Stockingford Maintained Nursery School

Stockingford Maintained Nursery School

Address: St Paul's Road, Stockingford, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV10 8HW Unique reference number (URN): 125491

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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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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Children’s personal development and wellbeing are central to the school’s work. Leaders foster a caring and inclusive environment where children feel secure, appreciated and motivated to explore. Established routines are consistent and reassuring, helping children develop independence and engage positively in learning. The safety of the pupils, whatever they do, is of paramount importance.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

The school provides a well-considered and engaging personal development curriculum. Children learn about relationships, emotions and the importance of caring for themselves and others. Through a wide range of experiences, they develop confidence, cooperation and important social skills. Staff model respectful behaviour and positive communication, helping children learn to share, collaborate, take turns and resolve disagreements appropriately. Children’s understanding of the wider world is enhanced through visits beyond the setting and by welcoming visitors who share their knowledge and experiences. These opportunities enrich children’s learning and broaden their horizons. Parents and carers are encouraged to participate in sessions in the nursery to help them understand how their children learn, strengthening the positive partnership between home and school.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

The school actively supports children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through stories, cultural celebrations and opportunities to learn about different beliefs and traditions. Children are introduced to concepts such as kindness, respect and fairness, while also learning about the importance of making safe decisions. These messages are delivered in ways that are meaningful and accessible for young children, helping them develop an early understanding of personal safety and responsibility.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

Pastoral care is a strength of the setting. Staff build strong relationships with children and are highly responsive to their individual needs. As a result, children feel listened to and understood, enabling them to develop positive self-esteem and emotional resilience. They thrive in a nurturing environment that supports their personal growth and wellbeing.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children gain a range of knowledge and skills across different areas of learning. This includes beginning to hear sounds at the start of words, preparing them for formal phonics teaching when the time arrives. Children who are ready also develop a secure pencil grip, paving the way for the early writing skills that they will learn alongside phonics. Room leaders and skilled staff have a good understanding of the steps in early writing in the two year old provision. This sets the children on a pathway for success for the demands that they will be faced with later on. All rooms are literacy rich. This helps children to develop vital communication and language skills. Staff are skilled interactors. They know how to probe, improve and deepen responses and understanding through these as well as recognising when to sit back and observe children initiating their own learning and investigative learning.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Leaders create a warm, nurturing environment in which children feel safe, valued and ready to learn. Kind and caring staff set a positive example through the relationships they build and the respectful interactions they model every day. Children respond well to these. They behave beautifully throughout the day, demonstrating kindness, cooperation and consideration for others. If disagreements arise, children are supported to resolve them appropriately. They develop the skills they need to manage relationships successfully. Staff know the children well and are always close by to provide guidance and reassurance when needed. Clear and consistent routines help children understand expectations and develop increasing independence.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

The school is justifiably proud of the improvement in overall attendance over recent years. However, too many children continue to miss a significant amount of nursery education. Leaders do not yet analyse attendance information in sufficient depth to identify patterns, evaluate the effectiveness of actions taken, or secure the improvements needed for the most vulnerable children and persistent non-attenders. Consequently, governors do not receive the detailed information they need to fully understand attendance trends. While they are able to celebrate improvements, they are less well placed to challenge leaders on the effectiveness of strategies to improve attendance for those children who are absent too often.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders promote the philosophy that children's interests drive the curriculum and teaching. Staff in each room, ably supported by room leaders, know the children incredibly well. They plan activities that pique the children's interest. Interactions promote high quality interactions with communication and language underpinning everything that happens in the provision.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

However, assessments of what children can do are not as accurate as they could be. Occasionally, staff underestimate what some they can do and achieve. This impacts the starting points for some children's learning and affects the ambition that staff have for each child. Teaching does not always extend children's learning as far as it could to consistently challenge children to achieve what is expected for their age. This means that they are not always reaching their full potential.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The beautiful nursery environment enables and encourages children to explore and learn because it is well-organised and purposeful. There has been a recent focus on mathematical skills, including number, space and children's awareness of their own bodies in different spaces. This focus is evident in the language and vocabulary that is routinely used. Children develop the skills they need across different areas indoors and outdoors. Staff adapt learning for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities so that they can join in and make progress in their own way.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders are determined to identify children who have barriers to learning that have not already been identified by professionals prior to the children arriving in school. Staff use a wide range of approaches to reduce these barriers, including activities that support children to improve their body awareness and self-regulation.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The school works skilfully to address all children's needs. Staff understand children well and know which activities engage them with learning. They use what they know about the children's interests to plan these activities. This means that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are included in all that the nursery school has to offer. They learn alongside their peers, but receive well-judged, more intense specialist support when this is necessary. Children benefit from highly skilled staff who work closely with external professionals to ensure that children receive the right support at the right time. The school diligently ensures that children are placed in the correct setting when the time comes for them to leave Stockingford. Their determination to ensure that all children transition to the right setting for them is a positive aspect of their work.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The school supports disadvantaged children using additional funding, but the full impact of this is not analysed as well as it might be to ensure it secures the best possible outcomes.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have a clear and accurate understanding of the school’s unique context, recognising both its strengths and the areas where further development would enhance provision. They demonstrate expertise in effective early years pedagogy. The professional learning opportunities provided for staff reflect their commitment to continual improvement. This is evident in the quality of education children receive and the positive experiences they enjoy each day. Nevertheless, aspects of leadership oversight could be strengthened to ensure that all elements of the school’s work receive equally rigorous attention. In particular, record-keeping systems and the analysis of information is not as precise as it could be to identify where leaders' focus needs to be and to drive improvement. Leaders have not yet got consistent systems in place to assure them that assessments completed on entry and throughout children’s time in the setting are accurate, consistently checked, moderated and

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Dedicated governors understand their roles and fulfil their responsibilities. However, their ability to provide strategic challenge is occasionally limited because some of the information they receive focuses on headline figures and lacks the detail required for thorough analysis.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders work diligently to build positive, professional relationships with parents and carers and are highly regarded within the local community. Staff value the genuine kindness, care and compassion shown towards their wellbeing.

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

Children enjoy their time at this inclusive, nurturing nursery school. Staff work well with families. The priority to develop firm and lasting relationships starts before the children start school and continues throughout. Children arrive happily each day, settling into routines that they know and understand. If a child arrives but they are not quite ready to learn, they receive immediate support and care that helps them to settle. Relationships are a strength. Each child's key worker knows them very well and can tailor any support they might need to successfully tackle the day ahead. Children behave well. Structure, routine and clarity ensure that most pupils follow the rules that the nursery has established.

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

Children quickly start to recognise and understand their own emotions. Staff model the language of this. The children are introduced to different ways of sharing how they feel at different stages of development. They are taught to develop independence through choosing what they would like to eat as a snack and to indicate which drink they would prefer. Self- care is promoted effectively.

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

Children take part in all that the nursery has to offer. Some children are not ready to fully partake in activities in the largest room in 'big nursery'. For these children, a smaller, sensory room with staff who understand their needs well bridges this gap until they feel ready to join in with others. The forest school area is a highly positive addition to the nursery provision, where children learn to take risks, explore and investigate all that is on offer. Children show sustained interest and curiosity, whether this be using 'cement' in the tough tray to build walls following an external visitor to the setting, or searching for wildlife in the forest school. Everything has a purpose. As a result, most children are prepared for the next stage of education when the time comes.

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Next steps

Leaders should strengthen the monitoring of children's achievement across the curriculum to ensure that targets and subsequent support are effective in enabling all children to make the progress they are capable of from their individual starting points. Leaders should implement a consistent assessment cycle throughout the year so that teachers have an accurate understanding of children's knowledge, skills and understanding, enabling precise identification of starting points and next steps in learning for all groups of learners. Leaders should develop their evaluation and analytical skills so that they can accurately assess the school’s effectiveness across all aspects of its work and use this information to drive continual improvement. Leaders should improve systems for recording, monitoring and analysing both qualitative and quantitative information, including attendance, punctuality and pupil progress data.

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Next steps

Leaders should then analyse this information to drive further improvements across aspects of the school's work

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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 7 July 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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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Caroline Phillips.

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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 (HMI) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMI.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with the headteacher, the special educational needs coordinator (SENDCO) and four governors, including the chair. In addition they spoke with two representatives from the local authority during the inspection.

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About this inspection

The school currently uses no alternative provision.

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About this inspection

The school has undergone a significant change since the previous inspection. Both the headteacher and the SENDCO are new to post.

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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 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

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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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