Whitnash Nursery School

WHITNASH NURSERY SCHOOL

Inspection number: 198634 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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WHITNASH 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. Whitnash Nursery School - 4

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: Nursery Lane Leamington Spa Warwickshire

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Appropriate authority: The Governing Body

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: November 1997 Whitnash Nursery School - 5

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Team members

18152 Jill Palmer Registered inspector 11072 Shirley Elomari Lay inspector

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Team members

Mr I H Jones Kingston Centre Fairway Stafford ST16 3TW

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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 Whitnash Nursery School - 6

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PART A: SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 6 - 11

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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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Whitnash Nursery School is situated at the southern end of Leamington Spa. The children come from a very mixed social background and there are high levels of social disadvantage in the immediate catchment area. There are currently 80 three and four year old children on roll, part time. The school takes in children once a year. There are 10 children who speak English as an additional language, but none are at an early stage of acquisition. There are 17 children on the school’s register of special educational needs. Most of these children have delayed communication skills. The children stay for one year in the nursery, transferring to mainstream school in the September after their fourth birthday. Attainment on entry is generally just below that found nationally.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

This is an excellent nursery school that provides a very good quality of education. The children make very good progress in their learning due to the consistently very good quality of the teaching. Many children enter the nursery with generally below average standards and leave achieving standards that are above those expected for four year olds in all areas of their learning. The leadership and management of the headteacher are of a very high quality and make a very strong contribution to the work and development of the nursery. All staff have the highest expectations of behaviour, of attitudes and of what children can achieve. Children of all abilities and those from ethnic minority background are fully included in all the work of the school. Excellent teamwork has enabled the school to make good improvement since the last inspection. The parents hold the school in very high regard. The school provides very good value for money

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What the school does well

• The attainment of many children across all areas of learning is high. • Achieves a consistently very high quality of teaching that contributes significantly to the overall very good progress made by all children. • Provides a very broad and well-balanced curriculum within a rich and stimulating environment. • Promotes and achieves excellent personal development, relationships, attitudes and behaviour. • Benefits from the very good leadership and management of the headteacher and very supportive governors.

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What could be improved

• There are no significant weaknesses. The areas for improvement will form the basis of the governors’ action plan. Whitnash Nursery School - 8

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HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION

The school was last inspected in November 1997. There has been good improvement since then. The key issues from the last inspection have been addressed successfully. Parents and classroom helpers are deployed well to support the children’s learning and there is clear guidance for them on the routines and procedures adopted by the nursery staff. The staff, parents and governors have reviewed the system for introducing the children to the regular nursery routines. The reviewed induction programme ensures that the children settle very quickly into their new surroundings.

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HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION

Since the last inspection, the school has continued to develop and refine its very good practices. The very high quality teamwork has further improved the breadth and balance of the curriculum. The addition of many new resources, internally and externally, provides a very rich and stimulating environment in which the children learn very effectively. Assessment and recording processes have been further developed to ensure that the planned activities accurately match the learning needs of all children. The children’s records of achievement are greatly valued by the children and the parents. The school has a very good capacity to improve in the future. The staff, parents and governors work very well together as a team to continually improve the educational provision for the children.

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STANDARDS

The table summarises inspectors’ judgments about the achievements of children in relation to the national early learning goals 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 children achieve well in all areas of their learning, with very good achievement in some aspects, including personal and social development, information and communication technology and creative development. Many children are on course to achieve beyond the national targets set for pre-school children by the time they start Year 1 in the mainstream school. A particular strength of the standards attained is in the area of personal, social and emotional development. The children relate very well to others and are very enthusiastic about their learning. They move around the nursery, inside and outside, with great confidence and are not afraid to try out new activities and make use of any new resources. They work with great interest and are willing to talk about and share their experiences with one another and other adults in the room. They quickly learn to be independent and make choices sensibly, moving from one activity to another. Many children can form letters

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Performance in: Key

correctly and some children are beginning to write their own names unaided. In mathematics, children can sort, match, order and count objects and many count to ten without prompting. Children of all abilities, including those with special educational needs and those with English as an Whitnash Nursery School - 9 additional language, achieve well, because the activities are well planned to meet their needs and additional staff are very effective in their support.

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Aspect Comment

Attitudes to the school Excellent. The children are very enthusiastic, very confident and interested in all the activities. They are always eager to come to school.

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Aspect Comment

Behaviour, in and out of classrooms Excellent. The children have a clear understanding of right and wrong. They are very aware of the expected code of behaviour and the effect of their actions on others.

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Aspect Comment

Personal development and relationships Excellent. The children work very well together during the activities. All relationships within the school, and with parents, are very effective in supporting the desire to learn and the standards that the children achieve.

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Aspect Comment

Attendance Good. Many parents appreciate the importance of regular attendance. Children generally arrive punctually for the start of sessions.

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Aspect Comment

The children love school. Their enthusiasm is very high and they are always interested and totally involved in their activities. They concentrate very well on their work and often demonstrate a mature and responsible approach. They enjoy being praised and take pleasure in having their efforts rewarded. They take care of one another and are willing to help others when there is a problem. There is a very high level of co-operative work, for example, when groups of children use the outdoor equipment with great imagination and control.

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Teaching of pupils:

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:

The teaching of all aspects of the nursery curriculum, including literacy and numeracy, is consistently very good.

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Teaching of pupils:

Seventeen observations of teaching were made during the inspection. The teaching was of a very good standard in all of these observations. Particular strengths in the teaching are the very good knowledge and understanding of this age group and the high expectations of what children can achieve and how they should behave. The teachers plan very interesting and exciting activities that Whitnash Nursery School - 10 make use of the excellent resources for learning provided by the school. Consequently the quality of the learning that takes place is very high for all children.

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Teaching of pupils:

The school meets the needs of all children very well. Children of all abilities, including those with special educational needs and those with English as an additional language, are fully included in all the work of the school. The staff and the parents value all children equally.

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Aspect Comment

The quality and range of the curriculum The school provides a very broad, well-balanced and enriched curriculum. Very effective use is made of visiting artists, the expertise of other adults and the environment to provide exciting experiences for the children.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils with special educational needs Very good. Very good procedures are in place to meet the needs of these children.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils with English as an additional language There are no children currently at the early stage of acquisition.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils’ personal, including spiritual, moral, social and cultural development There is excellent provision for the development of all these aspects. Many opportunities are provided for the children to have new and exciting experiences, which are shared together in a friendly, caring environment.

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Aspect Comment

How well the school cares for its pupils Very good. The procedures for monitoring the children’s well being are very good. The monitoring of children’s learning is very good; the information is used very well to plan future experiences and to move their learning forward.

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Aspect Comment

The school works closely with the parents who are as enthusiastic as the children about the curriculum experiences on offer. The school’s links with the parents and the wider community are excellent and make a very good contribution to the children’s learning. The parents are very well informed about the curriculum through newsletters and meetings, especially when new initiatives are being introduced. The school effectively operates an open door policy. The children and parents enjoy time at the beginning and end of the sessions when they can share together some of the excellent resources available in the school. Whitnash Nursery School - 11

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Aspect Comment

Leadership and management by the headteacher and other key staff The headteacher provides a very clear educational direction for the work of the school. The dedicated team of hard working and enthusiastic staff effectively manage the day-to-day routines and procedures very well.

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Aspect Comment

How well the governors fulfil their responsibilities The governors are very supportive of the school and fulfil their responsibilities with interest and enthusiasm. Individual governors sometimes visit the school to work with the children. All governors are kept well informed about developments by the headteacher. They are involved in planning for future developments and how the school’s partly delegated budget should be used.

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Aspect Comment

The school’s evaluation of its performance The staff and the governors have a very clear view of the school’s work. They know why the school is successful and what future developments should be. They are willing to try out new initiatives in order to improve the quality of learning for the children even further.

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Aspect Comment

The strategic use of resources The school has a partially delegated budget. The resources that are available to the school from the local education authority and other sources are used very well to support learning and promote high standards. The school applies the principles of best value very well when deciding upon future spending and provision.

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Aspect Comment

The school makes very good use of the accommodation available. The children use the playground and environmental area around the school building with confidence and purpose. The learning that takes place in the outdoor environment is of a high level. The resources in the school are excellent. The staff make very effective use of every amount of space available. There is a particular emphasis upon providing an interactive environment for the children. The provision of resources for this objective is excellent. Whitnash Nursery School - 12

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

• There is a very good work ethos, children want to come to school and carry on their work at home. • The teachers are very friendly, approachable and keep the parents well informed about their children. • The wide range of activities and very good resources. • The very good progress that the children make, especially in developing computer skills. • The very good attitudes and values that the school promotes. • The schools reputation in the community. Parents at the meeting stated, ‘This is an excellent nursery school’. • No significant concerns were expressed.

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

The inspectors fully agree with the views of the parents who attended the parents’ meeting, returned the questionnaires and who spoke to them during the days of the inspection. Whitnash Nursery School - 13

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

The attainment of many children across all areas of learning is high.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

1. The children achieve high standards in communication, language and literacy development, mathematics and physical development. They attain very high standards in personal, social and emotional development, creative development and knowledge and understanding of the world. Exceptionally high standards are achieved in the development of computer skills.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

2. Upon entry to the school, many children’s skills in communication are limited. However, during the inspection, the children communicated confidently with one another and other adults. They are very expressive in their play activities and they take part in conversations with one another, taking turns and listening attentively when others are speaking. The children are developing their language skills very well across the curriculum. For example, children were observed using large photographs of different buildings and using language such as ‘pillar’, ‘column,’ ‘turret’ and ‘drawbridge’. Some children were able to make comparisons. For example, one child described a drawbridge as ‘about as long as a giant sledge’. Very good opportunities are provided for the children to take part in role-play situations. For example, they were observed making very good progress when playing in the home corner, getting ready to take their bears

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

out for dinner, when using the telephone in the office area and building a house in the outdoor classroom. The children enjoy looking at books and the pictures on the computer screens. They talk freely about the illustrations with one another and visitors. Some are able to predict what will happen next when taking part in the interactive games on the computer. Many parents and their children enjoy choosing books to take home and read. During the inspection many parents came into school with their child to choose or return the home-reading books. Many children can recognise familiar words. During their work on the computers, children were observed following instructions accurately to gain access to different parts of the programs, using words such as ‘delete’, ‘return’ and ‘space-bar’. Opportunities are provided, across all areas of learning, for children to reinforce their learning of letter names, sounds and word recognition.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

For example, when putting together an alphabet jigsaw and reading the labels on different resources around the classroom. The work on display and in their folders shows that many children can form letters correctly and some are beginning to write their own names. In the office area children write notes and letters, demonstrating their understanding of writing moving from left to right, and the use of pictures to illustrate their writing.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

3. In mathematics, children can order, sort, match and count objects. Some children can count to 20, but most count to ten backwards and forwards with the help of an adult. Many children use words such as ‘circle’, ‘square’ and ‘triangle’ to describe the shapes of everyday objects. For example, during a tasting activity, the children readily recognised that the sandwiches were shaped like triangles and that the pieces of banana were shaped like circles. Also in the activity the children made good progress in developing the concept of recording information when they entered on a chart the names of those who liked or didn’t like the different tastes. The concept of shape is reinforced through work in art and design. Observation was made of children making choices about shape and space when placing different materials on to a large piece of Whitnash Nursery School - 14 paper. Good progress in developing a range of mathematical vocabulary was made when

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

children used words such as ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ to describe the stripes on their friends’ shirts and when comparing the growth of their seedlings and using expressions such as ‘larger than’, ‘taller than’, ‘more than’ and ‘less than’. The children are provided with a wealth of opportunities to reinforce their understanding of numbers, as observed at the beginning and end of activities when number action games are used.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

4. There are high expectations of the children in their personal and social development and very high standards are achieved. Most of the children are very confident and have established very effective relationships with other children and the adults. The children work very well together in small and large group situations. They co-operate well together. The very well planned activities often offer exciting and challenging opportunities in which the children become totally involved. For example, in the outdoor classroom, a large group of children were involved in building an obstacle course with very large building equipment. Under the watchful eye of an adult, the children worked together to construct a route with the blocks and then, after some discussion, proceeded to take turns in travelling along the course and making adjustments when necessary. The children move very confidently around the indoor and outdoor areas and are

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

not afraid to try out new activities. They work with great interest and enthusiasm and often become totally absorbed. The school has an excellent induction programme that ensures that the children are fully familiar with the nursery and the staff before they begin full-time education. There are very good routines and procedures that the staff consistently follow and very well planned activities that are supported by excellent resources. For example, the children are encouraged to be independent when they take responsibility for registering themselves at the beginning of sessions and returning their reading books to their wallets; they then move purposefully to an activity and begin ‘work’, often talking to their friends and other parents. These good routines and procedures form the basis for the very high standards attained in the personal, social and emotional development of the children.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

5. The children achieve very highly when they work on the computer. Many are already attaining standards well into the national programme of work for primary school pupils. The resources for this aspect of their education are very good and the children make full use of them. During the inspection, many children were observed using the mouse with a high level of accuracy and drawing pictures of themselves, which they printed and saved or deleted. They could find their way around a variety of programs and read and follow the instructions printed on the screen. All pupils used a painting program when they independently chose their own style, colour and effect to produce and print their designs. Their enjoyment of their work was heightened when it was reproduced on acetate and projected on to the ceiling of the room. Many parents are very excited about this aspect of learning and take the opportunity to spend time with their children

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

at the computer before and after school sessions. They are happy to be taught how to use the computer by their children.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

6. Very high standards are attained by the children in their creative work. The children are encouraged to use a very varied assortment of different materials when making compositions. During an activity session, children were observed carefully choosing materials, and thinking about where to place them on their paper. They used paint and glue with great skill, covering great areas of paper, confidently producing their works of art. There are many opportunities for Whitnash Nursery School - 15 the children to experience colour, form and texture in this nursery environment. The displays around the school are designed to make the children look and think. The use of large mirrors and lights are very effectively used to provide visual stimulus. In music, the children sing with enjoyment, enthusiasm and in tune. They can play a range of percussion instruments with very good timing when accompanying the guitar in their singing sessions. They have very good

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

control, stopping and starting at the correct time when reading from a visual representation of the music. They understand and interpret the signs for fast, slow, high, low, loud and soft very well.

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Achieves a consistently very high quality of teaching that contributes significantly to the

overall very good progress made by all children.

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Achieves a consistently very high quality of teaching that contributes significantly to the

7. Seventeen observations of teaching were made during the inspection. In all of these lessons the teaching was very good. The teachers’ very good knowledge of how young children learn is used to very good effect in planning lively, interesting and purposeful activities. The excellent resources are used very well to support the children in their learning and are chosen carefully to offer inspiration. The result of this is that on many occasions the children initiate their own learning. For example, they were observed playing in the ‘kitchen’, preparing the dinner for the three bears. After a sudden inspiration, the children decided to take the bears out to a disco. They invited their ‘visitor’ to join them and time was spent on preparing the bears for their party in the home corner. They then went to the disco in another part of the nursery when they played taped music for the bears to dance to. The children used the resources around the

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Achieves a consistently very high quality of teaching that contributes significantly to the

nursery confidently and all had a good time.

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Achieves a consistently very high quality of teaching that contributes significantly to the

8. All staff are very focused upon what each child needs to learn next. There is a very good balance between new learning and the reinforcement of previous learning. The children are given a free choice of the activities that they wish to pursue, but this choice is well monitored and supported by the staff. Help and guidance for children with special educational needs are supported by very clear procedures that involve individual education plans and regular discussions with parents. The wide variety of activities available are very well matched to the children’s abilities and needs. The nursery sessions are appropriately organised into periods when teachers teach small groups of children and times when the children can move around freely from activity to activity. All sessions are very well planned and have clear objectives for the learning that is to take place. The knowledge and skills that the children acquire in the

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Achieves a consistently very high quality of teaching that contributes significantly to the

taught sessions are reinforced and practised in the free choice activities.

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Achieves a consistently very high quality of teaching that contributes significantly to the

9. The planning for teaching and learning is very detailed and follows the recommended curriculum for this early stage of learning. All staff work together to produce planning which ensures that their combined expertise is used to support all the areas of learning at all times. Very clear learning intentions for individual children ensure that the teaching support staff and resources are employed as effectively as they can be.

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Achieves a consistently very high quality of teaching that contributes significantly to the

10. In many small group sessions the skilful questioning of the children by the staff enhances the quality of learning. The questions are often searching and encourage the children to make full and detailed responses. For example, during a session when the children were comparing the growth of their seeds, the teacher encouraged the children to think, make comparisons and Whitnash Nursery School - 16 choose the correct words to describe their observations. The children were also encouraged to think about questions such as ‘what would happen if?’ Many opportunities are provided for the children to interact in group work. This helps to ensure that social skills are developed to a very high standard.

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Achieves a consistently very high quality of teaching that contributes significantly to the

11. The staff reinforce letter shapes and sounds, and the concepts of shape and number in all their teaching. This happens, for example, when children sing number action games and when they make three-dimensional pictures using cylinders and boxes, circles and squares. Children reinforce letter sounds and shape when practising their writing in the office, when using jigsaws or drawing using the computer. All learning takes place at a good pace and the children never have time to become uninterested because there is always something new and exciting for them to do.

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Provides a very broad and well-balanced curriculum within a rich and stimulating

12. The teachers use the recommended planning for the nursery stage of education extremely well. A very broad and well-balanced range of learning experiences is available to the children. The children are very familiar with the layout of the indoor and outdoor classroom. They enthusiastically explore, experiment and take risks in their activities. For example, they experiment with a wide range of found materials to produce different effects in their art and craft work. Other activities involve water and sand play, listening to stories through earphones, working on the computer, experimenting with different sounds in the outdoor classroom and building with very large building equipment. In addition to these activities, the school provides opportunities for the staff and children to benefit from the work of visiting artists. This takes place at least annually and all children benefit from this experience over the course of a week.

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Provides a very broad and well-balanced curriculum within a rich and stimulating

Some very high quality art and craft work produced by the children can be seen around the school. The effect of these experiences is long lasting in the quality of display around the nursery but also in the work that the children are currently producing. During the inspection children were observed taking time to think about colour, pattern, texture and shape. Most of the children know a range of colours and readily name them when working.

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Provides a very broad and well-balanced curriculum within a rich and stimulating

13. The teachers are constantly looking for new ways to enhance the curriculum for the children. They have introduced lots of mirrors and lights into the classrooms. These add new experiences for the children to explore. The children were observed watching themselves and looking at the reflections of objects in the large mirrors. The outdoor classroom has a great number of large percussion instruments, positioned all around the grounds. These consist of mobiles for the children to bang, chime bars and a variety of different drums. The children were observed using these with great enjoyment. The whole environment of the school is focused upon sensory experiences. The children interact very well with one another and the resources provided for them.

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Provides a very broad and well-balanced curriculum within a rich and stimulating

14. This wealth of learning experiences provides the children with excellent opportunities to develop spiritually, morally, socially and to appreciate different cultures. For example, a child was observed moving to play in the water tray that had been filled with soapy water. After using a whisk in the water, the child shrieked ‘I’m making magic’, when lots of frothy bubbles Whitnash Nursery School - 17 appeared. Another group of children gasped in amazement when they moved to a large sand tray and found that the cress seeds that they had planted the previous week had suddenly grown very tall and provided them with a ‘forest’ in which to play with their animals.

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Provides a very broad and well-balanced curriculum within a rich and stimulating

15. The children have many opportunities to share experiences from other cultures. They have celebrated Chinese New Year and made their own dragon and decorations. They shared the festival of Diwali, during a week when they learned about light. They heard the story of Rama and Sita and one of the parents visited school in her traditional clothes. They have studied the paintings of Kandinsky and produced their own, very large paintings based on his style. They are taken on visits to local places of interest and they have a go at local crafts such as papermaking. They are encouraged to respect the environment and there is a wild life area that the children visit to observe and draw the selection of wild flowers and mini-beasts. During the week of the inspection the children were anxiously waiting for their tadpoles to turn into frogs. They were observed on several occasions looking at them through magnifying glasses and

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Provides a very broad and well-balanced curriculum within a rich and stimulating

describing what they could see to their mums, dads and friends. The parents are encouraged to be involved in their children’s learning as much as possible. They are encouraged to share books, keep a soft toy diary and generally take an interest in the exciting work that is taking place in the school.

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Promotes and achieves excellent personal development, relationships, attitudes and

16. Overall, the school provides an extremely high standard of care and support for all the children, at a level even higher than that reported at the last inspection. The school is a very warm and very friendly place in which the children thrive. They feel happy and secure and love coming to school. When they arrive in the classroom they happily sit down and join in the class discussion with hardly a backward glance at their parents. Relationships are excellent. The staff know the children extremely well and maintain a high level of affection and support at all times. Very good support is given to children with special educational needs and to those who speak English as a second language, which enables them to get the full benefit from their school life.

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Promotes and achieves excellent personal development, relationships, attitudes and

17. Very good records are kept of the children’s attainment. Every effort is made to find out what children know, understand and can do before they start at the school. Parents are involved in helping to form a profile of their child that is then used as a basis for planning relevant activities to support and develop learning. The school has very good procedures for noting, during the activities, what the children can and cannot do. This information is used very effectively to plan the next steps in learning for individuals and groups of children. Children’s records build into a file showing what has been achieved and what progress has been made in each half term since starting school. These records are passed on to the receiving schools and play an important part in the smooth transfer of children to full time education. Selected samples of work, chosen by the staff and the children, form Records of Achievement that go home with the child at the

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Promotes and achieves excellent personal development, relationships, attitudes and

end of their time at the nursery. These are greatly appreciated by the parents.

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Promotes and achieves excellent personal development, relationships, attitudes and

18. The school has simple but effective procedures for discipline, and behaviour management is very good. The staff are excellent role models and provide the children with very good Whitnash Nursery School - 18 examples of how they should behave. The children soon learn good social habits, leading to the very high standard of behaviour in the school.

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Promotes and achieves excellent personal development, relationships, attitudes and

19. The children’s attitudes to their work are excellent. They are enthusiastic and highly motivated by the learning environment, where they work and play with one another purposefully.

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Benefits from the very good leadership and management of the headteacher and very

20. The school is led by a very caring, enthusiastic and innovative headteacher, who is held in very high regard by her colleagues in school, the governors and the parents. The school’s overriding aim is, ‘ to provide a secure and happy environment and a wide range of learning experiences whilst encouraging independence, a sense of achievement and a sense of responsibility ’. The vision in this statement is being realised in the every-day work of this excellent nursery school. Teaching of very high quality that attends to the needs of all children across all aspects of learning is constantly taking place. This makes a very strong contribution to the standards being attained.

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Benefits from the very good leadership and management of the headteacher and very

21. The headteacher, who has a full time teaching commitment, manages the school very efficiently and effectively by involving all staff in the day-to-day management of the very clear routines and procedures. Roles and responsibilities are explicit and the staff work enthusiastically in fulfilling them. Each day’s activities are very thoroughly planned. This planning supports all staff very well in the work that they do with the children and helps to ensure that the teaching and learning is of the highest standard. All the staff are hard working and committed to ensuring that all the children receive the best education. This is accomplished through the very good teaching of the very well planned curriculum.

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Benefits from the very good leadership and management of the headteacher and very

22. The governing body is well informed about the work of the school and sometimes some governors visit the school, to work with the children. These governors are, therefore, fully aware of the work of the school and the high standards expected and achieved. The governors are kept informed, through specially arranged meetings and written reports, about the progress of developments and new initiatives. They are fully involved in the school’s developments at the early stage of planning and they make decisions about and question how the money provided for resources is to be used. They act very well as a critical friend, thus supporting the headteacher in making the right decisions.

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Benefits from the very good leadership and management of the headteacher and very

23. The staff work very closely together and regularly evaluate what works well and what needs to be improved. All staff monitor the planned curriculum and regular discussions are held to decide how best it should be taught. The school’s priorities for future development are clearly defined and are an extension of the very good developments already under way. These longer- term developments include developing the curriculum and resources even further to include more interactive experiences for the children. The already very good resources for information and communication technology are to be further extended and more frequent visits by artists in residence are being planned. The school makes very good use of the funds made available from the local education authority and the extra income generated by the very willing and enthusiastic parents of the children. The identification of the resources needed is directly linked

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Benefits from the very good leadership and management of the headteacher and very

Whitnash Nursery School - 19 to the school’s priorities for development. The school applies the principles of best value very well. The very good provision of resources in the school contributes to the high standards achieved. The school provides very good value for money. Whitnash Nursery School - 20

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Summary of the sources of evidence for the inspection

Number of lessons observed 17 Number of discussions with staff, governors, other adults and pupils 7

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Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Poor Very Poor 0 100 0 0 0 0 0

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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

Pupils on the school’s roll Nursery Number of pupils on the school’s roll (FTE for part-time pupils) 40 Number of full-time pupils eligible for free school meals 0 FTE means full-time equivalent.

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Information about the school’s pupils

Special educational needs Nursery Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs 0 Number of pupils on the school’s special educational needs register 17

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Information about the school’s pupils

English as an additional language No of pupils Number of pupils with English as an additional language 10

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupil mobility in the last school year No of pupils Pupils who joined the school other than at the usual time of first admission 1 Pupils who left the school other than at the usual time of leaving 2 Whitnash Nursery School - 21

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Authorised absence Unauthorised absence

Both tables give the percentage of half days (sessions) missed through absence for the latest complete reporting year.

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staff

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) Number of pupils per qualified teacher 20 £

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staff

Total income 129,021 Total number of education support staff 4 Total expenditure 128,739

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staff

Total aggregate hours worked per week 43 Expenditure per pupil 3218

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staff

Balance brought forward from previous year Number of pupils per FTE adult 10 Balance carried forward to next year

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staff

FTE means full-time equivalent. Whitnash Nursery School - 22

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Percentage of responses in each category

Strongly agree Tend to agree Tend to disagree Strongly disagree Don’t know

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Percentage of responses in each category

My child is making good progress in school. 75 25 0 0 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

Behaviour in the school is good. 60 37 0 0 2

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Percentage of responses in each category

My child gets the right amount of work to do at home. 38 56 0 0 5

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Percentage of responses in each category

I am kept well informed about how my child is getting on. 55 45 0 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. 82 18 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. 39 55 2 0 5

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school works closely with parents. 57 41 0 0 2

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Percentage of responses in each category

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

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school is helping my child become mature and responsible. 80 18 0 0 2

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school provides an interesting range of activities outside lessons. 67 31 0 0 2

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