Horsham Nursery School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Horsham Nursery School Harwood Road, Horsham, West Sussex RH13 5UT

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Outcome

Horsham Nursery School 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?

Children enjoy coming to Horsham Nursery School. They are inspired and engaged by the wide range of activities and experiences on offer to them. The nursery is a hive of happy, purposeful activity. Carefully chosen resources help children to extend their play, skills and confidence successfully across all areas of learning. Children enjoy learning about the world around them through regular trips, for example to the nearby duck pond.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children develop nurturing relationships with adults who know them well. Staff model kind, polite language and children typically mirror this. Mostly, children behave well. They say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and take turns when playing games. If children find being together or sharing difficult, staff gently guide them so that play is generally harmonious. As a result, the nursery is a happy place where children feel safe and secure.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school develops strong relationships with families from the moment children start Nursery. Parents and carers are positive about the provision. They appreciate the care and kindness that help their children to feel comfortable, secure and make progress. A parent summed this up by saying, ‘Our child goes in happily each day and shares with excitement all the things she does.’

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

The school is ambitious for all children. Every child is welcome. Leaders and staff are passionate about including and supporting each child to give them the very best start. Staff work closely with parents and, where necessary, other agencies to fully understand children’s needs. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have their needs quickly identified. 20 May 2025

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The school has carefully created an ambitious and well-structured curriculum. Small steps help children, including those with SEND, to grow in both confidence and knowledge. A new system has been developed to help staff check that all children are on track and moving towards long term goals. In focussed group time, staff use this knowledge well to check what children know and need, and to move them on. Occasionally, this knowledge is not used so well at other times across the setting. Sometimes, some staff do not adapt learning activities to help children progress through the curriculum as well as they could. Leaders are providing staff with ongoing training and support to help develop their expertise in this area.

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Children are provided with a rich learning environment that is expertly developed to be full of interesting opportunities for play and exploration, inside and outside. The curriculum promotes curiosity and is highly engaging for children, who are immersed in activities such as exploring colour mixing or developing their fine and gross motors skills while making bubbles. Children develop early writing skills through, for example, writing their names in a tray full of glitter. They explore numbers well through both play and group sessions.

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Communication and language development is at the heart of the provision. New vocabulary is carefully introduced around children’s interests. For example, children learning about eggs and hatching carefully considered the noise a baby duckling makes inside an egg, and they learned the term ‘pipping’. Those children who need help in communicating are supported by picture prompts or sign language. A love of books and stories is promoted right from the start. Children relish the stories, rhymes and songs that are much loved parts of their day. They often choose to share books with adults or each other in the well-stocked inviting book areas.

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Children’s personal, social and emotional development is carefully considered and threaded through the provision. Staff support children when they need it, while encouraging children to develop appropriate levels of independence. Children develop resilience and perseverance in their woodland sessions, where they use natural materials to make paint brushes and learn to handle tools safely.

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The behaviour policy sets out clear guidelines for managing and supporting behaviour. Mostly, this is well used by staff, but not always consistently. This means some children are not always acquiring important learning behaviours. Children do, however, learn how to identify and manage their emotions. Staff quickly spot if children are overwhelmed, tired or hungry. They provide a high standard of care. Children benefit from establishing regular patterns of good attendance in readiness for starting primary school.

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The school makes sure that staff’s workload and well-being are considered as part of any developments. Staff feel fully involved, listened to and valued. Governors fulfil their responsibilities. They work effectively with the school so that everyone is united in striving for the best for children. 20 May 2025

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Occasionally, the school does not ensure child-initiated activities are adapted to focus on children’s individual needs. This means that children do not always benefit from these sessions to secure the important knowledge and skills they are taught. The school should ensure that all staff have the expertise to use their knowledge of children’s development needs precisely to help children build on their existing skills and knowledge.  Sometimes, some staff do not support children in line with the school’s agreed approaches to behaviour. This means that, occasionally, some children do not always experience consistency and find it difficult to learn important learning behaviours. The school should continue to ensure that all staff have the knowledge and skill to apply the approaches that are laid out.

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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 third ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in April 2012. 20 May 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). 20 May 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 06 November 2019 under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher joined the school in 2021.  The school includes a specialist support centre for up to 16 children with specific, significant speech and language needs.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.  The school offers breakfast and after-school care.

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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. The inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  During the inspection, the inspectors met with a range of school staff. The lead inspector held regular update meetings with leaders. The lead inspector also met with 20 May 2025

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representatives of the governing body, including the chair of governors, and had a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority.  The inspectors visited a sample of sessions across the setting, observing children in group and child-initiated sessions both inside and outside.  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.  The inspectors reviewed responses to Ofsted’s parent, pupil and staff surveys and spoke to some parents at the school gate.  The inspectors talked to staff to gather their views about the school, including their workload and well-being.

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Inspection team

Deborah Perkins, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Claire Martin-O’Donoghue Ofsted Inspector 20 May 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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