Edith Cadbury Nursery School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Edith Cadbury Nursery School Somerford Road, Weoley Castle, Birmingham, West Midlands B29 5LB

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Outcome

Evidence gathered during this ungraded (section 8) inspection suggests that aspects of the school’s work may not be as strong as at the time of the previous inspection. The school’s next inspection will be a graded inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Edith Cadbury Nursery offers a warm and friendly welcome to all. The pleasant environment is calm and purposeful, which enables children to settle quickly. Children are happy and confident. They behave well and play nicely together. Relationships between staff and children are respectful and positive. Children feel safe to express themselves because staff are kind and caring towards them. This means that if children feel unsure, staff respond quickly by offering comfort and care.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children make good use of the extensive outdoor provision and explore with interest through their daily activities, in particular within the wooded outdoor provision and nature area. Leaders and staff in school know the children and their families well. Parents and carers say that the school has an open-door approach and offers support and understanding when needed.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children with more complex needs are well cared for. However, some children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do not have the specific targets set to meet their stage of development or individual needs. This means that adults are not clear about the focus for their learning or precise enough about the learning opportunities they offer.

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

The school has created a calm space for those who need additional support. Staff quickly get to know their children and support them to become more independent. The school identifies children with SEND in order to meet their needs. However, the school does not ensure that the specific support some children require is clearly communicated to staff. This means it is difficult to check how well these children are progressing or ensure that 1 April 2025

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support is consistently adapted to meet their needs. As a result, children are not being provided with sufficient opportunities to work towards appropriate targets.

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The school has developed an ambitious curriculum. The long-term approach sets out the expectations and intended outcomes for each age group. There are clear ways to check on children’s learning, aligned with the milestones in the curriculum for each term. Children learn the routines that help them to become independent around the classroom. They choose and access a range of resources during free-flow sessions. All children have daily opportunities to be outside and learn through purposeful play.

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Children are taught the early skills for reading within key groups. They are encouraged to listen to the sounds and recognise rhythm and rhyme. Leaders have chosen core books that focus on communication and language. In addition, teaching supports the pre- reading skills needed for the next stage of learning.

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The school wants children to be ‘fascinated’ by books and numbers. To achieve this, adults model reading to children. Parents are invited to attend a weekly morning stay- and-play session, where they can choose a storybook with their child. Across the early years environment, all areas of the curriculum, including reading and mathematics, support learning because resources are organised effectively to encourage independence and play.

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Communication and language development is promoted throughout the day. Adults talk to children, however they do not always encourage them to expand on their contributions. In some areas of learning, the use of open-ended questions is limited, which means that talk is not being extended for children.

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Staff know the children well and encourage them to develop their character. During the day, staff create moments of awe and wonder, often through outdoor exploration and activities designed to develop children’s attention and focus. Children are excited by the learning explored, for example when they found worms and then dug homes for them.

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Staff are proud to work at the school and appreciate that leaders take their workload into consideration when implementing any changes. School leaders, including governors, understand the strategic approach and the priorities it is working towards. However, their monitoring of its impact is not precise enough. As a result, the school is not clear about whether the areas it has chosen to develop are improving or not.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 1 April 2025

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(information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school has not ensured that children with SEND are provided with the support they need. As a result, children with SEND do not achieve as well as they could. The school should ensure that the support required for children with SEND is identified and communicated to all staff to enable them to provide the right support.  The school has not ensured that communication and language development is embedded in everyday practice. This limits how well children develop their communication skills. The school should ensure that all staff understand how to support children’s communication and language development throughout all learning activities.  The school does not monitor the school improvement priorities closely enough. As a result, it does not have a precise enough understanding of what is working well and where further improvements are required. The school should ensure that there is a closer oversight of whether school improvement actions are having the impact needed

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Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted’s website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

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Background

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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’s work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in February 2020. 1 April 2025

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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). 1 April 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 4 and 5 February 2020, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not use alternative provision.  This is a nursery school offering provision for two-, three- and four-year-olds.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation 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.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  We held a variety of meetings with senior leaders and staff. We observed sessions and activities in the nursery. 1 April 2025

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 We considered the school’s strategic documents and improvement priorities. We looked at responses from Ofsted’s online survey for parents, Ofsted Parent View, and Ofsted’s staff survey. We spoke to parents and met with the staff team.  We focused on communication and language, early reading, mathematics and personal, social and emotional development to gather evidence.  We looked at a range of documentation, including school policies, safeguarding information and staff recruitment checks. The inspectors looked at the school website.

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Inspection team

Debra Newman, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Rebecca Cox Ofsted Inspector 1 April 2025

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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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