Sketchley Hill Menphys Nursery School, Burbage

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Sketchley Hill Menphys Nursery School, Burbage Sketchley Road, Burbage, Hinckley, Leicestershire LE10 2DY

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Outcome

Sketchley Hill Menphys Nursery School, Burbage has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a happy school. Staff know children exceptionally well. They provide high levels of care right from the moment children walk through the door at the start of the school day. Each child is greeted warmly. Children show excitement as they walk hand in hand with their key worker to their classrooms to start learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s ambition for children to achieve well is realised. Developing children’s communication skills is at the heart of this work. The school shows great determination to find the right communication tool for each child. Children apply these methods effectively to have a say and make choices. They use a range of strategies to communicate in different situations successfully, for example when selecting a healthy snack.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Keeping children safe comes first. Staff use a vast array of strategies to help children to manage their feelings and behave well. They notice when children become agitated and draw on their skills to find a solution to the problem the child is experiencing. Children know the school routines well. They know it is time to stop the activity when the ‘tidy up’ song is played. Staff use visual cues to make sure that children know what is happening next. This all makes for a calm and purposeful learning environment.

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

The school has developed a broad and balanced curriculum that clearly sets out the skills and knowledge that children should acquire. This is underpinned by the school’s ethos of ‘helping every star to shine’. The curriculum is personalised for each child. Staff know and understand the complex special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) of each 29 April 2025

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child. They provide specialist interventions to meet the needs of children. For example, they support children’s sensory needs using massage as they tell stories.

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Staff regularly check that children are making progress through the curriculum. They set targets for children that identify the next steps each child needs to make. Throughout the day, staff provide purposeful activities for children, such as messy, imaginative and outdoor play. Children enjoy experimenting with paint, pretending to play ‘doctors’ and using the water spray bottles on the warm day of the inspection. However, there are occasions when the activities provided do not help children to build their learning up in a logical order or deepen their understanding over time.

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The school day is filled with songs, rhymes and stories. Children have plenty of opportunities to experience the joy of books. Children engage in early reading experiences by looking at books and being read to. Over time, children may progress to choosing their own favourite stories and rhymes and repeating words and phrases from familiar stories.

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Children’s behaviour is positive. Staff kindly and gently insist that they follow instructions. When children are reluctant to engage in their learning, staff have a vast range of strategies at their fingertips to encourage children to join in. Staff record behaviour incidents. Nevertheless, there is more for the school to do to ensure that all incidents are coded accurately and recorded with sufficient detail.

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The school ensures that parents and carers understand the value of children attending well. It has effective systems in place to monitor attendance and engages with families to provide support when this is needed.

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The school provides a strong personal development offer that prepares children well for the next stage in their education. Children benefit from the opportunities they are provided to develop greater resilience and confidence. They learn to use key words such as ‘no’, ‘stop’ and ‘don’t like’ to keep themselves safe. Toys and books help children to begin to understand concepts they may find difficult, such as diversity, inclusion and healthy relationships. The school works closely with parents. It provides workshops to support parents to manage their children’s sleep patterns, diet and behaviour at home. Parents are deeply appreciative of the personal relationships the school has established with them. They describe the many positive changes they have seen in their children since joining the school. One parent summed up the views of many, saying, ‘I truly believe the school has been the biggest factor in my child’s development.’

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Governors understand the school’s unique context. They demonstrate great wisdom and skill in the support and challenge they provide. Staff unanimously enjoy working at the school and report that their workload and well-being are considered. They appreciate the high levels of support that leaders provide. They describe the school as ‘a special place’.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 29 April 2025

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Occasionally, the sequence of learning activities that staff provide for children lacks clarity. It is not consistently clear how the school intends for children’s knowledge to deepen over time. The school should ensure that staff have the skills they need to refine the activities they provide for children to help them to build their knowledge in a logical order.  Some elements of the school’s oversight and recording of children’s behaviour require further development. Leaders cannot consistently analyse children’s behaviour with sufficient precision. The school should ensure that these systems are fully in place and that the information provided is used by leaders to provide a fuller picture of children’s behaviour.

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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 October 2019.

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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. 29 April 2025

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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). 29 April 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body John Harrison and Robert Martin (co-chairs)

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 22 and 23 October 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher at this school also leads Wigston Menphys Nursery School. Both schools share the same governing body.  The school offers provision for two-year-old children.  Children who attend the school have complex needs, including communication difficulties. A significant number of pupils have an education, health and care plan.  Some pupils are dual registered. They attend this school as well as another setting.  The school does not make use of any alternative provision.

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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. 29 April 2025

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 Inspectors met with the headteacher and the senior teacher to discuss the curriculum and other aspects of the school’s work.  The lead inspector met with three members of the governing body and held a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors visited a range of lessons and interventions provided by the school to support children’s learning.  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.  Inspectors spoke to staff to gather their views about the school and considered the responses to the online staff survey.  Inspectors met with parents at the start of the school day and evaluated their responses to Ofsted’s online survey, including free-text comments.

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Inspection team

Caroline Poole, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Emma Tayler Ofsted Inspector 29 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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