Somerset Nursery School and Children's Centre

SOMERSET NURSERY SCHOOL

Inspection number: 195561 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.

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SOMERSET NURSERY SCHOOL

Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the School Inspections Act 1996, the school must provide a copy of this report and/or its summary free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. Somerset Nursery - 3

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: 157 Battersea Church Road Battersea London Postcode: SW11 3ND

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Appropriate authority: Wandsworth Education Authority

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Name of chair of governors: Martin Linton M.P.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: May 1997 Somerset Nursery - 4

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Team members

Capital Inspections Chaucer Building Canterbury Road Morden Surrey SM4 6PX

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Team members

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

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Team members

The Registrar Inspection Quality Division

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Team members

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE Somerset Nursery - 5

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PART A: SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 5

Information about the school How good the school is What the school does well What could be improved How the school has improved since its last inspection Standards Pupils’ attitudes and values Teaching and learning Other aspects of the school How well the school is led and managed Parents’ and carers’ views of the school

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL 10

The leadership provides excellent educational direction Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children Provides very effective staff development Works well in partnership with parents Understands the needs of young children well Provides high quality teaching The children achieve high standards

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WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED 14

The negative impact of using temporary staff through agencies for extended periods of time Monitoring and evaluation procedures to track effectiveness of the school

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Somerset Nursery is a small community school near the River Thames in Wandsworth. It has two sessions a day for children aged three to five years. The attainment of children on entry to school is broadly average and the intake from the local area is of a diverse ethnic and social mix.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

There are 75 children on roll, 40 attending full time and 35 on a part time basis. Forty-seven are boys and 28 are girls. There is high turnover of children with 29 per cent leaving and 26 per cent joining the school during the course of the last school year. Some 37 per cent of children are from ethnic minorities, the majority being of either mainland European or Black origin. Twenty per cent of children are from homes where English is used as an additional language, of whom five children speak little English. The most frequent languages spoken are Somali, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish. Eleven per cent of children are on the special educational needs register , which is low compared with national figures and almost ten per cent are eligible for free school meals, which is broadly average.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

Somerset Nursery is a very good school with many excellent features. Children achieve high standards and are taught well. The leadership and management are very good. The school provides very good value for money.

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What the school does well

• The leadership provides excellent educational direction • Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children • Provides high quality teaching • The children achieve high standards • Provides very effective staff development • Works well in partnership with parents • Understands the needs of young children well

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What could be improved

• The negative impact of using temporary staff through agencies for extended periods of time • monitoring and evaluation procedures to track effectiveness of the school The areas for improvement will form the basis of the governors’ action plan.

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HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION

The school was last inspected in May 1997. The policies recommended at that time have now been written in order to guide new staff in the school's approach to learning. Governors, however, are disappointed at their lack of success in attracting funding to improve the access, waiting and office accommodation.

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HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION

The school has maintained the high standards described in the previous report. However, in the last year the extensive use of agency staff to fill long-term vacancies has placed a heavy workload on the permanent staff who are determined to maintain this high quality of provision. Whilst the curriculum remains excellent this policy has had a negative impact in particular on settling procedures for new children. Somerset Nursery - 7

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STANDARDS

The table summarises inspectors’ judgements about the children’s achievements in relation to the national desirable outcomes for learning by the time they leave the school.

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Performance in: Key

language and literacy B well above average A mathematics B above average average B C personal and social development A below average well below average D E other areas of the curriculum A

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Performance in: Key

The majority of children achieve standards, which exceed those expected for their age. They make a very good start to education and are well placed to succeed in primary education. In particular they develop very positive attitudes to learning, are confident in choosing activities and resources and sustain interest in what they have chosen to do. They develop skills in literacy and numeracy well. Their physical confidence and creative abilities are very strong and their knowledge of the natural world is very impressive. Children of all levels of attainment achieve well because of the way the curriculum is planned to meet their individual needs. Children with English as an additional language acquire the vocabulary and language they need to communicate with others and to take full advantage of the excellent curriculum.

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Aspect Comment

Attitudes to the school Very good. Children are eager learners and sustain concentration very well in their chosen activities.

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Aspect Comment

Behaviour, in and out of classrooms Very good. Most children have a well-developed understanding of right and wrong and understand the effect of their behaviour on others.

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Aspect Comment

Personal development and relationships Excellent. The school is a happy place and children enjoy responsibility, for example taking the daily order for drinks.

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Aspect Comment

Attendance Satisfactory and in line with similar schools.

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Teaching of pupils:

Lessons seen overall Very good Inspectors make judgements about teaching in the range: excellent; very good; good; satisfactory; unsatisfactory; poor; very poor. ‘Satisfactory’ means that the teaching is adequate and strengths outweigh weaknesses.

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Teaching of pupils:

Teaching was very good or better in 65 per cent of lessons. All the teaching was at least satisfactory. Teaching is very good in all areas of learning. Staff use assessment very well to inform their planning for children’s individual needs. The use of resources brings the curriculum alive for young children. The teaching has very high expectations and develops children's use of language very well. Staff also judge carefully when to give children information and when to allow them time to explore for themselves. Because the curriculum is so exciting and carefully tailored to the needs of the children they develop a joy of learning, sustain interest in their activities and are very self-sufficient. The practical application of mathematics in their play supports their development of numeracy very well. Somerset Nursery - 8

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Aspect Comment

The quality and range of the curriculum Excellent. It is rich and stimulating for young children across the areas of learning providing an excellent start to education. It is based on practical activities and stories feature strongly. It is supported well by visits and visitors.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils with special educational needs Excellent. Relevant targets are set and regularly reviewed. Staff highlight each child's targets in weekly and daily planning.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils with English as an additional language Excellent. Language development is carefully planned and children's progress monitored well. Staff provide excellent models of spoken language and encourage children to communicate.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils’ personal, including spiritual, moral, social and cultural development Excellent overall. The school develops children's personal independence and joy of learning very well. Spiritual development is particularly strong in exploring the natural world. Cultural development is promoted well in music, art and literature. There are many opportunities for social interaction and moral development is supported very well by the courtesy of staff and their constant reference to the impact of actions on others.

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Aspect Comment

How well the school cares for its pupils Very good overall. Excellent arrangements for assessment and its effective use for planning for individual needs. Effective arrangements for health and safety and child protection. Agency staff are not as effective as permanent staff in supporting children to behave well.

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Aspect Comment

Leadership and management by the headteacher and other key staff Very good. The headteacher’s vision of high quality early years provision is clearly communicated and permanent staff work very hard to achieve these high standards.

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Aspect Comment

How well the governors fulfil their responsibilities Very good. They are very involved in the school and have a clear understanding of the school's strengths and weaknesses.

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Aspect Comment

The school’s evaluation of its performance Satisfactory overall. Monitoring of the curriculum is very strong. The school identifies monitoring of the quality of teaching as a priority for development. Plans are being drawn up to achieve this however, staff already, informally on a daily basis, review the effectiveness of their work.

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Aspect Comment

The strategic use of resources The school does not manage a delegated budget but it carefully targets its available resources. Parents report it responds well to their views and the school compares its effectiveness with other schools in the Wandsworth Early Years Partnership. Somerset Nursery - 9

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

• how much their children enjoy school • the breadth of things the children do • the way play is used to make learning enjoyable • the ease of approaching the school with problems and working in partnership with them • the good quality of teaching • how well the school is led and managed • the children's progress and behaviour • the rate of change of staff caused by covering vacancies using agency staff • the amount of work children have to do at home

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

The inspection team agrees with the strengths identified by parents. Parents are also justified in identifying the constant changes in staff arising from using agency staff as having a negative impact on the school. However, the books and mathematical games available to the children to take home and the detailed information about the planned curriculum support learning well and therefore the amount of work the children have to do at home should not be a concern to parents . Somerset Nursery - 10

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The leadership provides excellent educational direction

1. The school has very clear aims, which are based on four key principles. The staff recognise the value of:

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The leadership provides excellent educational direction

• play in learning where children do, create, experiment and investigate • children making free choices in their activities to ensure they are motivated • the curriculum developing from careful assessment of needs of the child • the importance of children learning by doing and talking.

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The leadership provides excellent educational direction

2. These principles are evident in the planning and delivery of the curriculum. It is evident that these values are clearly communicated to everyone working within the school community. For example, a parent working with children on rolling a variety of wheels and tyres down a slope responded well to their individual reactions, encouraging one child to test his spontaneous observation that the smaller wheel went more slowly than the tyre. Similarly, each day the premises officer accompanied the child who was responsible for collecting the information about which drinks staff might like. She helped the child to record the information independently.

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The leadership provides excellent educational direction

3. During the inspection the headteacher was absent because of illness and the deputy and other staff were very concerned that her expectations to achieve excellence were met; anything less would not be good enough. Each day’s planning meeting carefully reviews the day's work and extends the activities in new ways or alters them where they were not effective enough. For example, a mathematics game practising counting on was adapted to include events from the story in focus that week, ‘Rosie's Walk’ and as a result was much more engaging for the children on the second day. Permanent staff work very hard to communicate their expectations and working practices to the agency staff so that standards in provision are not compromised. They also intervene sensitively and supportively when temporary staff are having difficulty.

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Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children

4. The high quality of the curriculum at Somerset nursery was recognised in October 1992 with a Gold Award from The Royal Anniversary Trust for their work in developing an urban trail along the River Thames and a butterfly garden in the grounds of the church. These high standards have been maintained.

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Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children

5. High quality children's literature provides a stimulating starting point for much of the children's learning. Literacy and numeracy are developed in ways, which are challenging and meaningful to young children. One particularly impressive example was an extension of the story ‘The Little Red Hen’, who sows the grain, harvests, prepares the flour and bakes the bread. Children began the day by writing a shopping list of things they wanted to buy made from wheat all available to be examined. They moved outside to look at a large map showing Little Red Hen's house and the shop. With support, they decided which route to take, for example, whether to go down the slope or around the windmill to make their way to the shop. Some children recorded their route independently on specially prepared small maps. They went to the shop armed with their list and exchanged real money for real food. It was wrapped

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Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children

carefully by courteous shop assistants who calculated how much was owed if someone was short of funds. Happy customers made their way back to the house to sit and enjoy a chat while they ate the profits of their work. In this way, children sustained high-level learning in the most enjoyable and practical way , acquiring impressive literacy, numeracy and geographical skills as they did so.

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Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children

6. There are strong links between the indoor and outdoor activities available to the children, which have a positive impact on their learning. For example, they find outside all the features of the stories they hear. During the inspection, there was a windmill complete with pestle and mortar and grain to be ground, Rosie's house, and wheat growing in pots. On a visit prior to the inspection children were observed acting out the story of Billy Goats Gruff across specially arranged climbing equipment. Masks are available so even the shyest child can become completely absorbed in the character. Somerset Nursery - 11 7. Games linked to stories are invented to help children reach particular targets for learning, such as counting on from a particular number or practising counting objects accurately. Staff rightly regard these invented games as much more helpful to children than those commercially available because they

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Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children

arise out of their own assessments of children's needs.

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Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children

8. Visits to places of interest in the locality and further afield bring the curriculum alive. Children really understand the process of grinding the grain because they have visited Outwood windmill. Their work in chalk is informed by a visit to the Tate Gallery and reflection on David Hockney's work. They have visited a supermarket and consequently have real experience of spending money and encounter large numbers used as labels by noticing the numbers of the buses they travel on.

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Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children

9. The curriculum provides very well indeed for the children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The chicks, which have recently hatched at school and the two older chickens, are a constant delight to them. They provide wonderful opportunities for the children to be gentle and thoughtful. Children also showed amazement at how their bread had risen in the oven and the flow of water down a circuitous route of open guttering. The children often play together, for example doing mathematics games, buying from the shop, constructing with large wooden bricks and in the home corner. This promotes their social development, and where any disputes arise staff very carefully remind children of the need to consider others in what they say and do. They encounter a good range of cultural experiences in art, music and literature. The homecorner includes cooking equipment and clothes from a range of traditions and children can see writing from different cultures on display around the nursery.

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Provides an excellent, broad and stimulating curriculum for young children

The school reflects positively the rich cultural mix represented by the school's population.

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Provides high quality teaching

10. The overall quality of teaching is very good. In 65 per cent of observations teaching was very good or better and was never less than satisfactory.

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Provides high quality teaching

11. As one of the key principles of the school's approach to learning children make free choices in their activities. However, staff are skilful in manipulating those choices to ensure that children experience a balanced curriculum. Most children chose to write shopping lists before buying their goods, but not by chance. The activity was set up right by the entrance, was attractively displayed and all the tasty items available for sale were there to tempt them. No one was allowed to buy before a list had been completed and they had decided a route to take to the shop by reference to a large map. In effect, the staff make essential learning so attractive that children cannot help but want to be involved.

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Provides high quality teaching

12. The quality of planning ensures that children of all levels of attainment achieve well. The targets of children with special needs are incorporated into weekly planning to ensure that the curriculum meets their needs. The daily plan arises from detailed observations of what individual children have done and need to do next. This informs not only the nature of the activities but also the language and concepts to be introduced to the children. The planning focuses very clearly on the targets for learning rather than how children will be occupied. Staff anticipate well in advance what will be needed to make the curriculum practical and based in real experiences. For example, when the children were learning about the Little Red Hen, ears of wheat had been grown for them to look at.

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Provides high quality teaching

13. Excellent use is made of resources to support the children's learning. It appears that staff have almost anything at hand to help answer the children's questions and to develop their understanding. For example, when making a book about the Little Red Hen a child asked about grains of wheat and they were immediately available to support the discussion. Stories very often are brought alive by the use of props. Before some children made and baked bread they spent time looking at ears of wheat and ground the grains with a pestle and mortar to extract the flour. Where children are making models of windmills there are attractive reference books showing places where windmills are found and different kinds of wind powered mechanisms. Children are often to be found exploring the collections of artefacts around the nursery, for example the different items which rotate, such as whisks and vehicles with wheels. This

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Provides high quality teaching

attention to detail ensures that children's learning is far from superficial. Somerset Nursery - 12 14. The teaching develops the children's language very well. Children talk about the 'comb' and 'wattle' on the birds' heads. They describe how wheat grains are 'crushed' and 'ground'. They are encouraged to discuss so it is not usual to hear a child say 'do you know what I think' when beginning to explain their thoughts on the behaviour of characters in stories. They are introduced to appropriate language for different settings, for example “How can I help you madam?” when serving in the shop, or “We do apologise for keeping you waiting”. Careful attention is paid to those who are at an early stage of learning English to make sure they learn the vocabulary to make their needs known and to identify resources around the nursery.

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Provides high quality teaching

15. The key principles of education at Somerset emphasise play, choice, and practical activity. Within that framework staff directly give children information or teach necessary skills to extend their responses. For example, some children were given a brief 'lesson' on how the map worked to enable them to find their way around and understand its meaning. At the end of a story ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ children were taught about the need to be quiet near the caterpillars and that they cannot be held when they are small because they might be crushed. This was preparation so that when the recently hatched eggs were studied next week children would behave appropriately. A child who knew 'bread' began with 'b' was introduced to 'br' and encouraged to scan the text to find the word 'bread'. Children were told that the ears of wheat were not ripened because they were still green. They would be gold when Little

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Provides high quality teaching

Red Hen harvested them. Children were offered the word 'chaff' to describe what was left from the grain of wheat after it had been ground to extract the flour. This delicate balance of having high expectations, giving information and allowing the children to explore and use their newly acquired learning in their play ensures that their learning is of high quality.

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Provides high quality teaching

16. The teaching that was only satisfactory was associated with agency staff. During the inspection there were 2 agency nursery nurses who had been with the school only 8 days, having joined the school on 7 th June and 1 nursery nurse, who arrived on the Monday of the inspection. They have relatively limited knowledge of individual children and this sometimes results in less effective responses to children's contributions than those given by the permanent staff. Similarly the children do not have the same rapport with them and some can be less than willing to co-operate in these circumstances. In one story time some children were not listening and conducted their own conversation throughout. A vigilant member of permanent staff intervened with some cooked bread and immediately had the children entranced, talking about the process, smelling the newly cut loaf and consequently salvaged a situation

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The children achieve high standards

17. The previous report stated that the majority of children were achieving standards that exceeded those expected for their age. This remains the case. In particular, children show high levels of personal and social development. The excellent quality of the curriculum means they quickly develop the ability and confidence to make choices in their activities and to sustain their interest. The arrangement of the resources allows them to select easily whatever they need with the result that the children are extremely self-sufficient. They show high levels of care for their environment and for the creatures in it. The chickens are handled very gently and sit happily in the arms of their young charges for long periods of time. The children use resources carefully and clear away conscientiously.

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The children achieve high standards

18. The basic skills of literacy and numeracy are developed well. Children explore stories in so many exciting ways that they have developed a good knowledge and love of them. The older children are familiar with authors and technicalities of books, for example, the explanatory summary on the back known by them as the 'blurb'. Most children have a very clear understanding that print carries meaning. Many are using letters in their attempts to communicate in writing to make lists for example, recognise the initial sound of their name and can identify names, which begin with other letters. Several children in attempting to write make reference to words they find around them. Children with English as an additional language increase their vocabulary and ability to communicate well, with several speaking fluently in more than one language. Generally the children have a rich vocabulary because of the way

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The children achieve high standards

they are taught to observe closely and are given the words to describe what they see. In their play, they show understanding of money, words to describe position and measures of length and weight. They Somerset Nursery - 13 identify the shapes on the faces on objects, for example the circle on a tambourine. Their counting skills develop well and some children carry out simple addition and subtraction or count on, for example from the amount they have been given in payment to the cost of the items in order to calculate how much is still owed.

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The children achieve high standards

19. The children's knowledge and understanding of the world is very impressive. Through excellent role- play they have acquired the language appropriate to working in a shop, the process behind making bread, the function and conventions of maps. They explore and experiment confidently to make propellers work with batteries, to find a better way to make the vane of their model windmill turn more freely, and to change the direction of flow of water by manipulating the arrangement of the guttering. Some plan their constructions with simple diagrams to explain to others what they intend to do. In looking at the legs of the chicken they make comparison with their own skin and notice the number of toes. They use tape recorders to listen to stories with headphones.

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The children achieve high standards

20. Their physical skills develop well. Children learn to use pencils and paint brushes properly, and handle scissors and masking tape dispensers competently. Most can manage very fiddly crocodile clips to attach wires to batteries. The children are very confident on the climbing equipment. Even children with considerable special needs can be found moving hand over hand across the bar and finding a safe way down to the ground via a pole. Those who attempt to jump down from a height do so landing safely with bent knees.

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The children achieve high standards

21. In the creative curriculum they express their own ideas and explore freely and imaginatively. They have learned to play and name the instruments available to them correctly and show great enjoyment in accompanying songs with African drums and bells of various kinds. Some children have clear ideas of their preferred instrument. Their work arising from observing the chickens in chalk and pencil and with collage materials show high levels of accurate observations and very good attempts at capturing the softness of the feathers and movement of the birds. The children's imaginative play is of high quality because of the richness of the resources and the amount of information they have acquired about things, which interest them.

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The children achieve high standards

22. Overall, the children achieve very well. Higher attaining children enjoy the activities, which allow them to operate at a high level, for example solving problems and giving opinions on the motivations and behaviour of characters in stories. Children with English as an additional language are carefully considered in planning the curriculum in order to identify what vocabulary and phrases they need to learn to improve their ability to communicate. Those with special educational needs receive a curriculum which is driven by the targets on their individual educational plans and consequently do achieve well.

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Provides very effective staff development

23. The school has an impressive record in supporting staff in furthering their professional expertise. One nursery nurse has already gained a degree and is currently seeking qualified teacher status, and another is currently undertaking the degree course necessary to become a fully qualified teacher. The school works closely with the local education authority in providing professional development for other institutions, for example by running co-ordinators meetings for the Early Years Partnership and giving consultancy support to a local school. The headteacher has been involved in projects such as developing moderation of statutory assessments for five year olds and devising self-evaluation procedures for nursery schools.

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Provides very effective staff development

24. With regard to its own professional development the school is particular in seeking out nationally respected providers of training in the early years to ensure they receive the highest quality input. Each year the whole staff, and governors who are able, attend a day at the Roehampton Institute. Last year the focus was on recent developments in the philosophy and practice of early years education.

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Works well in partnership with parents

25. The school forms strong relationships with the families of children who attend and is very successful in developing a partnership between home and school. Carers are welcomed to the school each day by a member of staff who is on hand to receive news and messages and to answer any queries they may have. Parents can stay as long as they wish to settle children at the start of sessions and the school is very keen Somerset Nursery - 14 to use their skills and talents to enrich the curriculum. For example, a mother came in to cook chapattis with the children when they were learning about bread.

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Works well in partnership with parents

26. There are good opportunities for parents to borrow and share books and mathematical games. The recently opened Toddlers' Library involves the youngest members of the family. The mathematical games lending service is run by parents and has a very good range of games made by staff which provide very good links to the taught curriculum.

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Works well in partnership with parents

27. Parents also receive a very useful curriculum plan each term, which enables them to incorporate planned topics in their homelife. The school provides very good information to parents on how their youngsters are getting on. Staff will always make time to share information and to listen to parents' concerns. Parents have excellent access to staff at either end of sessions and feel very well informed about children’s progress and welfare. This is true for all groups of children.

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Understands the needs of young children well

28. The school makes excellent provision overall to nurture the young children who attend. Staff have a very good understanding of the needs of the whole child. This is seen in the safe, stimulating and very high quality environment provided. There are sensitive arrangements so that children make a successful start to school life supported by their parents with as much time as they need to settle down. Detailed observational notes of this period indicate the importance it is given. All staff show in their daily work their determination to provide the best for 'their' children. This determination is built on very strong foundations: very strong planning, wonderful resources and a commitment to meet the needs of every child who attends, whatever the individual need. Staff work closely as a team to plan and share what children will learn each day and evaluate on a daily basis how they have got on. This has required a very

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Understands the needs of young children well

special effort on the part of the permanent staff who carry an extra workload in ensuring that the agency staff employed understand and follow the school’s ethos and curriculum.

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Understands the needs of young children well

29. Health and hygiene are given due emphasis. For example, before children begin cooking they are sent to wash their hands. Soap and water are on hand and tissues are provided to protect the children's legs when they hold the chickens. When children are unsure they are reassured but never pushed so far that they lose confidence. For example, the long claws on the older chickens worried a few. No one was forced to hold the chickens but were given the strategies to do so if they wished. However, children are not 'mollycoddled'. For example, the climbing equipment provides an appropriate level of challenge and children are taught the physical skills they need to climb and disembark safely.

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Understands the needs of young children well

30. The very strong framework provided by the staff’s excellent knowledge and understanding of their charges, together with their clear planning, results in a rich and stimulating programme which keeps the children busy, happy and productive throughout sessions. They are comfortable and relaxed in school and this enables all of them to learn well and to develop very good independence skills and sustain concentration on tasks for long periods.

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The negative impact of using temporary staff through agencies for extended periods of time

31. At present, short-term agency staff rather than temporary appointments fill vacant posts. As a consequence, there have been twelve changes in staff since the beginning of this school year. Whilst the school works hard to train agency staff in their working practices and school ethos, this places a very heavy burden on a very small team. Two vacant posts were filled from September 1999 to February 2000 in this fashion, which constituted almost one-third of the school's staffing. Maintaining high quality provision requires particular effort when illness occurs amongst the permanent staff. During the inspection, one vacancy and two entirely unavoidable staff absences meant that out of the full complement of seven staff, three were from an agency.

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The negative impact of using temporary staff through agencies for extended periods of time

32. Parents express strong reservations about the negative impact this situation has had on their children , particularly when changes of staff have coincided with their children settling into a new school. Some Somerset Nursery - 15 children who had established a relationship of trust with someone who then left during that crucial period were set back and lost confidence. Maintaining continuity of records for 75-80 children falls on fewer shoulders and it is difficult to ensure that careful account is taken of these records in order to plan appropriately for individual children's needs.

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The negative impact of using temporary staff through agencies for extended periods of time

33. Permanent staff find it necessary to spend a great deal of time and energy making sure each new member of agency staff is made very familiar with the environment, daily routines, ethos, ways of working with the children, expectations for learning, and how to plan and evaluate the work. A heavier workload also falls on permanent staff in leading and overseeing the curriculum. This leads to excessive pressure, stress and eventual exhaustion amongst permanent staff who are determined not to compromise their high standards.

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Monitoring and evaluation procedures to track effectiveness of the school

34. The school has identified the need to formally and systematically gather more information to monitor its success across a number of areas. These include the progress of different groups of children, quality of teaching and effectiveness of decisions on expenditure.

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Monitoring and evaluation procedures to track effectiveness of the school

35. The plan for achieving improvements in the school is satisfactory overall. Both the success criteria and the responsibility for monitoring them are appropriately described. However, detail of how success criteria will be monitored is often absent. Because there is no specific target included in the plan for developing strategies for monitoring, it will be difficult for the school to formally assess any progress it makes in this area.

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Monitoring and evaluation procedures to track effectiveness of the school

36. There are already some useful mechanisms for identifying what is or is not working well. In particular, arrangements for monitoring the effectiveness of the curriculum are excellent. For example, detailed observations of children involved in their activities has identified they develop understanding of 'heavy' but not so easily of 'light', and they often know 'long' but not 'short'. This information is then used to give greater emphasis to the less developed areas of understanding. Recently introduced curriculum monitoring surveys for language and literacy, mathematics and knowledge and understanding of the world are working well in identifying not only what has been covered but what has been omitted. This is leading to much more specific planning, for example by choosing stories which may give emphasis to mathematical concepts which have had too little attention so far. It is also leading to better targeting of

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Monitoring and evaluation procedures to track effectiveness of the school

37. During daily planning meetings, staff informally identify what has and has not worked well in their teaching and suggest ideas of how things may be improved. A programme of observing teaching has recently begun, and for the nursery nurse seeking qualified teacher's status these observations are focused according to the registered Qualified Teacher Training Scheme.

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

38. In order to improve further the local education authority, governors and staff should

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• reduce the negative impact caused by long term vacancies by seeking solutions which provide more stable staffing arrangements (see paragraphs 31-33)

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• include specific targets in the plan for school improvement to achieve their aims to extend the monitoring and evaluation procedures to track the effectiveness of the school (see paragraphs 34-35) Somerset Nursery - 16 40.

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Summary of the sources of evidence for the inspection

Number of discussions with staff, governors, other adults and pupils 10

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Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Poor Very Poor

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Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

The table gives the percentage of teaching observed in each of the seven categories used to make judgements about lessons.

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s roll (FTE for part-time pupils) 58

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of full-time pupils eligible for free school meals 7

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs 1

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s special educational needs register 8

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Information about the school’s pupils

English as an additional language No of pupils

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with English as an additional language 15

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupil mobility in the last school year No of pupils

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who joined the school other than at the usual time of first admission 22

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who left the school other than at the usual time of leaving 20 Somerset Nursery - 17

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Qualified teachers and support staff Financial year 1999-2000

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 3

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per qualified teacher 25 £

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of education support staff 6 Total expenditure 243271

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total aggregate hours worked per week 152 Expenditure per pupil 4055

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Balance brought forward from previous year 3450

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per FTE adult 8 Balance carried forward to next year (5224)

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Teachers and classes Financial information

FTE means full-time equivalent. Somerset Nursery - 18

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Questionnaire return rate

Number of questionnaires sent out 75 Number of questionnaires returned

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Percentage of responses in each category

Strongly agree Tend to agree Tend to disagree Strongly disagree Don’t know My child likes school. 90 10 0 0 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

My child is making good progress in school. 68 30 0 2 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

Behaviour in the school is good. 60 38 0 2 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

My child gets the right amount of work to do at home. 24 40 14 10 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

I am kept well informed about how my child is getting on. 54 42 4 0 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

I would feel comfortable about approaching the school with questions or a problem. 80 20 0 0 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school expects my child to work hard and achieve his or her best. 52 36 2 2 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school works closely with parents. 70 28 0 2 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school is well led and managed. 82 16 0 2 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school is helping my child become mature and responsible. 68 28 0 2 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school provides an interesting range of activities outside lessons. 56 26 6 4 0

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Other issues raised by parents

Parents were very concerned by the impact of the use of agency staff on their children's sense of well-being and on the permanent staff who are constantly having to induct new staff into the routines and working practices of the nursery.

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