Helen Gibson Nursery School

Helen Gibson Nursery School

Address: North Lane, East Boldon, Tyne and Wear, NE36 0DL Unique reference number (URN): 108663

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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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Attendance and behaviour Strong standard

Children attend well at this school. Leaders’ expectations for attendance are high. They check on attendance patterns and absences thoroughly. This ensures that any patterns of absence, such as children being absent every Friday, are picked up quickly. Leaders’ work to support parents and carers is highly impactful. It significantly reduces periods of absence. The importance of attendance is shared through newsletters, and parents are informed of their child’s attendance rate. Leaders ensure they make checks on children’s wellbeing if they are absent. Leaders make home visits a high priority, regardless of the reason for absence.

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Attendance and behaviour Strong standard

Leaders have the highest expectations for children’s behaviour. These are consistently modelled by leaders and staff across the day. Children rise to these ambitions. They play and learn together in harmony. Learning spaces both inside and outside are calm and well supervised. Leaders, with staff, check for incidents where behaviour does not meet these expectations carefully. Significant incidents are rare. Leaders provide prompt and effective support if needed. Leaders are highly responsive to any changes in the behaviours children may present. Leaders ensure children know how to show kindness to each other. This helps to protect children from discrimination and bullying.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Children benefit from a rich and wide set of experiences alongside a carefully considered curriculum linked to personal, social and emotional development. The school's work in this area is noteworthy. It is seen in children’s high levels of self-sufficiency, confidence and determination. When children join the school, leaders and staff instil important aspects of self-awareness and independence. Children have a clear understanding of what is right and wrong. The school sensitively helps children to understand how to give consent. Children learn how to say no when something does not feel right.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

There are warm and caring relationships between leaders, staff and children. This helps children feel safe and secure. The school’s focused work to help children understand their feelings is embedded in daily school life. Children confidently use feelings puppets to reflect and talk about each feeling. Children are supported effectively by staff to regulate their emotions. This means that it takes very little time to refocus children to their learning when needed.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

The school ensures children experience and live out fundamental British values each day. For example, children regularly vote on daily stories. The school's broad offer celebrating other cultures and religions helps children to respect difference. The school’s ‘sharing week’ enables children to share their interests with each other and learn about parent and carers’ careers. Children experience looking after a horse, for example, and engage in football training sessions from a female footballer.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders ensure that no child misses out on these diverse opportunities. They are accessible to all. Where needed, leaders ensure adaptations remove any potential barriers children may face. This carefully connected offer ensures that children thrive. It is seen in their

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Expected standard

attitudes to learning and the respect they have for each other and the adults that care for them.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children are well prepared for their next stages in learning. Typically, they achieve well from their starting points. They leave the school confident in basic skills such as communication and language and physical development. They talk with confidence to each other and staff about their discoveries and their interests. Children in the provision for 2-year-olds name animals, such as a rhinoceros and gorilla, with accuracy. They also respond positively to familiar songs and rhymes.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children, including those who are disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make notable progress in some areas of the curriculum. This includes their resilience, independence and emotional development. Children explain clearly the different feelings they might have and how they are feeling. Children at the early stages of communication use strategies to make their needs and interests known. Children make secure progress through the curriculum. On the whole, learning activities enable children to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in different ways.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Children benefit from a broad curriculum. It is suitably sequenced so that children can build the small steps of success in readiness for the Reception Year. The curriculum is progressive. Typically, it builds on learning that children have already encountered. It helps children to build fluency in their communication and language skills and strength in their fine and gross motor skills. Leaders and staff use regular checks on children’s development effectively to help them understand what children know and can do. Where needed, leaders and staff make pertinent adaptations to the curriculum to help children learn alongside their peers.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders understand the quality of the curriculum. They have rightly prioritised work to support children’s personal, social and emotional development. Staff demonstrate expertise in building resilience and independence in children. They intervene in a timely way across the school day to support children in this learning. For example, staff provide effective support for 2-year-old children to change into outdoor clothing with increasingly high levels of independence.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Children typically benefit from high-quality interactions with adults. However, sometimes these interactions do not enable children to extend or deepen their learning, or to make the most out of the activities they are engaged in.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders, along with staff, are suitably skilled to identify children’s needs accurately and swiftly. Their work to remove any barriers children may face begins before children join the school. Leaders make effective use of relationships, with parents and carers and other childcare providers, to ensure they get to know children quickly. This ensures children who join the school at different points in their development make a positive start.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders and staff have high expectations for all children. Leaders use their expertise, and that of other schools and professionals, to effectively support children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Typically, they seek advice and implement strategies to support children with their development in a timely way.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders, with staff, regularly review the progress children make through the curriculum. Staff regularly review any bespoke support that children receive. This helps leaders to understand the impact of this work. Communication and language strategies, such as visual timetables and visual symbols, benefit all children. Recent training, and additional resources to benefit children with sensory needs, help staff to effectively support children with these additional needs. Staff skilfully help children to regulate their emotions. The school's use of early years pupil premium funding is well matched to children’s needs.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders demonstrate a detailed understanding of the school’s context and how it has changed over time. They focus on the right areas for development. They understand where strengths and areas to develop lie across the school. Leaders are responsive to any changes in need or priorities. They support staff with further training where needed. This includes specific training for individuals as well as broader training for the whole team.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders model high expectations in all aspects of their work. They are diligent and focused on supporting children and staff. They make decisions in the best interests of children. There is a shared understanding across the whole team about what all children can achieve. Staff are proud to work at the school. They are well supported by leaders in a range of areas. Staff value this support and appreciate how their wellbeing is considered. Governors make checks on leaders’ workload.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Governors play an active part in the school community. Like the staff team, they understand the school, its children and community well. Governors fulfil their statutory duties effectively. On the whole, they provide challenge and support to leaders. Sometimes this work is not sufficiently focused on leaders’ priorities. It does not consistently provide assurances to the governors about the impact of leaders' work across the school.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

The school ensures parents and carers are fully involved in school life. They benefit from a range of opportunities to learn and play alongside their children. As a result, parents are highly positive about the school.

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

Children arrive happy and smiling at this caring and welcoming school. Children are supported by staff and leaders who know them well. Children feel a sense of belonging from the moment they start. It means they attend well and make the most of the school’s curriculum and wider opportunities.

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

Leaders and staff uphold high expectations for children’s behaviour. Children are carefully and considerately taught how to be kind, play well with each other and get along. They work and play together demonstrating kindness and respect to all. The school’s work on fostering independence and resilience is ever present. Children go about daily tasks with ease. For example, they take pride in helping prepare snack for their friends when they are the group leader for the day. It helps them achieve the school’s ambitions such as being a good friend and being confident.

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

Children make a bright start to their learning journey. Children, starting in the provision for 2- year-olds, play, explore and become learners who are inquisitive. Children engage positively with the school’s ambitious curriculum. Most staff ensure that children make the most of their learning opportunities. Interactions with staff help children practise their skills across the early years foundation stage areas of learning. As a result, children enjoy their learning. It helps them to be well prepared for their next stage of education.

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

Children delight in the school’s wider enrichment opportunities. Weekly planned outdoor learning in the on-site forest as well as new initiatives, such as yoga, help children learn in different ways.

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Next steps

Leaders should continue to develop and embed consistently high-quality interactions between adults and children so that children can make the most of planned learning activities and develop detailed skills and knowledge. Governors should ensure that they continue to embed approaches that enable them to provide robust challenge and support to the school across all areas of its work.

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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Georgia Jamieson.

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About this inspection

The school is part of a federation called The Early Years Nursery School Alliance.

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About this inspection

Inspectors carried out this full inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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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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Facts and figures used on inspection

This was the data available at the time of the full inspection, taken from different sources . More recent data may have been published since the full inspection took place.

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The inspector(s) used this data during the full inspection on 16 June 2026

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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?

Inspectors spoke with the executive headteacher, special educational needs coordinator and staff during the inspection. They considered the views of parents through Ofsted's parent view survey and speaking with them in person. Inspectors spoke with representatives from the local authority, the virtual school and the board of governors.

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What does this mean?

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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What does this mean?

The school does not use any alternative provision.

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What does this mean?

The school runs before- and after-school childcare provision for children up to the age of 11 years old.

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What does this mean?

Jenny Parker: Executive Headteacher 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 needs support 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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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

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Urgent improvement

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.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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