Rothesay Nursery School

Rothesay Nursery School

Address: 59 Rothesay Road, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 1RB Unique reference number (URN): 109419

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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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Achievement Expected standard

Children typically secure the knowledge that they need to be ready for their next steps in learning. They progress well from their starting points, including children who are disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children, including those who speak English as an additional language, develop their communication and language skills effectively. They generally remember their learning and apply it during independent play. For example, children compare the food they have for their snacks and talk about their favourite fruits. They use their imagination and creativity to recreate stories. Children successfully develop their self-care skills, with a large majority becoming toilet trained and confident in readiness for primary school.

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Achievement Expected standard

Overall, children usually learn well, and gaps in their learning close over time. However, some children do not develop their knowledge across all areas of learning as well as they could. This is because staff do not yet have a secure understanding of the curriculum or how to support children to build on what they already know.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Leaders work closely with parents, carers and external professionals, when needed, to instil positive attendance habits. They help parents to understand the importance of early education and to access services in the community to improve attendance. Leaders carefully monitor children’s attendance levels. They understand the reasons for absence and provide appropriate support for families. This largely secures improvements, enabling children to benefit from regular attendance. Children are positive about coming to school. They enter happily each day, often with smiles on their faces and enthusiasm for learning.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Leaders and staff work together to create a positive and calm learning environment. They promote kindness and care. Children mostly follow staff’s expectations well. Routines and expectations are generally embedded. The environment is calm and orderly. Children learn to share resources and play cooperatively alongside their peers. Occasionally, children need reminders about positive behaviour, but they quickly make the right choices. Staff address any unkindness or bullying promptly. Staff have nurturing relationships with children. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those facing barriers to learning, receive effective support to understand rules and expectations. As a result, children are increasingly able to manage their own feelings and emotions.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders promote an inclusive environment, where children's needs are identified and supported. Well-established systems enable staff to identify and meet children’s needs at an early stage. Staff work with parents and professionals to identify barriers to learning. Leaders and staff work closely together to review children's individual care and education plans. They ensure the support in place remains effective. Staff access training and advice to help them learn how to manage children's individual needs effectively. For example, staff skilfully adapt language for children at different stages of language development. This helps children to generally settle well and feel secure. The specialist language provision and targeted interventions help children progress from their starting points.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff know children well. They adapt learning strategies to meet their needs. Leaders and staff ensure children and families are warmly welcomed, involved and included, especially for those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and who face barriers to their learning and development.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders use additional funding effectively to enhance children's learning and experiences. For example, they provide specialist speech and language support, which is having a positive impact on children's communication skills and readiness to learn. Leaders also offer effective support for families to enable them to access support from the community.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders provide a well-considered programme to foster children’s personal, social and emotional development. This results in effective support for all children throughout the day. The school’s provision of pastoral care is well considered, particularly for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, ensuring that they receive support whenever needed. The school’s approach enables staff to give children the maximum opportunity to settle, feel good about themselves and be ready for learning.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff focus on developing children’s independence and resilience. For example, children hang up their own coats and prepare the snack table in the classroom. They learn how to be healthy and understand the importance of good oral hygiene through daily toothbrushing sessions. Children also learn how to stay safe outside of school. They learn about people who can help them, such as police officers.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Children have many opportunities to explore the world around them. They feel safe and valued. As a result, they grow in confidence over time and learn to recognise the difference between right and wrong, manage their own emotions and resolve conflicts with others. Children gain an age-appropriate understanding of fundamental British values. They learn about differences between themselves and others. For example, they vote for their story book at the end of the day, helping them to develop an understanding of democracy and respect for the views of others.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders ensure that all children benefit from the school’s personal development offer and wider experiences. The school promotes children’s understanding of different faiths and cultures through regular events and celebrations, such as Chinese New Year, Eid, Easter and cultural celebration days, which help to foster a strong sense of community. Leaders make these experiences meaningful by incorporating flags, traditional clothing, shared food and culturally relevant resources, such as prayer mats and card-making activities linked to significant events. These experiences help children to develop respect, curiosity and cultural awareness.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Leaders have a clear vision to strengthen the curriculum, however, this is in the early stages of development. Leaders have set out clear end points in the curriculum but have not yet set out the detail to ensure that children build on what they already know and can do. This means that children are achieving well as staff know what the outcome needs to be. However, there is not consistency to how staff plan and organise learning for children. This means that some children get a varied experience.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff support children to develop an interest in early literacy. For instance, children work closely with adults to share stories and mark make. At these times, children focus well and are proud of their achievements following staff praise. Staff read to children in a way that captures their attention. Children listen with interest and look at books independently. They are developing a love of stories and handle books with care.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff understand how children learn. They provide learning activities to develop children’s understanding across the curriculum. They typically interact well with children to develop their thinking and language skills. For example, staff model words such as ‘post, shake’ and ‘next one’, when posting objects. However, at times, staff are less clear on the specific knowledge and vocabulary that children should develop and practise during their play. This means that children do not consistently learn as well as they could.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Governors demonstrate a commitment to their responsibilities and are supportive of school leaders. However, they do not yet have a sufficiently detailed understanding of the school's priorities, areas for development, or the impact of leaders’ actions. As a result, governance lacks the strategic oversight and challenge required to effectively hold leaders to account.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders take appropriate actions to address the areas they have identified for improvement. For example, leaders place a sharp emphasis on continuing to refine the curriculum so that it builds on what children already know and can do, although this work is still in its early stages. Typically, leaders act thoughtfully and place children's best interests, particularly those who are more vulnerable, at the centre of their decision-making.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders carefully consider the wellbeing and workload of staff. They model respect and listen to others. Staff benefit from a wide range of professional development opportunities and report feeling well supported. High-quality training has contributed to strengths in vocabulary development and personal, social and emotional development. However, further training is needed to strengthen staff understanding of curriculum sequencing and how knowledge is built progressively over time.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

The school is an important part of the local community. Leaders prioritise developing effective partnerships with external agencies, parents and carers. Parents are positive about the school and appreciate the support that leaders provide.

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

Children enjoy attending this welcoming nursery. They arrive happily each morning. Staff speak kindly to children and value their individual characters. This helps children to feel valued and develop a sense of belonging. Children are settled, confident and eager to learn. Staff greet children and their families warmly on arrival, helping them to feel safe and secure. Children engage quickly in a variety of age-appropriate activities. Familiar routines support children's independence, emotional wellbeing and understanding of what will happen next.

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

Typically, children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face barriers to their learning, are supported well overall. Staff identify children who face barriers to learning at an early stage. They work closely with families and other professionals to provide targeted support. As a result, children make progress from their starting points. Children are well prepared for the next stage of their learning.

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

Children enjoy their learning. They are curious and inquisitive learners, who explore the world around them with interest. For instance, they enthusiastically investigate ice and experiment with colour mixing. Children are confident communicators. They enjoy listening to stories and learning new words. They chat happily with staff, share their ideas and join in conversations during play and daily routines.

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

Generally, children behave well and demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. They play kindly and cooperatively with others. Minor disagreements are managed appropriately. Children respond well to gentle guidance from staff. Staff quickly address any rare incidents of unkindness or bullying. Children learn about different emotions and how to manage their own feelings.

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

Children benefit from a range of activities that develop their interests and talents. They take part in activities with visitors to the nursery that help them to understand the world around them. For example, a visit from the local police helps children to understand the purpose of sirens and why they are important to where they live.

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Next steps

Leaders should continue to refine and sequence the curriculum so that it clearly identifies the essential knowledge children need to learn at each stage, providing staff with greater clarity about what to teach, when to teach it and how learning builds progressively over time to secure strong progression for all pupils. Leaders need to assure themselves that the curriculum is being implemented as intended and that pupils are making progress in their knowledge and understanding across the curriculum Governors need to support and challenge leaders effectively to drive school improvement and assure themselves of the quality and impact 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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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Jonathan Lodge .

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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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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, staff and pupils during the inspection. The lead inspector spoke with representatives of the governing body, including the chair of governors and of the local authority.

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About this inspection

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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About this inspection

The school includes a special educational needs provision for up to 20 children with speech, language and communication needs.

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About this inspection

The school currently uses no alternative provision.

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About this inspection

At the time of the inspection, there were 120 children on roll.

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About this inspection

Headteacher : Nicola Elsmore-Cary 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 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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What does this mean?

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

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What does this mean?

The type of Special Educational Needs provision provided at the school (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

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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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