Ashgate Nursery School

Ashgate Nursery School

Address: 18 Stepping Lane, Derby, Derbyshire, DE1 1GJ Unique reference number (URN): 112479

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, pupils are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect schools for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The school has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. All legal requirements are met. Not met: The school has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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This school requires special measures

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to provide an acceptable standard of education, and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Over time, teachers have been able to decide what to teach children, as well as how and when, without attention to the curriculum. In addition, children have had free reign to choose activities. Leaders have not helped teachers to develop the subject and curriculum knowledge that they need. These weaknesses have affected the teaching of core knowledge, such as stories, rhymes and songs and aspects of mathematics, negatively.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Teachers lack expert knowledge of how to check that children learn the curriculum. For example, staff identify suitable next steps for the learning of 2-year-olds, but teachers do not ensure that children catch up in their learning. Some staff, including teachers, miss opportunities to talk with children and build their knowledge of important words.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

The acting leadership team has taken the right steps to improve the curriculum and teaching. Pockets of successful teaching exist, such as when staff use and model language carefully with 2-year-old children. Some staff support individual children with special educational needs and/or disabilities suitably. The school’s acting leaders have designed an ambitious, logically ordered curriculum across all the areas of learning, which is aimed at building children’s readiness for the next stage of their learning.

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Inclusion Needs attention

Until recently, the school's oversight of its work to include all children, such as children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), has not been consistently effective. Some staff do not understand how to act early and then take a step-by-step approach to supporting children with SEND. This is because staff have not had suitable training to meet children's needs. Over time, the school has not ensured the inclusion of every child in all that it provides.

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Inclusion Needs attention

Acting leaders have started to take appropriate action to strengthen the school’s procedures for supporting all groups of children. Staff now give a daily focus to reducing the barriers that each individual child may face. For example, staff use reliable ways to assess and support disadvantaged children’s early communication and language. The new leadership team plans carefully how to spend additional funding to support disadvantaged children. It considers the impact of staff’s work and how well different children learn the curriculum. Acting leaders provide staff with effective guidance about supporting children. To improve the education of children in care, acting leaders link very well with the local authority.

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Urgent improvement

Acting leaders liaise with health, education, social care and the police when needed. Staff have recently received the training and guidance they need to help them find better ways to ensure that children feel that they belong at this school.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Until recently, children have not benefited from a deliberate and well-thought-out programme of opportunities to enhance their learning and foster their interests.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Over time, leaders have made activities available to children, such as playing musical instruments, dancing and taking part in drumming sessions with visitors to the school. Leaders have arranged trips for children, such as to Matlock and Cleethorpes.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Children have learned some wider aspects of safety, including about the work of the police. On occasion, staff have explained fundamental British values to children. Sometimes, children have learned about different cultures, faiths and related festivals, such as when some Hindus and other people celebrate Diwali. However, leaders have not made certain that these wide-ranging experiences cultivate children’s skills in a logical order. At times, some opportunities are left to chance.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Staff use some story books with children, but sometimes they do not think about how to use these resources efficiently, such as to avoid reinforcing stereotypes about the roles of women. Staff help children to understand the need for self-care. However, staff do not help children to learn about simple privacy, such as closing the toilet cubicle door.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Acting leaders work well with staff to help children to understand their own feelings. At snack time and lunchtime, acting leaders and staff ensure that children eat food safely. Staff also chat with children supportively, for example about which foods are healthy.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Acting leaders make sure that staff understand the importance of broadening children’s wider skills and knowledge through extra activities, including for disadvantaged children. Acting leaders make certain that all children benefit from the school's provision, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Acting leaders have redesigned the school’s personal development curriculum thoughtfully. They have a clear and ambitious plan of how they will soon introduce this amended approach.

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Achievement Urgent improvement

There are significant weaknesses in what children know, understand and can do. They are not ready for primary school. Leaders and teachers have not acted on some children’s needs and starting points. Many children do not build important habits, such as motivation, persistence and problem-solving, to help their learning for the long term. They lack knowledge of core aspects of reading, talking, writing and mathematics, which they need to access other areas of learning. Children do not know enough songs, stories and rhymes because teachers have not focused on teaching these over time. Children make little progress through the curriculum.

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Achievement Urgent improvement

Some children with special educational needs and/or disabilities achieve adequately from their starting points because of better individual help from some staff. Despite the improvements in the curriculum, it is too early to evaluate the impact of this work on on children’s achievement.

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Attendance and behaviour Urgent improvement

Due to low expectations over time, many children lack self-discipline and show poor attitudes to learning. They often ignore staff’s requests or guidance or say no to staff. These weaknesses interrupt the flow of children’s learning.

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Attendance and behaviour Urgent improvement

Acting leaders have started to act to re-establish a culture of positive behaviour. They know how to deal with bullying and prejudiced behaviour by children, if it arose. When necessary, acting leaders help staff to support the behaviour of any child with special educational needs and/or disabilities. However, weaknesses in the systems to promote children's positive behaviour are deeply rooted and, as such, unresolved.

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Attendance and behaviour Urgent improvement

Leaders have not ensured that children attend school regularly, nor have they taken children's absences seriously. However, due to acting leaders’ high expectations, productive work with parents and carers and clear actions, this situation has improved. Many children now attend school often. Acting leaders review patterns of attendance carefully to ensure that they can act, where needed.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

The quality of the school’s work has deteriorated to a low ebb. Over time, it has not operated effectively and it has become isolated from links with outside professionals. These shortcomings have had a widespread and negative impact. The school has not provided children with an acceptable standard of education.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

The support and professional training needs of staff have been neglected. Staff report that they have felt unable to speak openly about what they feel needs changing. They have had long-standing concerns about their work, including their workload. Staff's wellbeing has plummeted. The work of the school needs substantial expert help in order to build the capacity for improvement.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Acting leaders, who bring proven expertise to their roles, understand the school’s strengths and weaknesses. They act in the best interests of children, including to ensure that they remain safe. There are early, positive signs of improvement, for instance the quality of the curriculum and teaching has improved. Staff feel heard, respected and supported. They want to play their part in the changes that are happening.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

In support of the school’s long-term improvement, the local authority has established interim governance in place of the governing body, which no longer exists. The interim board has now met for the first time and demonstrates determination to help the school to improve as much as it can.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Over time, children’s achievement and behaviour have declined. Both are poor. Until recently, children’s attendance rates have been low. Staff have not received the training, guidance or support that they need to fulfil their roles. In addition, staff have not benefited from a workplace that helps them to be successful and feel respected.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Some children learn the curriculum successfully. In contrast, sometimes, the ways that leaders help teachers and other staff to include children are unsuccessful. This affects children’s learning, particularly for some disadvantaged children. Teachers provide children with suitable personal development experiences. At times, children learn about the diverse world of modern Britain. Children access a range of extra activities, but these opportunities are not well thought out.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Permanent leaders are unable to resolve the school's difficulties on their own. Acting leaders, from outside of the school, have been appointed to help put matters right. However, the school relies too heavily on the assistance of these independent experts to function successfully. Acting leaders have made wise decisions to improve the quality of education and to ensure that children remain safe. The quality of teaching has improved. However, it is too soon to verify the full impact of this work on how well children remember essential knowledge.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Staff and acting leaders understand that they have much more to do to improve the school’s work. They are wholly committed to this important journey. Staff are kind. They are interested in children and want to support them to learn successfully. Staff, especially those working with 2-year-olds, know the needs of individual children in their allocated groups well. Teachers and teaching assistants deal with bullying effectively. Children enjoy school because of the friendly staff. Children like the range of resources, activities and learning spaces, including outdoors.

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Next steps

Leaders must make certain that staff help children to manage their own behaviour and feelings, focus their attention and follow staff’s expectations and instructions. Leaders must ensure that teaching and assessment of the curriculum, including using songs, rhymes, books and stories, build children’s learning habits and behaviours as well as securing essential foundational knowledge. This is so that all 2- to 4-year-olds can take part in learning activities successfully, achieve well and be ready for primary school. Leaders and those responsible for governance must ensure that the school builds on its recent improvements and that leadership at all levels has the capacity to improve the school’s work, without being overly reliant on outside help. Leaders should retain their high expectations of attendance and sharp focus on its improvement, so that all children benefit from attending school as much as they should.

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Next steps

Leaders should ensure that they and staff identify the needs of children quickly and accurately, including any emerging or changing needs. They should continue to have a sharp focus on supporting children who may face obstacles to their learning, such as those with special educational needs and/or disabilities or disadvantaged children. Leaders should build on their recent actions to strengthen staff's skills, confidence and knowledge to teach and support children, including ensuring that staff understand the role of explicit teaching to introduce children to new knowledge. Leaders should ensure that their new programme for children’s personal development and wellbeing builds children’s wider skills successfully and that leaders are assured that all children take part in, and benefit from, the school’s provision.

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About this inspection

At present, the school does not have a governing body. The school's governance is provided by an interim board organised by the local authority. The chair of the interim board is Jason Coupland.

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About this inspection

Inspectors carried out this inspection under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We decided to treat the inspection as a full inspection under section 5 of the same act.

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About this inspection

The inspection began on 3 March 2026 as a focused monitoring inspection. The inspection was deemed a full inspection. As a full inspection requires more time to complete than a focused monitoring inspection, we returned on 4 March 2026 to complete the full inspection. The focused monitoring inspection was carried out following serious concerns raised to Ofsted. His Majesty’s Chief Inspector decided that an inspection of the school should take place to follow up the whole-school issues that were raised. Inspectors sought to establish whether safeguarding was effective and whether leadership and governance were fulfilling statutory requirements.

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About this inspection

Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

The school is part of a federation called Central Community and Ashgate Nursery Schools' Federation.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with the acting executive headteacher and the acting head of school, a representative of the local authority and the chair of the school's interim board of governance. Inspectors met with several staff, and spoke with parents and carers and children. Inspectors checked a wide range of the school’s policies, plans and documents, including on attendance, behaviour and safeguarding. They visited each classroom and the outdoor area to observe teaching and staff’s support for children.

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Team inspectors:

Emma Tayler, Ofsted Inspector Peter Stonier, His Majesty's Inspector

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The data was used by the inspector(s) during the inspection. More recent data may have been published since the inspection took place.

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64

Inspectors considered responses from staff to an Ofsted survey and parental comments in Ofsted Parent View.

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In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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64

The school may not appoint early career teachers before the next monitoring inspection. The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be considered again during any monitoring inspection we carry out.

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64

Inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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An executive headteacher has been in post since December 2025. In addition, an acting head of school was appointed in February 2026.

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The headteacher and the coordinator for special educational needs and/or disabilities were not at work at the time of the inspection.

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The school does not use any alternative provision for children.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils currently at this school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan. This covers pupils with more support than is available through special educational needs support.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with reported special educational support needs at the school.

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What does this mean?

Based on the English Indices of Deprivation (2019) and the school's location, we have calculated whether the school is located in a more or less deprived area.

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What does this mean?

Whether school has Resourced Provision or SEND unit (if applicable).

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other schools can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The school reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The school is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The school needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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