Knowles Nursery School

Knowles Nursery School

Address: Queensway, Bletchley, Knowles Nursery School, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK2 2HB Unique reference number (URN): 110197

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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

Leaders have high expectations of attendance. They carefully check patterns of absence and identify any barriers that families face. Leaders take swift and appropriate action to support parents and carers in ensuring their children attend more regularly. While there are a small number of children who don't attend school as often as they could, leaders’ actions have had a tangibly positive impact. Their work has led to improvements at individual pupil and group levels. Leaders carefully consider the needs of children when making decisions about the times that they attend. This supports families in getting children to school on time and ensures that children benefit from being in school as much as possible.

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Attendance and behaviour Strong standard

Leaders have established a consistently calm learning environment. Children understand the rules and routines. They follow these consistently well with support from staff. Children are kind and respectful to each other. Leaders and staff are clear about what bullying is and how this could present in children of nursery age. Staff teach children how to build positive friendships. They emphasise the importance of not discriminating against others. Children enjoy learning and sustain their focus on activities. Leaders provide a wealth of support to children who struggle to manage their emotions and those who face other challenges that might impact on their behaviour.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders identify children’s needs as early as possible. This work begins during the extensive transition process. Leaders use detailed information to provide timely support to families in the weeks leading up to children starting at the school. This involves effective partnership working with a range of professionals, including education, health, and family support specialists. Leaders are forensic in checking the impact of any new and legacy support when children start to attend. Staff use this information to carefully plan how to meet children’s needs.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders have embedded processes which give staff a precise understanding of children’s barriers to learning. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face other challenges in their lives. Leaders ensure that children receive extensive, focused support to reduce these barriers. They carefully check that this support is having the intended impact and make timely adaptations where needed. Leaders make well- considered decisions about the use of additional early years funding. They ensure that disadvantaged children are well prepared for starting primary school. Leaders are aspirational for children. They provide highly effective wellbeing support to parents, carers, and children. This makes a significant difference to ensuring that children, particularly the most vulnerable, get the best start to their education.

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Personal development and wellbeing Strong standard

The school’s programme for children’s personal development is extensive. Leaders track every opportunity precisely so they can respond to children's ever-changing needs. This work has a significantly positive impact on children’s social skills, their emotional

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Expected standard

development and their broader understanding of the world. Children demonstrate a mature understanding of how to keep themselves safe, including road safety and being safe when accessing online devices. Children understand how to build positive friendships and demonstrate high levels of respect for each other as they interact. They understand that everyone is different and that this is something to be celebrated. For their age children have an in-depth understanding of fundamental British values. They can explain how they vote to choose a story and that this makes it fair. Children confidently recall their learning about different religious festivals such as Eid and Saint Lucia day. They enjoy celebrating their own and others’ heritages. They bring in clothes from the many different countries represented at the school.

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Expected standard

Leaders carefully consider the context of the school when planning new experiences for children. Children learn about how different activities make a positive difference to the way people feel. They go on visits linked to the curriculum and engage with the community by singing on the high street, for example. The school uses their ‘buggy buses’ to ensure that children experience the community they live in. These visits include seasonal walks and trips to local shops. Leaders also develop pupils' understanding of the importance of helping others.

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Expected standard

Staff provide children and families with highly effective wellbeing support. They teach children to understand and name their emotions. This work is adapted to support children who are at the earlier stages of learning to communicate verbally.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children achieve well here. Leaders prioritise securing the knowledge children need for physical, personal, social, and emotional development. Children make rapid progress in these areas, including disadvantaged children and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Many children enter the nursery facing barriers to their communication development such as being at the early stages of learning to speak English. With this in mind, leaders focus sharply on supporting children’s communication and language. Consequently, children make rapid progress in their speech and language skills. This has a significantly positive impact on their readiness for starting primary school. Children make secure progress in developing their knowledge and skills across most areas of learning in the early years curriculum. This is particularly true of the most vulnerable pupils who develop well from their starting points. However, in a few other aspects of their learning, including in

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Achievement Expected standard

mathematics, some children still have gaps in their knowledge.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have designed a broad curriculum that identifies what children should learn. They consider the context of the school and the different developmental stages of the children when reviewing the curriculum. In doing so, leaders ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of children year on year. Leaders prioritise the important knowledge and skills that children will require when they start primary school. Staff skilfully introduce new vocabulary to children and develop their communication skills well. They teach children to hear the sounds in spoken words. All of this work contributes to preparing children for later learning in reading and writing.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders ensure that staff have the expertise they need to deliver the curriculum well. Staff are particularly skilled at adapting their teaching, so that children who face barriers can successfully learn alongside their peers. Leaders and staff check how well children are progressing through the curriculum. However, in some areas of learning, there is less clarity about where the key gaps in children’s knowledge lie. This makes it difficult for staff to focus their teaching accordingly. On occasion tasks do not consistently develop children's learning as effectively as they might.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders are aspirational for children. They are passionate about ensuring that children are given the best start to their education. Leaders have a secure understanding of the context of the school and the needs of the families and children in the school community. They are focused on swiftly reducing barriers to children's development, to prepare them well for starting primary school. Leaders place children’s best interests at the heart of their decisions.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders understand the school’s strengths. They focus on the areas of school life that would benefit from further improvement. They take appropriate and effective action to develop these identified areas. Leaders are proactive at engaging with other school leaders, the local authority, and external agencies to continually develop and share effective practice. Governors are knowledgeable and understand their responsibilities. They provide support and challenge to the school. For example, they ensure that leaders are meeting their safeguarding responsibilities and that the school’s funding is used appropriately to meet the needs of children.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Staff are incredibly proud to work at this school. They feel highly valued by leaders and supported with their workload and wellbeing. Staff morale is very high. Leaders support staff to build their knowledge and expertise. They ensure that staff access professional learning opportunities that link specifically to the school’s priorities.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders engage with the local community effectively. They take every opportunity to work in partnership with parents and carers and to provide them with the support they need. This has a positive impact on children’s learning and wellbeing.

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

Children are extremely well nurtured at this nursery school with a big heart. They greet staff with beaming smiles on arrival each day. Children are confident to separate from their parents and carers. They quickly settle and join in with their friends. Children feel safe and secure in the presence of staff. Children play together cooperatively and support each other well. For example, they notice when another child falls over outside and they offer a helping hand. When occasional minor fall outs happen, children are well supported by staff to resolve these issues quickly and calmly. Children follow the routines and rules. When children find it more challenging to manage their emotions, the school provides specific help. This has a positive impact on enabling children to cope with different aspects of school life.

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

Individual children’s needs are understood in detail by leaders at this highly inclusive school. Any barriers that children face to their learning or wellbeing are identified swiftly through the school’s robust processes. This includes information collected before children start at the school. Children are given extensive, targeted support to reduce these barriers. Children enjoy the learning opportunities that staff and leaders create for them. They benefit from a broad and engaging curriculum that prepares them well for starting primary school. Children achieve well, particularly the many pupils with special education needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils.

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

Children broaden their personal development through an extensive range of hands-on experiences. For example, the curriculum is enriched by local visits and visitors to the school. These are personalised to the needs of children. Children learn more about animals from accessing a mobile farm, seeing chicks hatch and watching butterflies feed. Leaders support parents and carers to ensure that their children attend school regularly. This means that they do not miss valuable learning experiences.

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Next steps

Leaders should ensure that tasks consistently maximise opportunities for children to develop their learning across all areas of the curriculum. Leaders should check that teachers use assessment as effectively as possible. This will help them to identify and then close gaps in children’s knowledge more swiftly.

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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Kat Sanders-Wray.

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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 framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMI.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with the executive headteacher and staff. They also spoke with the school's improvement partners from the local authority. The lead inspector met with members of the governing board, including the chair.

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About this inspection

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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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 30 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?

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals.

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What does this mean?

The school currently uses no alternative provision.

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What does this mean?

Headteacher: Natalie Fowler 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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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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