Shenley Fields Nursery School

Shenley Fields Nursery School

Dates of inspection: 2 nd – 4 th November 1999

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Shenley Fields Nursery School

Inspection carried out under Section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996 This report may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that all extracts quoted are reproduced verbatim without adaptation and on condition that the source and date thereof are stated. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school.

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Shenley Fields Nursery School

Under the School Inspections Act 1996, the appropriate authority must provide a copy of this report and/or its summary free of charge to certain categories of people. Every registered parent of a registered pupil at the school should receive a free copy of the summary of the report within ten working days of receipt of the summary by the appropriate authority. A charge not exceeding the cost of supply may be made by the appropriate authority for any other copies of the report and/or its summary provided to any person who asks for one.

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Shenley Fields Nursery School

The appropriate authority should make a copy of the report and the summary available for inspection by members of the public at such times and at such a place as may be reasonable.

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Shenley Fields Nursery School

Any enquiries about this legislation should be addressed to the OFSTED Compliance Helpline Tel. 0171421 6567 Shenley Fields Nursery School - 3

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: Far Wood Road Northfield Birmingham B31 1BS

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: 24 – 26 June 1996 Shenley Fields Nursery School - 4

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Team members Subject responsibilities Aspect responsibilities

Christopher Gray, Registered Inspector Attainment & progress; Teaching; Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social & cultural development; Efficiency of the school Anne Hopwood, Lay Inspector Attendance; Support, guidance & pupils’ welfare; Partnership with parents & the community Joyce Cox, Team Inspector Areas of learning for children under five Attitudes, behaviour & personal development; Leadership & management; Staffing, accommodation & learning resources Robert Battey, Team Inspector Special educational needs; Equal opportunities Curriculum & assessment

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Team members Subject responsibilities Aspect responsibilities

Beaumont Education & Consultancy Services Horseshoe Cottage School Lane Scaldwell Northamptonshire NN6 9LD

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Team members Subject responsibilities Aspect responsibilities

Any concerns or complaints about the inspection or the report should be raised with the inspection contractor. Complaints which are not satisfactorily resolved by the contractor should be raised with OFSTED by writing to:

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Team members Subject responsibilities Aspect responsibilities

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE Shenley Fields Nursery School - 5

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What the school does well

• . Children make good progress across the school. • . The quality of teaching is good. • . Children behave very well; they are developing good attitudes to learning and have established good relationships with adults and with one another. • . The school’s curriculum is very well planned. • . The provision for pupils with special educational needs is very good. • . The provision for children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very good. • . The school gives the children very good support, welfare and guidance. • . The school has built up an excellent partnership with parents and parents give the school their full support. • . The headteacher gives excellent leadership and the school is very well managed. • . Financial planning is good; the school is run efficiently and gives very good value for money. • . The school has improved well since the last inspection and is very well placed to improve still further.

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What the school does well

· Where the school has weaknesses I. Teachers do not make enough notes on children’s daily progress.

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weaknesses identified during the inspection are to be tackled. The plan will be sent to all parents or

· How the school has improved since the last inspection

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weaknesses identified during the inspection are to be tackled. The plan will be sent to all parents or

Following the inspection in 1996, an action plan was produced to tackle the key issues and to improve other concerns raised in the inspection report.

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weaknesses identified during the inspection are to be tackled. The plan will be sent to all parents or

The curriculum has been reorganised to give greater prominence to activities associated with early reading and writing. This has raised children’s attainment in these areas and story and books have an obvious, high profile throughout the school, as have children’s early attempts at “writing”. The attractive arrangement of the school into different areas associated with different areas of the curriculum means that all children receive a balanced education in which they have very good experiences in art, music, story and dance (areas mentioned in the last report as lacking).

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weaknesses identified during the inspection are to be tackled. The plan will be sent to all parents or

Systems for monitoring the progress of pupils with special educational needs have been developed and the provision for these pupils is now very good. Assessment procedures for all children have been up-dated to match the new planning procedure, though short-term assessments - for example, of what a group of children have learnt during a lesson - are not recorded in written format.

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weaknesses identified during the inspection are to be tackled. The plan will be sent to all parents or

The school has worked hard to improve the levels of children’s attendance and has raised them to a satisfactory level. No absence goes unexplained.

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weaknesses identified during the inspection are to be tackled. The plan will be sent to all parents or

Overall, the progress made in the majority of areas where concerns were noted previously has been good. The school is very well placed to make further improvements and meet its targets, because it is well led by a committed headteacher, deputy head and staff. They receive the support of parents and carers, and the school is improving further. Shenley Fields Nursery School - 8 · Standards

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weaknesses identified during the inspection are to be tackled. The plan will be sent to all parents or

When children enter the nursery in the September after their third birthday, many have personal and social skills which are well below what is found amongst most children of their age. Their attainment in listening is below average and their skills in speaking and in early reading and writing are well below average. Children’s attainment in mathematics, knowledge and understanding of the world, creative and physical development is also below average. Broadly speaking, attainment on entry is below what is found nationally.

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weaknesses identified during the inspection are to be tackled. The plan will be sent to all parents or

The very well planned curriculum and the good quality teaching enable the children to make good progress overall in their year in the nursery and the majority are broadly on line to attain most of the Desirable Learning Outcomes (as set out by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) by the time they are five, though fewer are likely to reach the expected levels in terms of reading and writing.

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Quality of teaching

· Teaching in areas of learning Personal and social development Very good Language and literacy Good Mathematics Good Knowledge and understanding of the world Good Physical development Good Creative development Good

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Quality of teaching

The quality of teaching in the school is good overall. It is at least satisfactory in all lessons, good or better in 64 per cent, and very good in 24 per cent. There is no unsatisfactory teaching.

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Quality of teaching

Inspectors make judgements about teaching in the range: excellent; very good; good; satisfactory; unsatisfactory; poor; very poor. ‘Satisfactory’ means that strengths outweigh any weaknesses Shenley Fields Nursery School - 9 · Other aspects of the school

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Aspect Comment

Behaviour Very good; the sense of calm purposefulness is striking on entry to the school. Children and staff work as a family unit in a calm, relaxed and well-ordered community in which mutual respect and harmonious relationships promote very good learning. Attendance Satisfactory. The school has worked hard to achieve a significant improvement since the last inspection. Ethos* Very good; children have good attitudes to their work and very good relationships with adults and with one another. Leadership and management Very good overall; the headteacher provides outstanding leadership with an excellent and clear direction for the work of the school and she is well supported by her deputy and all staff. Curriculum Very good; the school has responded well to the key issues of the last inspection report. Children with special educational needs Very good provision and support; the progress made by children with

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Aspect Comment

special educational needs is good across the school. Children benefit from detailed individual education plans, which set clear targets for their development. Spiritual, moral, social & cultural development Very good overall; teachers’ whole approach to learning is one which imparts excitement and a sense of discovery to the children. Children soon settle into the school and mix well with one another, learning to tell right from wrong. They are given a good variety of cultural experiences. Staffing, resources and accommodation Good overall. The provision for staff training is very good.

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Aspect Comment

Value for money Very good; the children enter the school in September with below average attainment and from below average backgrounds; they make good progress over the year and their behaviour is very good. The school offers them very good levels of support and the quality of teaching is good.

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Aspect Comment

*Ethos is the climate for learning: attitudes to work, relationships and the commitment to high standards.

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What most parents like about the school What some parents are not happy about

II. The school encourages parents to take an active part in their children’s education III. Parents find the staff approachable IV. The school gives a clear understanding of what is taught V. The school keeps parents well informed about their children’s progress VI. The school enables children to achieve a good standard of work VII.The school has values and attitudes which parents like VIII. The children behave well and like going to school IX. A very small number of parents do not like the of these supports the basic idea.

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What most parents like about the school What some parents are not happy about

The inspection endorses parents’ positive views about the school, its welcoming and caring atmosphere and the dedication of all connected with it. Inspectors found the parents’ workshop a most valuable event for both parents and children; whilst inspectors understand the reservations of some parents about their compulsory Shenley Fields Nursery School - 10 attendance, there is no doubt that parental involvement of this type has a great contribution to make to children’s progress. · KEY ISSUES FOR ACTION

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What most parents like about the school What some parents are not happy about

This is a good school with no major weaknesses. There are therefore no key issues.

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What most parents like about the school What some parents are not happy about

The following less important weakness should be considered for inclusion in the action plan: X. Devise a consistent system for the recording of information gained from day-to-day assessment of individuals’ progress and development. (Paragraphs 30; 40 & 41)

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What most parents like about the school What some parents are not happy about

Numbers in brackets indicate a reference to the main paragraphs in the full report where the weaknesses are discussed.

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INTRODUCTION

1 Shenley Fields Nursery School is a local education authority nursery serving the Northfield outer-ring area of Birmingham and situated in Bartley Green. Children are admitted in the September after their third birthday and spend a period of 12 months in the nursery. The school has provision for 120 part- time places; currently, 25 children attend part-time (15 boys and 10 girls) and 52 children attend full- time (25 boys and 27 girls), which means that the school is full. The provision is the same in numbers as at the time of the last inspection, but no children attended full-time then. There are three full-time teachers (including the headteacher), two full-time and two part-time nursery nurses. The nursery is contained in attractive, purpose-built accommodation and shares a site with an infant and junior school.

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INTRODUCTION

2 The socio-economic background of the children is below national averages. The area has historically catered for the rehousing of families from the inner city and there is considerable movement in and out of the area. A small number of children come from areas further away. Approximately 53 per cent of children are entitled to free school meals; this is a similar figure to that at the time of the last inspection. Six children are on the school’s register special educational need; none has a statement. Seven children come from ethnic minority groups and there is one child whose first language is not English. These statistics are broadly similar to those at the time of the last inspection. Children’s attainment on entry to the school is below what is expected of children of their age.

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INTRODUCTION

3 The school aims to provide a purposeful and happy place of learning where children will be encouraged to be confident and independent and to socialise with other children and adults. The school offers a whole pre-school curriculum involving a wide range of activities backed by sound educational purpose.

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INTRODUCTION

4 The school development plan has 18 regular headings with priorities for each term. Those for the current term include: • re-stock number sacks and story sacks; • increase staff’s expertise in information technology; • review policy for pupils with special educational needs; • review policy for personal and social development; • monitor inductions and admissions process and write community policy; • write policy for playgroup in conjunction with playgroup leader. Shenley Fields Nursery School - 11 · Key indicators

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INTRODUCTION

Number of exclusions of pupils (of statutory school age) during Number the previous year: Fixed period 0 Permanent 0

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INTRODUCTION

Percentage of teaching observed which is: % Very good or better 24 Satisfactory or better 100 Less than satisfactory 0

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

· EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS ACHIEVED BY PUPILS AT THE SCHOOL

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

1 When children enter the nursery in the September after their third birthday, many have personal and social skills which are well below what is found amongst most children of their age. Their attainment in listening is below average and their skills in speaking and in early reading and writing are well below average. Children’s attainment in mathematics, knowledge and understanding of the world, creative and physical development is also below average. Broadly speaking, attainment on entry is below what is found nationally.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

2 The very well planned curriculum and the good quality teaching enable the children to make good progress overall in their year in the nursery and the majority are broadly on line to attain most of the Desirable Learning Outcomes (as set out by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) by the time they are five. This is an improvement on the findings of the last inspection.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

3 In personal and social development, the children make very good progress. When they begin in September, many are leaving their parents for the first time and some weep loudly. Most find it difficult to remember their teachers’ names and few are used to sitting down quietly. One or two have not completed toilet training. After only half a term, children have settled well into school and there are few tears. They enjoy their experiences and they welcome their parents in on workshop mornings to share their work with them. Parents express their pleasure at how well they have developed. Children play together well and learn to share and co-operate. One room has a pretend post office: children sit behind the counter, answering telephones, operating the mock-up computer and serving their friends who pretend to be customers. Outside, children are happy to give up their tricycles when someone else wants a turn. Part-time pupils are as well settled as full-timers and are progressing at a

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

4 Children make very good progress in their speaking skills; much of this is to do with children’s growing confidence and the trust they place in the adults around them. Adults give good examples of articulate speech and children begin to talk in fuller sentences. They chat to themselves or their toys in play and start to communicate more fully with their friends. Children learn nursery rhymes and collect stickers to show that they can recite them accurately. Progress in listening is good; the children happily sit in a circle at the start of welcome or input sessions and follow instructions carefully. Good progress is made in writing skills - one of the key issues from the last inspection report. There are frequent opportunities for children to make marks - what is termed “emergent writing”; they are asked to say what they have written and this is usually transcribed for them underneath. Higher attaining

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

pupils recognise individual letters and try to reproduce them. Progress in reading skills is very good. Nearly all can tell the correct way to hold and open a book; they can tell pictures from text and most can point to individual words, even though they cannot yet read them. Higher attaining pupils retell the story by referring to the pictures. All are learning to recognise their own name, though many have not yet mastered this entirely when taken out of a familiar context; for example, they recognise their name in their own “register” because it is in the same position each day, but, when holding two name cards with different names, many find it hard to identify their own. Part-time pupils are progressing at a similar rate but their skills are inevitably less developed, especially in reading and writing.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

5 Progress in mathematics is good. Many children have no number knowledge at all on starting school and, by the first half-term, most of the full-time children can count to five. Higher attaining pupils are secure to ten or even twelve. Skills of matching quantity to the correct digit are developing, but more slowly amongst the part-timers. Children are learning about shape and size; many can identify circles and triangles but some have not yet learnt this vocabulary. Most can distinguish large and small (though the difference is sometimes not sufficiently evident in the some of the equipment they are given), but many have difficulty with the concept of “middle-sized” - partly because this is a complex Shenley Fields Nursery School - 13 phrase which is not easy to say.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

6 Children make good progress in knowledge and understanding of the world. They are presented with a variety of experiences, such as feeding lambs or rummaging through autumn leaves and seeds. They learn the names of animals to be found in the countryside, like badgers, from a display of stuffed creatures which they love to pat and stroke. They bake cakes and watch the mixture grow. Progress in creative development is good: children paint or cut and glue; they play instruments and sing songs and rhymes with growing confidence. In physical development, children are progressing well. They climb the slide with confidence, though a few still find it difficult to swing themselves from the platform to the top of the chute. They handle tools, instruments and the computer with increasing dexterity. They are learning to run or ride about with awareness of others so that bumping and falling over are usually

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

7 Boys and girls make similar progress across all areas; they are treated the same and respond similarly; for example, when playing in the Three Bears’ house, there was no debate as to who would do the cooking or the ironing - those who felt like it did it. There are no discernible differences in the rate of progress of children from different backgrounds or ethnic groups. Children for whom English is an additional language progress well in all areas and find ways of communicating their basic needs. Part- time children also make good progress compared with their prior attainment but the rate of progress is inevitably slower than those who spend twice the amount of time in school.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

8 Higher and lower attaining pupils progress at a similar rate to other pupils because teachers are fully aware of their capabilities and needs. At this part of the year, identification of children for the special educational needs register is at an early stage. However, it is clear from what is currently happening and from last year’s records that the progress made by children with special educational needs is good across the school. Children benefit from detailed individual education plans, which set clear targets for their development. Their targets are regularly reviewed and all involved staff have a clear awareness of the targets and prepare suitable work. The progress of children with special educational needs has been maintained since the last inspection report, when it was also good.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

12 Attitudes, behaviour and personal development

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

9 The behaviour and the personal development of the children are very good and are two of the school’s many strengths. Children’s attitudes and relationships are good and have a positive impact on the good progress which they make. This gives a better picture than at the time of the last inspection, (though the judgements in the last report are not always clear).

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

10 The sense of calm purposefulness is striking on entry to the school. Children and staff work as a family unit in a calm, relaxed and well-ordered community in which mutual respect and harmonious relationships promote very good learning habits. This atmosphere pervades all aspects of school life. Children’s attitude to work is consistently good and on some occasions very good. They enjoy their work and play; they settle quickly in lessons and respond with enthusiasm and interest to group and individual tasks. They persevere to complete work set and take an evident pride in their final presentation - for example, when making colourful collage firework pictures.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

11 Children show a readiness to learn. They are learning how to take turns in class discussions. Many are gaining in confidence and concentrate for increasingly long periods of time. They approach new work with eagerness and enthusiasm. They are becoming independent and can take turns when using resources. Many children understand what is right and wrong and treat other people, property and their classroom with care and concern.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

12 The children’s behaviour is very good. A significant factor in this good behaviour is the school’s behaviour policy, which is consistently applied by all the school staff. Parents are very aware of the school’s expectations regarding behaviour. Children know that they will always be treated fairly and Shenley Fields Nursery School - 14 feel safe, secure and valued. Children experiencing behavioural difficulties are not confronted but can go to another adult in the nursery to calm down and recover. This works very well and results in children feeling supported and loved. They enjoy working hard for stickers for good behaviour or work. Exclusions are never necessary.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

13 Relationships are good, showing high levels of respect between adults and children, as do attitudes adopted towards children with special educational needs. There is evidence of mutual trust, respect and empathy. A very good example of children’s concern and care for each other occurred during outside play when several children rushed to help another child who had fallen off a bike. Racial harmony is firmly established.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

14 The staff provide excellent role models for relationships as they work together very well in a calm, purposeful and well-ordered community. These harmonious relationships underpin the work of the school and have a significant effect on the educational standards and progress achieved.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

15 The personal development of the pupils is very good. The children relate very well to all the staff and enjoy taking responsibility for their own learning during “free flow” sessions, when they are able to go to any of the exciting rooms and select what they would like to do. They maturely and sensibly collect their own resources and are very good at tidying up - for example, they wipe tables with obvious delight.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

16 Attendance has improved significantly since the previous inspection and is satisfactory. The school continually seeks to improve the levels of attendance. Good strategies have been developed to encourage regular attendance and there are good procedures for its monitoring. Punctuality is encouraged but personal circumstances are treated sensitively and appropriately.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

17 The quality of teaching in the school is good overall and enables the children to make good progress across their year in the school. Teaching is at least satisfactory in all lessons, good or better in 64 per cent, and very good in 24 per cent. There is no unsatisfactory teaching.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

18 The teaching of personal and social development is very good. All staff are patient with the children yet they have very high expectations of behaviour. Children respond well to this; for example, a child who is inclined to stand up and wander off can be reminded with a hard stare to sit down again. Staff know their children well, so that those whose social skills are very under-developed are handled tactfully and without confrontation.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

19 The teaching of language and literacy and of mathematics is good. The two areas are frequently combined, as in a lesson where children were comparing the sizes of bears and then “writing” beneath them. Some of the best teaching takes place where no opportunities are lost for learning across the curriculum; for example, in a very good lesson for the part-time children, an enjoyable activity involved the Roamer (a programmable floor robot); children needed to use reading skills to try and match name cards which they then sent on the back of the robot across the circle to the card’s owner. The owner then had to put his card in the next slot in the number line. This was only the 20 minute welcome session at the start of the morning, yet children had already practised reading, counting, position, operating a machine and sitting co-operatively in a circle. Their fascination in this session Shenley Fields Nursery School - 15

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

was great and they made very good progress. Teaching is also good in knowledge and understanding of the world, creative development and physical development.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

20 All staff have a good knowledge of the under-fives’ curriculum and a thorough understanding of the stages of development of children of this age. This enables them to have high expectations of not only how the children should behave but also of how much they can achieve. Parents at the workshop were amazed at how much their children had learnt in a short space of time.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

21 The children are organised into five groups of 13, and they stay in these groups throughout the year. Part-timers are all in one group, in morning or afternoon sessions, so that there are no occasions when children are repeating work after lunch. Two groups have teachers and the other three are led by nursery nurses. Joint planning ensures that a similar curriculum is taught to all groups and professional expertise is shared in planning sessions and staff training.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

22 The curriculum is very well planned. A significant feature in this is the partial re-arrangement, since the last inspection, of the accommodation: the quiet room and the library lend themselves to mathematics and literacy work; the messy room is for art and other creative work; the noisy room is a big space whose function is obvious from its name and the home room can be adapted for any use, but is where the Three Bears’ house is. Each group has a planned time in each area in turn, spread over the week. This ensures a balanced coverage of areas and remedies the criticism made in the last inspection report of lack of balance.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

23 The morning starts with a welcome session to settle children down. Some staff make better use of this than others, the example given above being the best use; other sessions sometimes lack sufficient focus. This is then followed by an input session, where the teacher works with a small group; other children work independently or with a helper and the groups rotate so that all cover the main focus with the teacher. These sessions are well used by all staff, though, on occasions, staff do not monitor the independent groups enough.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

24 This session is followed by “free flow”, where each room has at least one member of staff, and the children are free to choose where to go. This works well and good support is given in these sessions by all staff; for example, a group who chose to use musical instruments did not just sit and bang, but learnt to keep their instruments silent, to play loudly and - hardest of all - to play quietly. Groups then return to their home base for drinks and a story or some other input from their teacher. Lastly comes outside play, which is structured to give a variety of experiences with a good balance of direction by the teacher and free choice. This arrangement of the day (which is repeated in the afternoon) is a good use of time and contributes to the good teaching and the good progress made by the children.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

25 Resources are always ready and are mostly used well. For example, a wide range of equipment is used to development number; each room has a number line - it might be monkeys swinging by their tails; these are mixed up each morning and the teacher waits for someone to notice. This situation is then used to see if the children can work out which number is missing and where it should go. In a very small minority of occasions, some resources are not as appropriate as they might be; for example, asking children to distinguish between three sizes of bear which are quite similar in size; again, some computer software requires mouse skills which a number of children cannot manage independently.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

26 Staff make satisfactory use of day-to-day assessment; this is clear from their weekly planning meeting which an inspector was invited to attend. But they make little use of written notes on a daily basis, which reduces the effectiveness of daily assessments.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

27 Homework is well used. There are exciting numeracy and literacy bags (shaped like animals) for children to take home in turn, which contain a variety of reading and number activities to be undertaken with parents along with school library books. Most parents are happy with the amount of homework given. Shenley Fields Nursery School - 16 28 Teaching methods and organisation very effectively involve all children, treating them all equally. Good support is given to children for whom English is an additional language. Children with special educational needs are usually taught in class alongside their peers and all benefit from the overall good levels of teaching and awareness of their needs across the school. Their support and provision are very well overseen and co-ordinated by the special educational needs co-ordinator. The support assistant effectively assists children when extra, specific help is needed. Assessment is well used to inform

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

teaching. Shenley Fields Nursery School - 17 32 The curriculum and assessment

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

29 The school provides a very good, broad and balanced curriculum for all its children which fully covers all the recommended areas of learning. All children are very well prepared for their next stage of learning, when they enter the infant school at the age of four.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

30 The curriculum promotes children’s intellectual, physical and personal development very thoroughly and is accessible to all. There is a very good level of challenge for all children which promotes their good progress. A wide range of opportunities is provided for all children across all the areas of learning. They have relevant, very well prepared, structured and resourced learning experiences. The opportunities for children to discuss issues and carry out investigations are very good and children have a good range of opportunities to engage in speaking and listening activities, mathematical experiences and to work independently and collaboratively. Good use is made of information technology which is well used to support areas across the curriculum. The school has relevant and clear ideas for the further application of information technology and is about to be connected to the Internet.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

31 The curriculum fully meets all the requirements for nursery education and takes full account of the Desirable Learning Outcomes. The curriculum provides very good equality of access and opportunity. Matters of equal opportunity are always considered in the school’s planning; for example, a weekly planning meeting considered how a child with English as an additional language could be involved in the school’s celebrations of Divali.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

32 Children with special educational needs have access to the full curriculum. The school very effectively tracks and records their progress. It takes great care before they are registered as having special educational needs, to assess if they have a developmental delay or a special educational need that justifies registration according to the Code of Practice. There is very good provision to meet their needs. There is a very good level of contact with the local education authority’s support service and specialists, and this does much to support provision. The management by the headteacher as the responsible person for special educational needs provision is very good.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

33 The school has developed a very clear view of the curriculum across the school. All areas of learning are very well planned. There is very good detail in the content and provision for each learning outcome. All the staff of the school work very hard to plan for the long, medium and short term. Policies are developing well and some, such as those for mathematics and, to a lesser degree, language and literacy, incorporate a scheme of work, identifying progressive skills’ development. Weekly and five weekly planning meetings very thoroughly discuss the teaching and development of the curriculum and these, with the prepared plans, provide a very good progression and continuity for all the areas of learning.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

34 The role of the headteacher in monitoring planning and discerning needs for further development is well advanced and assures the high quality of the curriculum provided. All staff play a purposeful and full role in the development of the curriculum. The school has made very good progress in dealing with the areas of concern identified in the last inspection. The curriculum has been reorganised in part and is now taught, across the school, in resourced classes to match the needs of each area of learning. The headteacher is actively supported by the deputy headteacher and the other teacher on the staff of the school in the development of the curriculum and means of evaluation. They work very well in conjunction with other school staff. All children now have a regular, consistent and very well- balanced range of experiences.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

35 The nursery provides its children with an extensive range of extra-curricular experiences, such as visits to a local safari park, into the local community and to museums in the centre of the city. Here children had the opportunity to dress up in period costume in response to a Gainsborough picture. An excellent contact is made with the local community and this further enhances the curriculum. There are many visitors to the school who talk about and illustrate their interests and experiences. Examples Shenley Fields Nursery School - 18 are members of a local dog club, a club for amphibians, a person from a dogs’ home and visitors to talk about electricity. The school’s contacts support the children’s awareness of the world around them very well.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

36 There are satisfactory procedures in place for assessment across the school. The school has relevant and clear criteria for assessing the children’s growing skills. Information gained from assessment is fed into the weekly and five weekly planning meetings and this forms the basis of planning the next steps in learning. The results and records of children’s assessment are effectively used to monitor progress and to set forecasts and specific targets for children to attain. These targets and the available assessment criteria are effectively monitored by all staff. There is very good involvement of parents; they are asked to follow the development of their children and to contribute information.

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PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

37 The school has appropriately identified a need to devise a more consistent means of assessing and recording the short term progress of the children. Currently, staff rely on passing on day-to-day assessment information in an informal, verbal fashion at weekly planning meetings. Progress is satisfactorily recorded on a longer term basis, but the means of recording the children’s competence as they progress day by day is insufficiently developed.

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

38 The school’s overall provision for children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very good, a significant improvement over that found at the time of the last inspection, when it was judged to be “sound”.

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

39 The provision for children’s spiritual development is good. Teachers’ whole approach to learning is one which imparts excitement and a sense of discovery to the children. For example, a group was involved in role play based on the story, “We’re going on a bear hunt”; it was easy to see the children’s complete involvement and their discovery of how role play is like being a different person for a short time. This enabled them to explore their own feelings and what it would be like to be in a different situation. Opportunities for spiritual development are planned into the curriculum; for example, children have experience of what is like to care for a lamb by feeding it from a bottle; groups enjoy the lighting of candles; others marvel at the change brought about in cake mixture when they watch it grow in the microwave (though they preferred those baked in the ordinary oven).

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

40 Provision for children’s moral development is very good. Although the concept of school rules is not one which three-year-old children would understand, they are taught important precepts for behaviour in ways appropriate to their age; for example, instead of being told they must not run in the corridor, they are introduced to the “walking carpet” and they soon remember what this means. One child reminded another of what was the correct thing to do with a wet painting. Teachers achieve good behaviour in classes with a look of disappointment or a frown, or by a gentle reminder that particular behaviour is making the teacher unhappy. This works very well and all staff themselves set good examples of considerate and unselfish behaviour which the children quickly pick up. The school provides an additional, part-time assistant for children whose personal needs are great and she has a positive effect on the moral development of these children. Children’s individual behaviour is high on

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

the agenda at teachers’ weekly planning meetings.

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

41 The provision for social development is excellent. Staff are at pains to ensure that all children settle down quickly when they join the school and they are experienced in providing encouragement and distraction for those who are upset when they are first left by their parents. Lunchtime assistants know the children well and understand which children have particular social needs. On playgroup afternoons, the school’s children mix well with the younger children and adult supervision helps to ensure valuable integration. Parents’ workshops are an excellent feature of the school’s provision and these give parents a chance to see their children at work and to be a part of the family which makes up the school. Visitors from outside like the local policeman and the fire brigade help the children to Shenley Fields Nursery School - 19 appreciate the wider community beyond their own home and school. A weekly visitor to the school is

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

a lady who has been blind since birth. She brings her guide dog and works with groups of children each week - for example, reading to them from picture books which have Braille text; the children are encouraged to explain the pictures to her and to show her with their hands where on the page the pictures are; this gives them an excellent introduction to the concept of handicap and helps them to realise that those with disabilities are people just like every one else.

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

42 The school’s provision for children’s cultural development is good. Books play a prominent part in every room and there is a lovely, lively library; children are beginning to develop an interest in looking through books and their awareness of story is an important contribution to their cultural development. The school celebrates religious festivals such as Divali and Christmas. Parents from different cultural backgrounds are invited to talk to and work with the children; for example, a mother cooked Chinese food with a group to help celebrate Chinese new year. The school contributes to dance festivals and took part at the end of the summer in a Caribbean workshop. On a visit to Birmingham City Art Gallery, children dressed up like the figures in period portraits. A visit from a local school orchestra is planned shortly.

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

46 Support, guidance and pupils’ welfare

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

43 The support which the school provides for the children is very good. A happy atmosphere and a warm welcome await all who enter the nursery. The picture is similar to, if not better than, the situation at the time of the last inspection - judgements in the last report are unclear.

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

44 Children are very well supported, many of whom are experiencing their first separation from home when they first attend. The staggered induction period helps staff to take individual children’s needs into account and builds up the children’s confidence. Their progress is monitored and the information obtained is used to inform planning for each child. If staff have any cause for concern about a child, or it seems that a child has special educational needs, the child is referred to the headteacher who carries the responsibility for these children and has access to other agencies if necessary.

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

45 The policies devised to promote good attendance and good behaviour are implemented very well. There is consistency of expectation amongst all staff and very good communication with parents to encourage regular attendance and the mutual support of good behaviour. Staff are quick to diffuse a situation by withdrawing a child from the group if there is a display of disruptive behaviour. There is no evidence of bullying or oppressive behaviour.

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Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

46 All staff are familiar with the official procedures for child protection and have received in-service training. There is a named child protection officer who takes appropriate action when necessary. The health and safety of everyone in the nursery is given a high priority and all statutory requirements are met, including regular fire drills. The children work and play in a safe environment and there are staff who are trained specifically to administer First Aid when necessary. Lunchtime supervisors are provided with a notebook and pencil to record minor grazes and minor bumps. Should there be anything more serious, this is reported to the Headteacher immediately who then informs the parents. Recently all staff attended a training day on health and safety.

p.19

Partnership with parents and the community

47 The partnership with parents and the community is excellent and is a further improvement since the last inspection, when this partnership was judged to be very good.

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Partnership with parents and the community

48 Great emphasis is laid on establishing very good communication and good relationships with parents and carers, from the nursery’s earliest contact with the children. This continues through the parent Shenley Fields Nursery School - 20 and child’s personal induction process; the daily contact with parents; the occasional extremely well attended workshops with parents and their children; open days when parents can call in, as well as specific activity days when parents are encouraged to participate. This means that parents are given accurate and plentiful information on their children’s progress - as over 90 per cent of respondents to the questionnaire indicated. The handbook for parents, monthly newsletters, the parents’ notice-board and information sheets related to the specific workshop focus also provide very good means of communication. As a follow up to a workshop on literacy, parents are requested to stay in school for a

p.19

Partnership with parents and the community

quarter of an hour one morning a week to share a book with their child, either reading or talking about the book. By these means, positive attitudes to learning are promoted and parents become involved and make a good contribution to their child’s learning in school. Parents’ contribution to learning at home is also positive - the book and number sacks which are regularly sent home were praised by the parents at the pre-inspection meeting. The headteacher is always available to talk to parents and discuss their child’s progress and, each term, an assessment is made of the child and reviewed with the parents.

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Partnership with parents and the community

49 There are excellent links with the community and with the commercial sector through the Birmingham Education Business partnership. The newly formed School’s Management Support Group includes representatives from the school plus social services, the police, the fire brigade, a librarian, the headteacher of the neighbouring primary school and the health visitor who works closely with the nursery. A pre-school worker works in the playgroup, which meets on the nursery school premises twice a week as part of the “Flying Start” scheme. A home support worker also works in the playgroup, so that both children and parents become familiar with the setting before they begin their year in the nursery. Various volunteers come into the nursery including a lady who brings her guide dog into school once a week and others who support the staff in many of the activities. Three former parents have undertaken child care courses and asked to have their placements at the nursery during

p.20

Partnership with parents and the community

the current year. Pupils from secondary schools in the area also come in as part of their work experience.

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Partnership with parents and the community

50 A member of staff is responsible for, and actively engaged in, the establishment of links with a number of educational periodicals which have printed articles about the nursery. She also arranges for visits from the local electricity board, the community policeman and the fire service and has explored a ‘Trail’ round an early learning centre which parents can visit with their children. Through a business partnership scheme, funding is provided for a new project each year and also visits out of school such as the ‘Airport Trail’ and ‘Light on Science’ at a museum. The enthusiasm and energy expended on these ventures is of real benefit to the school and helps to support the very good work within it, enabling the children to make great progress during their time in the nursery.

p.20

Partnership with parents and the community

51 Parents at the pre-inspection meeting and at the parents’ workshop during the inspection spoke highly of the education given to their children by the school and they are very pleased by the way the school is developing.

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Partnership with parents and the community

55 THE MANAGEMENT AND EFFICIENCY OF THE SCHOOL

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Partnership with parents and the community

52 The overall leadership and management of the school are very good, an improvement on the situation at the time of the last inspection.

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Partnership with parents and the community

53 The headteacher provides outstanding leadership with an excellent and clear direction for the work of the school. On her appointment in January 1997, the headteacher identified and prioritised areas for improvement, such as working closely with parents and support agencies. These incentives were incorporated very effectively into the school development plan. The headteacher and all the staff have worked very hard together to implement this plan successfully. All share a tenacious commitment to raising standards and continuous improvement. For example, the headteacher and the deputy Shenley Fields Nursery School - 21 headteacher have introduced new ideas, policies and procedures that have had a very good impact on the work of the school. This process of innovation has been handled very well. All staff feel valued and know that they can succeed. This knowledge leads to a very good sense of shared educational

p.20

Partnership with parents and the community

direction to the school and ensures a happy and interesting environment for the children.

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Partnership with parents and the community

54 The headteacher is supported very well by the deputy headteacher who is alert to the issues facing the school and has a good sense of the priorities that need promoting. She is particularly effective in planning the curriculum to ensure that children receive very good early learning experiences. The deputy headteacher is also very successful in promoting the work of the school within the local community.

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Partnership with parents and the community

55 One of the nursery teachers has spearheaded the very effective parental involvement in children’s work. The parent workshops, which involve all staff, are attended and enjoyed by all parents and carers and make a very significant contribution to the success of the nursery, and in raising children’s attainment.

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Partnership with parents and the community

56 There are very good systems in place for monitoring the quality of education the school provides. Information gained from monitoring of teaching and planning is used to change or refine procedures and practice. There are weekly planning meetings, which provide useful guidelines for all staff. The headteacher and deputy head work well together to analyse children’s work and staff planning.

p.21

Partnership with parents and the community

57 The school is very successfully achieving its aims and promoting its policies and parents are very supportive of them. All staff form a unified team in this and they share the same goals for the school. There is a very good ethos in the school which focuses on high attainment. This is the result of the consistent development of policies and practice, especially in planning the curriculum and in managing children’s behaviour, and also the result of all the staff’s commitment to provide a high quality learning environment.

p.21

Partnership with parents and the community

58 The school development plan is of good quality and is used well to match spending to the key priorities of the school. All staff have a good role in the establishment of these priorities and are involved in checking how far they have been achieved. Regular reviews of the success in meeting targets mean that the plan is a valuable, working document which is kept up to date. It is based on a three-year cycle and is currently in its final (school) year. A framework for the next three years has been drawn up.

p.21

Partnership with parents and the community

59 The headteacher, as special educational needs co-ordinator, is very effective and manages the provision very well. She maintains a very close contact with the local authority’s services and with parents. She has very clear targets for the support of children and the development of their provision. An example of this is where she has appropriately discerned a need for children to be supported socially and personally during the lunch hour. Available funding for special educational needs has been appropriately used to employ lunchtime supervisors.

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Partnership with parents and the community

60 The many successes of management have meant that the school has made good improvements since the 1996 inspection. Curriculum reorganisation has given very good balance to all areas of learning; children’s attainment in early reading and writing has risen and they have good experiences in the creative arts; the provision for pupils with special educational needs is very good and overall assessment procedures are satisfactory. The school is very well placed to make further improvements and meet its targets. The fact that there are no key issues for the school in this inspection is testimony to the very good calibre of school management.

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Partnership with parents and the community

64 Staffing, accommodation and learning resources

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Partnership with parents and the community

61 The school has a good number of qualified teachers for the number of children on roll, and to give Shenley Fields Nursery School - 22 effective support to children with special educational needs and to children for whom English is an additional language. There is also a good number of nursery nurses who are responsible for their own teaching groups. Some of the staff are very experienced and have given many years of devoted service to the nursery. The clerical officer is very efficient and enables the school to operate effectively.

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Partnership with parents and the community

62 The provision for the professional development of staff is very good and is given significant emphasis. There is a regular programme of in-service training and staff meetings, and staff attend many external courses. Professional development has a good effect on teaching; for example, in implementing new initiatives such as behaviour management.

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Partnership with parents and the community

63 All staff have detailed job descriptions which set out their current responsibilities clearly. Arrangements for the appraisal of teachers are good. All staff attend yearly review meetings and staff development interviews. Staff who are new to the school receive good support and training. The most recent appointment has been the headteacher who has completed a useful course for recently appointed headteachers. The school participates in training schemes for students and the headteacher monitors the students’ training very effectively.

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Partnership with parents and the community

64 The accommodation is satisfactory in terms of space and appropriately meets the demands of the curriculum. The teaching accommodation has been transformed in recent years and offers a variety of exciting and stimulating rooms. There is a secure outdoor play area, which contains an appropriate range of surfaces. The school premises provide a stimulating environment. There is something to interest and arouse the curiosity of young children around every corner. The library has been moved from the corridor, which was a concern in the last inspection. It is now located in a bright, sunny room and provides a high quality learning area, enjoyed by all the children and staff.

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Partnership with parents and the community

65 The grounds and buildings are well maintained by the conscientious cleaning staff and the school is clean and bright. The site supervisor and the headteacher regularly monitor the condition of the buildings and grounds, as the school has suffered several incidents of theft and vandalism.

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Partnership with parents and the community

66 The school has adequate storage areas. All internal areas have a variety of attractive displays, which promote the children’s learning and celebrate their achievements. This reinforces the very caring ethos of the school.

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Partnership with parents and the community

67 Overall, learning resources and equipment are good, both in quality and quantity and they enhance the curriculum. They are well organised and accessible to both staff and children. The very attractive library, which is well organised and effectively used, has a good range and number of fiction and non- fiction books, as do all the classrooms. This is a considerable improvement since the last inspection.

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The efficiency of the school

68 The overall efficiency of the school is good. The school’s budgeting procedures have altered somewhat since the time of the last inspection because the school is now responsible for its own budget, with the exception of salaries, which are budgeted for and managed by the local education authority. The school’s financial management has been strengthened since the last inspection.

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The efficiency of the school

69 The quality of financial planning is good. The school is clear as to its educational priorities and they are well set out in the school development plan. Available finances are wisely targeted at these priorities; for example, a key issue at the time of the last inspection was to improve attainment in reading by giving greater prominence to story. The establishment of the library and the targeting of finances at appropriate books has made a major contribution to this. The school also seeks all possible extra funding; for example, recent money made available by central government under the exclusion fund (to keep in schools pupils who would else be excluded) is used by the school to benefit its inclusion policy, whereby no pupil is denied admittance to the school for any reason - this money Shenley Fields Nursery School - 23 provides a part-time assistant to help teachers with pupils who have social problems.

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The efficiency of the school

70 Teaching and support staff are put to good use. Though the headteacher has no full-time teaching commitment, she has a timetable for classroom support; her current focus is raising standards of information technology - both the children’s capability and staff’s expertise. She also has a programme of social support - for example, for those few children who are not yet toilet-trained. All the school’s children are split into five groups: two of these are taken by the deputy head and the third trained teacher; the remaining three are taken by the nursery nurses (one by two who operate a job- share). Joint planning ensures that a similar curriculum is taught to all groups and support from the headteacher and deputy head, plus staff training, help spread the teaching expertise evenly.

p.23

The efficiency of the school

71 Resources and accommodation are very well used. The organisation of the curriculum was criticised at the last inspection as being too restrictive. Funds have been directed at redesigning the use of accommodation in order to dedicate an area or room to a particular curriculum focus - for example, creative work or literacy activities. This has produced a bright and exciting atmosphere and has a very good effect on the teaching and learning. Corridor space is well used for display and small group work. Resources are appropriately stored and are used well in activities, which relate directly to lesson objectives.

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The efficiency of the school

72 Financial control and school administration are very good. The last report commented that the school “needs to ensure that school fund accounts are properly audited in the future.” This is now done annually and the accounts continue to be kept in good order. The school office is well run by the efficient school secretary. All the school’s accounts have recently been audited by the local education authority, though the report has not yet been published. Nonetheless, the school has responded appropriately to the draft recommendations, all of which were relatively minor, and procedures are in hand for most of them.

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The efficiency of the school

73 The school uses the money allotted to it for special needs to fund its lunchtime assistants. In view of the special social needs of many of the pupils, this is an appropriate use of the money and has the approval of the local education authority. The reason for this use is that the nursery was given permission to offer full-time places to the majority of its children only recently, though the local education authority was not in a position to fund lunchtime cover. Without this provision, many parents would not be able to take up the offer of the full-time place for which they have shown a need.

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The efficiency of the school

74 There are no national figures available to show average per capita expenditure in a school of this type. However, in view of the below average backgrounds and attainment of children when they begin in September and the good progress they make over the year, their very good behaviour, the good quality of teaching and the very good levels of support offered to the children, the school gives very good value for money.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

78 AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN UNDER FIVE

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

75 At the time of the inspection, there were 52 three-year-olds attending full-time in the nursery and 25 attending part-time. Children enter the nursery with levels of all-round development and maturity which are below those of most three-year-olds. Many of the children have difficulties with speech and language, and some have behaviour or medical problems. They make good progress in all areas of learning in the nursery, and attainment of the majority on entry to the infant school is in line with that expected of most four-year-olds. The majority of children are on line to attain most of the nationally identified targets (Desirable Learning Outcomes) on entry to compulsory schooling by the time they are five. This is an improvement on the last inspection, when children were found to be under- achieving in language and literacy and in creative development. Shenley Fields Nursery School - 24 79 Personal and social development

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

76 Many children begin in September with personal development which is well below that found in most three-year-olds, including some who are not yet toilet-trained. Children settle quickly into the nursery. In play sessions, some play by themselves but many are beginning to play with their friends in quite complex situations; for example, a group of children, playing in the Three Bears’ house, spontaneously acted out a domestic situation, seating dolls and bears round a table; two boys cooked plastic vegetables in a pan on the stove whilst a third child poured out tea to everyone at the table. Most children are learning to concentrate and persevere with an activity to finish it. The children respond positively to adults. They play co-operatively together; for example, in the “post office”, where they are learning to take turns and share the resources fairly. The children are very keen to explore new

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

learning, as when they made porridge for the Three Bears. They make very good progress in this area of learning.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

77 Teaching in this area is very good. The children’s personal and social development are very well promoted by the staff, who are kind and caring; they are infinitely patient and work together very well. The children are constantly encouraged to become socially independent; for example, by hanging up their own coats or by collecting and putting away their own equipment. The staff expect the children to put their own aprons on and encourage all the children to manage their own personal hygiene. The nursery provides good opportunities for each child to become a valued member, which raises self- esteem and accelerates progress. The successful teaching enables the children to be enthusiastic about learning new things and also boosts their confidence to be successful learners. The good teaching ensures that the children work, play and co-operate with other children very well.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

78 Provision for language and literacy is good. Many children enter the school with skills in speaking and experiences in early reading and writing which are well below average for three-year-olds. Skills in listening are below what is expected at this age. Most children make very good progress in developing speaking and reading skills and they progress well in listening and writing. Most are on line to attain the Desirable Outcomes in terms of speaking and listening by the time they are five, though fewer are likely to reach the expected levels in terms of reading and writing.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

79 Staff in the nursery take every opportunity to encourage children to communicate. Many children speak in simple, unconnected sentences or even just a few words when they enter the school. After only a few weeks, many hold quite involved conversations with adults. They are learning to use their voices in role-play. Children are encouraged to listen to stories and to predict what will happen next. The higher attaining children are secure in knowing that words and pictures convey meaning in stories and they confidently and carefully handle books. Most children know which is the front and the back of a book. A few higher attaining children can already recognise and write initial letters in response to the letter sounds. All children are learning to recognise their own names - through “signing” their name in a “register” each morning and finding their own name badge or card - and a few children can

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

produce a recognisable version of their own name, although not with the appropriate use of upper and lower case letters.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

80 The quality of teaching is good overall in language and literacy. Teachers and nursery nurses make good use of literacy sessions to raise the children’s attainment and progress in speaking and listening, reading and writing because they have a good understanding of English and an enthusiasm which is successfully conveyed to the children. There are high expectations for the children, and teachers work hard to ensure that they are all kept busy and little time is wasted. Good use is made of resources such as Big Books to encourage and interest the children; teachers use good intonation and clear diction when reading aloud, which provides a very good role model for the children. Learning is made fun and staff inspire the children with their enthusiasm and lively approach. A very good range of practical activities is always provided to follow up class discussions; for example, in a mathematics

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

activity on comparative size of bears, the children had to cut out the Three Bears and stick them in Shenley Fields Nursery School - 25 order of size onto paper; they were then encouraged to make marks (“writing”) under each, explaining what they had written. The teacher wrote underneath what the child had said. Book corners in classes and the very attractive new library ensure that children are developing a love of books.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

81 Provision for mathematical development is good. Children make good progress in relation to their attainment on entry to the school. Children are learning to discriminate between and name different colours. Some children find using mathematical language difficult; for example, when talking about shapes. Most children can count objects to at least five and some higher-attainers can go past ten; they can match objects one-to-one. Children identify long and short objects - for instance, when comparing lengths of ribbon during a welcome and settling time. They are familiar with number rhymes and songs and enjoy saying and singing them.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

82 Teaching is good. Planning is detailed and teachers ensure that children have many opportunities to practise their developing mathematical skills in an exciting range of activities. Staff skilfully and sensitively support children in counting, sorting, matching and ordering equipment in a variety of stimulating and interesting ways; for instance, every morning, all the staff encourage the children to rearrange the class number lines after they have been muddled up. Very good questions are used to extend, motivate and interest the children. Staff have enthusiasm and vitality, which ensures that learning is exciting and stimulating for all children and accelerates progress.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

86 Knowledge and understanding of the world

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

83 Provision to develop children’s knowledge and understanding of the world is good. A few higher attaining children are attaining above the level expected for their age. In relation to their prior attainment, all children make good progress and are in line to attain the desirable learning outcomes at the age of five.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

84 Children are learning about change as they watch with fascination when candles melt, or when they see what happens to oats when they make porridge for the three bears. Some children answer questions about their homes and families, though others have difficulty with their expressive language and are more reluctant to converse. They use their developing literacy skills with increasing confidence to talk about their observations and to record pictorially what they have discovered.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

85 The children show a keen interest in the computer and can use the mouse with skill and confidence when using such programs as “Dressing Teddy”, though some need considerable adult support in controlling the mouse.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

86 Teaching is good. The staff skilfully provide a range of exciting opportunities for the children to explore the environment outside the school. For instance, the children have visited art galleries and museums, zoos, and Birmingham airport. Visitors to the nursery enrich the children’s knowledge and understanding. Children enjoy talking with Emily, a blind lady who visits every week with her dog. They develop an appreciation of how Emily overcomes her difficulties and copes in the world. A Caribbean dance troop led by Sister Tree has expanded the children’s knowledge of other cultures. They are encouraged to talk, draw and paint or model what they discover, using a range of materials. For example, children have collected leaves, conkers and shells to make attractive autumn collage pictures. These first-hand experiences enrich and inspire the children’s lives with the result that they are on line to achieve the Desirable Learning Outcomes at the age of five.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

87 The provision for physical development is good . By the age of five, the children’s attainment is expected to be in line with the expected standards in their general physical development. They are Shenley Fields Nursery School - 26 developing good physical control, mobility, and awareness of space. During an outdoor physical education lesson, the children demonstrated that they have a good awareness of space and other children and successfully control their body movements when pedalling bikes. The children are learning to have good control of writing and painting implements. They use construction materials confidently. They cut carefully and assuredly with scissors, - for example, when cutting out pictures of the three bears.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

88 The teaching to promote physical development is good. Staff participate enthusiastically and provide the children with clear, precise instructions so that they know exactly what they have to do. Planning for outdoor activities is good; staff have an appropriate balance between intervention and allowing the children independence to choose for themselves.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

89 The school has worked very hard since the last inspection to improve the quality of provision for children’s creative development. This is now one of the many strengths of the early years’ curriculum.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

90 Children receive good opportunities to promote their creative development and, by the time they are five, are likely to achieve the expected standards for children in this age group. A few children will exceed the expected standards. They use dry and wet powder paint and other media to represent in two- and three-dimensions what they see and their paintings are of a good standard. The children enjoy exploring paint - for example, when painting self-portraits. During the inspection, a group of children produced Bonfire Night collages of a high standard.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

91 Children learn to use pitched and unpitched musical instruments. They manage to keep them silent when instructed - no easy matter for a three- year-old sitting with a drum. They play the instruments along with recorded music and make a clear distinction between soft and loud playing.

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PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS

92 The quality of teaching is good, with examples of very good teaching in art lessons. Teachers strike a good balance between inspiring with enthusiasm and encouraging enough self-restraint to work well. In art, music and imaginative play, the children are encouraged to use their imagination and to listen and observe carefully. Shenley Fields Nursery School - 27

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PART C: INSPECTION DATA

93 The inspection was carried out by a team of four inspectors, who spent a combined total of nine days in the school. During the course of the inspection, the team observed 26 lessons in whole or in part, and samples of children’s work from the current and previous years. A sample of children from each group shared a book with an inspector, looking at the pictures and talking about the story. A total time of 20.6 hours was spent on these observations and discussions. The team also observed registration periods and ends of sessions. Children’s behaviour in the playground and around the school was observed, and this provided opportunities to talk to them. Discussions were held with the headteacher, teachers and nursery nurses and members of the non-teaching staff. The team scrutinised curriculum and other policy documents, teachers’ plans, financial statements, children’s records and the attendance registers. Before the inspection, the Registered Inspector attended a meeting with eight

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PART C: INSPECTION DATA

parents. The results of the parents’ questionnaire were scrutinised.

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98 Pupil data

Number of pupils on roll (full-time equivalent) Number of pupils with statements of SEN Number of pupils on school’s register of SEN Number of full-time pupils eligible for free school meals Nursery 64.5 0 6 34

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98 Qualified teachers (Nursery school, classes or unit)

Total number of qualified teachers (full-time equivalent): 3 Number of pupils per qualified teacher: 21.5

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98 Education support staff (Nursery school, classes or unit)

Total number of education support staff: 5 Total aggregate hours worked each week: 138.5 Average group size: 13

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98 Financial data

£ Total Income 16,713 Total Expenditure 18,618 Expenditure per pupil 289 Balance brought forward from previous year 9,683 Balance carried forward to next year 7,778 Shenley Fields Nursery School - 28

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

Number of questionnaires sent out: 77 Number of questionnaires returned: 62

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

Responses (percentage of answers in each category):

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

Strongly agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly disagree I feel the school encourages parents to play an active part in the life of the school 74 24 0 0 2

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

I would find it easy to approach the school with questions or problems to do with my child(ren) 65 31 0 3 2

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

The school handles complaints from parents well 38 47 12 2 2

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

The school gives me a clear understanding of what is taught 60 35 3 2 0

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

The school keeps me well informed about my child(ren)’s progress 63 34 2 0 2

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

The school enables my child(ren) to achieve a good standard of work 57 39 2 2 0

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

The school encourages children to get involved in more than just their daily lessons 60 32 5 2 2

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

I am satisfied with the work that my child(ren) is/are expected to do at home 35 41 17 4 4

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

The school’s values and attitudes have a positive effect on my child(ren) 48 46 2 3 2

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

The school achieves high standards of good behaviour 54 39 2 5 0

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98 PARENTAL SURVEY

My child(ren) like(s) school 84 13 2 0 2

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98 Other issues raised by parents

A number of parents took the opportunity to raise other matters. Most of these were in praise of the school and its staff. Two parents do not like the compulsory nature of parental participation, though one of these supports the basic idea.

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