staff, such as those in a key person role, know the needs, interests and development stage of their group of children deeply. Staff understand how well each child is learning the school’s curriculum. The school ensures that staff revisit and deepen key learning with children when needed. Children build new knowledge securely. They understand how to independently continue their learning.

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The school ensures that its curriculum helps children to communicate and use language remarkably well. The school’s curricular thinking draws on up-to-date educational research and its own investigations into what works well when educating children. As a result, children blossom in their communication skills. Many children build a rich understanding of important words to use when talking to each other and to adults.

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Books, songs and rhymes are central to daily life at the school. Staff think very carefully about which stories to read to children and when they should do so. Children remember many rhymes, such as ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’ and ‘London Bridge’, because of the frequent, meaningful ways that staff sing with them. Starting in the classroom for two-year-olds, children benefit from multiple opportunities to read books independently and with staff. Children understand the joy that words and the sharing of stories and songs can bring.

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The school ensures that children’s learning is meaningful. Its attention to detail means that classrooms and outdoor learning areas are enticing, fascinating places in which to learn. Children are deeply involved in the learning opportunities that the school provides. They behave impressively well.

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The school caters exceptionally well for children’s wider development. It makes sure that children learn about their own family and heritage as well as that of other children. To help children to learn about the wider world, the school organises valuable extra experiences, such as when a local farm came to visit. These experiences benefit children, including two-year-olds, exceptionally well in their language and thinking.

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The school explains children’s education thoughtfully to parents and carers. It also supports parents’ own well-being and parenting skills. It helps them to understand the importance of children’s attendance at school. Many parents told inspectors how impressed they are with the school’s work.

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Governors use their expertise to challenge and support the school very effectively. Part of the school’s continuing success is its genuine focus on supporting staff. It considers staff’s well-being carefully and acts to reduce their workload. Staff benefit greatly from the training that the school provides. They enjoy their work with the children immensely. 4 July 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 December 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). 4 July 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Headteacher Sue Conron (Executive Headteacher)

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School details

Date of previous inspection 27 March 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school includes a classroom for two-year-old children.  The school provides some breakfast club places for children.  The school does not use alternative provision for children.  The school is federated with another local school. An executive headteacher and one governing body are responsible for both schools.  At the time of the inspection, the executive headteacher was absent and an acting executive headteacher was leading the school. The assistant headteacher was the acting head of school.

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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. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors spoke with the school to discuss its work, including the identification and 4 July 2024

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support of children with SEND and its support for children’s behaviour and attendance.  The inspectors completed deep dives in communication and language, mathematics and personal, social and emotional development. They visited activities that involved these and some other areas of learning. Inspectors spoke with the school about its curriculum. They spoke with some children about their learning.  The inspectors spoke with staff about working at the school and reviewed the responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey.  There were no responses to Ofsted’s survey for children.  The inspectors considered responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments. An inspector spoke with some parents at the start of the school day.  The lead inspector met with some members of the governing body, including the chair of governors.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors reviewed the single

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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.

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Inspection team

Tim Vaughan, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Sandra Hamilton 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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