Bognor Regis Nursery School

BOGNOR REGIS NURSERY SCHOOL

Inspection carried out under section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996 Bognor Regis Nursery - 2 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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BOGNOR REGIS 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. Bognor Regis Nursery - 3

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Type of school: Nursery School category: Maintained Age range of pupils: 3 – 5 years Gender of pupils: Mixed Number on roll: 103 pupils part-time

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: 85 Victoria Drive Bognor Regis Postcode PO21 2TB

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Telephone number: 01243 821692 Fax number: 01243 866014

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Appropriate authority: Governing Body Name of chair of governors: Mrs Polly Earons

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL

Bognor Regis is a large nursery school offering a wide range of extended services for young children and their families. There are currently 103 children who attend part-time. More children will be admitted to the school week by week during the school year until the school reaches its capacity of 88 full-time equivalent places. Most pupils are white but there are also 16 pupils from mainly Bangladeshi and mixed backgrounds. The percentage of pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds is higher than the national figure. A high percentage of those pupils are at a very early stage of learning English. The social circumstances of many of the families whose children attend the school are less favourable than the national figure and one-third of the available places in the Nursery are for children who are referred by Health Visitors as well as other professionals in the community. The proportion of children with special educational needs (SEN) is above average but there are no children with

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL

statements of special educational need. Practically all the children with SEN have significant speech and language development difficulties. There is a very wide range of ability but, overall, when children are admitted, their skills and knowledge are usually well below average. The school was awarded an Achievement Award in 2000 in recognition of very high standards. Until this year the school had Beacon status but this national initiative has now been discontinued. In 2002, the school was designated an Early Excellence Centre (EEC) and, as a result, the school has experienced major and rapid developments including a very large extension to the building as well as significant changes to the roles of all members of staff. Early Excellence Centres are part of a government initiative aimed at providing high quality, integrated education and care of young children. Bognor Regis Nursery - 4

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Members of the inspection team Subject responsibilities

17766 Eira Gill Lead inspector Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Mathematical Development and Physical Development. English as an additional language Early Excellence Centre 9770 John Baker Lay inspector 23048 Di Wilkinson Team inspector Communication, Language and Literacy, Knowledge and Understanding of the World and Creative Development. Special educational needs

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Members of the inspection team Subject responsibilities

Serco QAA Herringston Barn Herringston Dorchester Dorset DT2 9PU

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Members of the inspection team Subject responsibilities

Any concerns or complaints about the inspection or the report should be made initially to the inspection contractor. The procedures are set out in the leaflet ‘Complaining about Ofsted Inspections’ , which is available from Ofsted Publications Centre (telephone 07002 637833) or Ofsted’s website (www.ofsted.gov.uk). Bognor Regis Nursery - 5

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED BY CHILDREN 9

Standards achieved in areas of learning Children’s attitudes, values and other personal qualities

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QUALITY OF EDUCATION PROVIDED BY THE SCHOOL 12

Teaching and learning The curriculum Care, guidance and support Partnership with parents, other schools and the community

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OVERALL EVALUATION

Bognor Regis Nursery School is an excellent school that has been designated an Early Excellence Centre (EEC). The school offers a complex range of provision and brings an integrated approach to education, day care, social support and adult learning. Despite significant absences of staff due to illness during the last two years and disruption from the building of the very large extension, the school has maintained high standards. Achievement is excellent, teaching is very good and leadership and management are excellent. Staff and governors work together very effectively. The school provides excellent value for money.

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OVERALL EVALUATION

The school’s main strengths and weaknesses are:

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OVERALL EVALUATION

• The attitudes of the children to their work as well as their behaviour are excellent. • The quality of assessment is excellent. • The curriculum provided by the school is outstanding. • The extended services offered by the school are very good features and contribute significantly to excellent links with parents and the community. • There are excellent links with other schools locally, nationally and internationally.

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OVERALL EVALUATION

There were no key issues identified in the last inspection but it was recommended that the role of the governors be given a stronger focus. The school has dealt successfully with this minor weakness. A great deal has changed since the last inspection, including designation as an Early Excellence Centre, major building works and a wide range of extended services that are now available to parents and the local community. The school has responded with enthusiasm and energy to the many challenges it has faced and good improvement has been made.

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED

Achievement is excellent for all children across the school . Most children are well on course to exceed the goals children are expected to reach by the end of the Reception year. The standards on entry of most children are below average, and often well below, with a significant number having poor communication, especially speaking and listening skills. By the time they leave the school, most reach standards above those expected for their age in all areas of learning and standards in the physical area of learning far exceed expectations for their age group. In the knowledge and understanding of the world area of learning, children’s attainment in the science aspect is also well above average. There is a direct link between the very good teaching, outstanding curriculum, excellent resources and the children’s achievement. Achievement is excellent for all groups of children within the school, including

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED

those with special educational needs and the gifted and talented.

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED

Children’s personal qualities , including their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development , are excellent. Children’s attitudes to work, their behaviour and interest in all the activities are excellent. Attendance and punctuality are good. Bognor Regis Nursery - 7

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QUALITY OF EDUCATION

The school provides an excellent quality of education. Teaching and learning are very good . Very high expectations lead to very good learning and the children quickly become involved in all the interesting activities provided. All staff have a very good understanding of how young children learn. Staff are very skilled at helping the children to become independent and to make decisions about their own learning in the different workshops the school offers. Very good teamwork ensures that records of the day’s activities include highly focused information about what individual children need to learn next. Assessment is excellent and promotes very good learning.

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QUALITY OF EDUCATION

The curriculum is outstanding and provides the children with a wealth of high quality learning experiences. Enrichment is apparent in every area of learning. In the physical area, there are many opportunities for children to solve problems, such as how to scramble up nets and slide down poles safely. As a result, they develop positive attitudes that are linked directly to their excellent achievement. Children are encouraged to reach high standards in aspects of subjects unusual for this age group, such as woodwork using scaled down tools, soft sculpture and science. They learn about insects and other creatures, use magnifying containers and use the light table in the Garden Room to examine the fine details carefully. The very good standard of care and support helps children to feel secure and this, together with the excellent partnership with parents, links with the community and other schools, makes an excellent

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QUALITY OF EDUCATION

contribution to the children’s very good learning. Early Excellence Centre status has enabled the development of improved links with parents and the community. The support programmes provided for parents and the community are very effective, and are contributing to raising achievement and promoting excellent inclusion within the school.

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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Leadership and management are excellent . The headteacher is inspirational and totally committed to maintaining high standards, enriching the curriculum and managing the EEC developments effectively and efficiently. She is supported very well by key members of the teaching staff, administrative staff and the extended services project manager. The headteacher and her senior teachers are influential beyond the school and provide models for others. She has managed the introduction of many exciting, but very demanding initiatives, with energy and determination. Governors are very supportive and have a very good understanding of the school’s strengths. They are also fully aware of the advantages as well as the challenge that the EEC provision brings. They ensure that all legal requirements are met.

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PARENTS’ AND CHILDREN’S VIEWS OF THE SCHOOL

Parents’ views of the school are very favourable. They are very pleased with how much their children enjoy coming to school, how much progress they making, the wide range of resources and activities the school provides and how their children are often given one-to-one attention. They know their children are becoming mature and independent and they were very pleased with the arrangements the school made for their children to settle in when they started school. The children’s views were more difficult to ascertain due to their age. In brief, it was clear from the answers to the short questionnaire members of staff used with the children that they are very happy.

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IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED

Bognor Regis Nursery - 8 There are no areas for improvement. Bognor Regis Nursery - 9

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Standards achieved in areas of learning, subjects and courses

The achievement of all children is excellent. Children enter the nursery often with well below average attainment but most are likely to exceed the goals children are expected to reach in all areas of learning by the end of the Reception year in primary school.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Many of the children with special educational needs, those with English as an additional language, those from different ethnic backgrounds and more vulnerable children are likely to meet the goals children are expected to reach in all areas of learning by the end of the Reception year. • Children make especially good progress in their speaking and listening skills from a low base. • Children’s attainment in the science aspect of the curriculum is outstanding. • Children’s skills in the physical area of learning far exceed expectations for their age group.

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Commentary

1. When the children enter the nursery, a large number have very significant speech and language problems. During their time in the school they make very good progress and the sustained good achievement evident in all areas of learning leads to excellent achievement over time. High standards have been maintained since the last inspection. There is a direct link between the excellent achievement and the very good teaching. Parents at the meeting before the inspection said how pleased they were to note the very good progress their children make.

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Commentary

2. There are several reasons why pupils achieve so well: • Teaching is never less than good with a high proportion of very good, and occasionally, excellent teaching. • Teachers’ expectations are very high. • The school’s initiatives to improve speaking and listening skills are very successful. • The excellent assessment and tracking of all children mean that the teachers know the learning needs of the children very well. • The school provides an outstanding curriculum. • The pupils’ attitudes to learning are excellent; they show a keen desire to learn and can often sustain their concentration for unexpectedly long periods of time.

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Commentary

3. Last year’s tracking of the children’s progress towards the expectations of the Early Learning Goals showed that girls seemed to make better progress during their time at the nursery than the boys. However, the inspection team could not detect any difference between the boys and the girls during the inspection. The school’s very close monitoring of children in all groups indicates that they have made very good progress compared with Bognor Regis Nursery - 10 other children nationally. The monitoring data shows that the school caters very well for its gifted and talented pupils. Often, these pupils are meeting the expected goals in all areas of learning before they leave the nursery. In the physical area of learning in the outdoor environment, there are many opportunities for children to solve problems, such as how to crawl along horizontal ladders. As a result, they develop greater independence and further

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the skills they need to succeed in other areas of learning.

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Commentary

4. The children’s very good scientific knowledge and skills are developed in various ways. Planning ensures that many interesting activities are available for them to explore and investigate in the garden environment. The children are encouraged to investigate living things closely, for example, by looking for tiny details on insects using magnifying containers and the light table. Evidence from photographs showed children completing electric circuits. Their physical skills are developed very well by the frequent use of the excellent climbing equipment provided as well as the many wheeled toys available and small games equipment. They have opportunities every day to develop their co-ordination skills and to play games together. As a result, they develop positive attitudes that are linked directly to their excellent achievement. Children have plenty of opportunities to develop their information and communication technology skills, can use the mouse

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Commentary

competently and several can use the drag feature.

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Commentary

5. The school provides excellent support for the pupils who have special educational needs. Their needs are very well met by the school’s exceptionally innovative approach of the two projects funded partly by the Early Excellence Centre (EEC) budget. These projects include parents as much as their children in a wide range of activities and teaching sessions to help to stimulate and improve the children’s speech and language development. A speech and language therapist visits for a whole day once a week when she is supported by one of the nursery nurses. This is proving to be very good value for money as the assistant continues the recommended activities throughout the week with groups or individual children and liaises closely with the children’s Key Workers and parents. Gifted and talented children are also well supported and two children were observed playing a board game using two dice. Both children could count with accuracy

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Commentary

and on his second throw, the boy quickly said ‘Five, five’. He had recognised both dice had fallen with five dots uppermost without counting each dot.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and other personal qualities

Attendance and punctuality are good and there have been no exclusions. Children’s attitudes to school and their behaviour are excellent. Children’s personal development, including spiritual, moral, social and cultural, is excellent.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Children enjoy school, they are very confident and have high self-esteem. • The children are very happy, they enjoy excellent relationships and have a keen desire to learn. • The children are developing high levels of independence because of the very effective organisation of the curriculum and the workshops. • There is an implicit expectation of good behaviour and the children respond accordingly. • Very high standards have been maintained since the last inspection.

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Commentary

Bognor Regis Nursery - 11 6. Most children come to school regularly and on time. The Family Link Workers established through the EEC funding are very effective in working with parents to help them overcome difficulties in attendance or arriving on time. The well established routines of arrival at school give the children confidence and they know there will be a familiar face to greet them. Most children separate from their main carer with confidence and several immediately head for the areas they want to work in for the first part of the session. All of the children in all groups are encouraged to be independent and to choose for themselves the activities they wish to take part in. This is of paramount importance in the philosophy of the school and contributes to their excellent achievement. Children show a great interest and curiosity in all the activities, and enjoy working and exploring in twos and threes. However, individual children can be observed

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Commentary

working independently, sometimes with the help of a member of staff, on a specific task such as improving their skills at throwing a ball accurately into the basketball net. The workshops offer similar activities with a change of emphasis each week and the effective planning ensures that the children can return to and explore activities in depth while improving their skills. This organisation has a significant impact on the continuity and further development of their learning and achievement. 7. Children tidy up all the resources and put them back in their correct places at the end of sessions. The resources are organised efficiently and the children learn quickly where things go and how to pack them away. They know they have to wash their hands before they have their fruit and join their Key Worker for the last session. The children who have been in the nursery for one or more terms have formed very good friendships, and their relationships with

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Commentary

each other and members of staff are excellent. The final session is quite formal and the children know they are expected to sit fairly quietly and listen and respond to their Key Worker. They show excellent attention skills and most children have learned to wait until the teacher turns to them for a response. Even when children have little English or have significant special educational needs, they are polite, patient and very eager to take part in the learning activities. Occasionally, children can be observed talking to and supporting each other in their heritage language. The behaviour of all the children is excellent both in the workshops and moving around the school and has a positive impact on their learning and on the ethos of the school. Very rarely, a child will behave in an idiosyncratic manner, which is to be expected of three year olds, but all staff respond very calmly and effectively. Parents say their children like school and

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that the staff encourage them to become mature and independent.

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8. The school’s provision for cultivating and nurturing the children’s personal development is excellent. Their self-esteem and confidence are boosted every day by the successes they experience. The children’s spiritual development is developed through a sense of wonder, for example, when they discover creatures such as slugs in the garden and look at them moving and withdrawing their antennae for a short while in containers on top of the ‘light’ table in the Garden Room. Children are developing morally by helping their friends if they are struggling to build structures and ramps so that they can practise rolling and pushing vehicles up and down slopes. They give each other help and encouragement on the climbing equipment that, for some children, is quite challenging.

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Commentary

9. Social development takes places in every area of learning. Well-planned opportunities ensure that children work in pairs or in groups and they are given plenty of responsibility. They are taught how to care for their extensive and varied environment and help each other to fasten shoes and coats. Provision for cultural development is excellent. Visitors from other cultures visit and demonstrate Japanese writing, for example, as well as sharing stories in their heritage language. The school also ensures that the children have access to books and resources that celebrate diversity. Each year, the curriculum includes the main festivals, such as the Chinese New Year, when the children made their own dragon and danced in the garden. One of the fathers made spring rolls and the children made and set up restaurant lanterns. The festival of Diwali is celebrated within the school; children are told the story and set up a train of night lights

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Commentary

in the garden as well as watching a video of Indian dance and making and eating Indian shortbread. Trips to the local wood yard to collect off-cuts and visits to the beach, the station and the shops all increase the children’s knowledge of their local culture. Bognor Regis Nursery - 12

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QUALITY OF EDUCATION PROVIDED BY THE SCHOOL

The quality of education provided by the school is excellent. Teaching and learning are very good. The school provides an outstanding curriculum with excellent enrichment. Provision for pupils’ care, guidance and support is very good. There are excellent links with parents and the community. Links with other schools are excellent.

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Teaching and learning

Teaching and learning are very good. Assessment is excellent.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Teachers have very high expectations of the children. • The excellent resources are used exceptionally well by all staff in planned activities. • The teachers are particularly skilled at ensuring that all children behave exceptionally well. • The use of teaching assistants and the help of parents in school are very effective.

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Commentary

Summary of teaching observed during the inspection in 21 lessons

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Commentary

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Poor Very Poor

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Commentary

The table gives the number of lessons observed in each of the seven categories used to make judgements about lessons; figures in brackets show percentages where 30 or more lessons are seen.

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Commentary

10. Very good standards of teaching and learning have been maintained since the last inspection. No lessons were judged to be less than good and this is having a significant impact on the children’s excellent achievement. All staff work as a very effective team and know all children very well. Once the children begin to feel confident and safe in the nursery, they are prepared to widen their experience, leave their Key Worker and explore the different workshops available. As they move around the school and garden, the children gradually begin to have contact with all the teachers, nursery nurses and classroom assistants who keep a watchful eye when they are working independently.

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Commentary

11. Learning takes place seamlessly and teachers have very high expectations. As a result, the children respond to challenging work with enthusiasm and enjoyment. In the garden workshop, children were observed with their teacher acting out the story of ‘The Three Bears’, using the appropriate vocabulary, developing their mathematical skills by matching bowls, spoons and chairs to the characters and progressing very well in their social development by working together. Staff are very skilled at understanding that the children are at different stages of development and that they often make better progress when they are given opportunities to make their own decisions about what they are going to learn. Children were observed parking their wheeled toys because they had decided to join a group for a mathematics lesson where a washing line had been hung along the Bognor Regis Nursery - 13 fence to peg up the children’s work. The teachers welcome the children at any time and

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Commentary

12. The ratio of children to adults is very favourable and the teachers’ use of time is very good when children are given planned high quality moments on their own or in small groups, such as when a child in the early stages of speaking English was encouraged to observe and talk about the creatures he had found in the garden with a nursery nurse. Very good planning results in short teaching slots being set up, usually arranged the previous day, by the Key Workers for the children in their groups who need specific help to move them forward in their language development. The use of homework is very good and, as well as taking home ‘Bookbags’, the school has recently introduced ‘Mathsbags’ that are graded for difficulty. Parents reported at the meeting prior to the inspection that they appreciate this type of homework. They also said that teaching is very good and this was expressed in the response to the questionnaires.

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Commentary

13. All adults have an especially good knowledge of those children who have special educational needs, and they are supported very well with excellent links made with parents. Children work regularly with special needs assistants on short activities planned to promote progress towards the targets in their individual education plans. These occasions are very well organised and taught because the activities are so well matched to the stage at which the children are working. Excellent resources are chosen to promote the children’s interest and help them to learn. Very good organisation of staff by the management of the school has ensured that the assistants have a targeted role to release the Key Workers in order to track specific children, and some will target children for additional support. This is an improvement since the last inspection. Very good attention is given to providing parents with work to do at home. For

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Commentary

example, parents are able to borrow toys from the toy library that help to address their child’s specific needs. This feature is in the EEC action plan and funded by the Sure Start Early Years Childcare Service.

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Commentary

14. Excellent leadership and management have resulted in highly effective assessment and tracking procedures on the children’s progress in all groups. Standards in this aspect have been maintained since the last inspection although the school reports there has been an improvement in the link between the special needs co-ordinator and assistants and, as a result, recording of the children’s progress has improved. Information from assessment is used efficiently throughout the school to provide an excellent level of challenge for the gifted and talented children and appropriate support and organisation for those children who find learning more difficult. At the end of sessions, both morning and afternoon, staff sit down with each other and make very effective, detailed records of how the children have performed at their tasks, which tasks they have chosen and any other relevant factors that are important to the children’s development. These daily records

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Commentary

affect the planning for the next day so that any issues that arose for individual children or groups of children will be catered for in the next day’s organisation. In addition, each Key Worker keeps very effective detailed records on each child in their group and these show the targets they have made for each one. Comments are added as and when children reach the targets or have problems. This excellent organisation of daily and on-going assessment contributes very significantly to the children’s very good learning.

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The curriculum

The curriculum is excellent in all six areas of learning and is a major reason why children achieve so well. Opportunities for enrichment are also excellent. The accommodation and resources are excellent and are very effective in ensuring the efficient delivery of the curriculum. Bognor Regis Nursery - 14

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• The particularly rich and stimulating learning environment creates an exceptional ethos for learning. • The accommodation and resources are used especially well to promote learning. • The very wide ranging curriculum sets out challenging expectations of what children can achieve. • The cross-curricular approach planned through a comprehensive number of workshops promotes excellent achievement across all areas of learning. • The emphasis on children exploring and finding out for themselves has a very positive impact on their achievement.

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Commentary

15. The range and quality of the curriculum are of the very highest quality and has improved since the last inspection. Exceptional care has been given to planning activities that promote children’s excellent achievement across all the areas of learning. An activity where children collected and looked for mini-beasts allowed them to develop their investigation skills, to count, to learn new vocabulary and to use books to identify the creatures they had found. The breadth of experiences on offer is exceptionally good and the very high expectations adults have of what children do allow them, for example, to investigate forces, to recognise the difference between pulse and rhythm and to acquire a particularly good understanding of tessellation.

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Commentary

16. The whole curriculum is enriched so that children have a wealth of high quality learning experiences. During the term before the inspection, they took part in making soft sculpture with a local artist, made sand pictures on the beach and visited a local building site to discover how cranes and diggers worked. The rich and interesting activities provided enthuse and motivate children so that the nursery is a happy and busy place where children are constantly building on their skills and knowledge. Parents’ response to the questionnaire shows total satisfaction about the range of activities available for their children.

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Commentary

17. Staff and governors have worked hard to ensure that the nursery environment is of the very highest quality. The excellent accommodation is very well organised and used particularly effectively, with especially good thought being given to providing excellent resources to stimulate children’s interest and to help them to learn. The Garden Room contains features such as a ‘bendy mirror’, different textured pictures and a projector to show colour and light patterns, which help to stimulate children’s imaginations. The Garden Room is a very soothing place for children where the natural light can be shut out and they can lie on comfy cushions reading or just ‘chilling out’. The room is also used by the community for therapeutic purposes, for example, to provide a unique learning environment for local children. The outdoor learning environment also includes a wide range of climbing equipment, a circuit and other pathways on which to ride wheeled toys,

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Commentary

a garden to explore and grassed areas are all used for different activities that promote children’s learning particularly well. The level of staffing is excellent. This helps to ensure that children are very well supervised at all times and that adults are on hand to encourage and support children’s learning where needed. Bognor Regis Nursery - 15 18. Medium term planning is very effective at setting out activities in which the children themselves investigate new things or explore ways in which they can build on and extend their skills. This philosophy is consistently applied because all adults are very skilled at helping children to do things for themselves rather than instructing them or telling them the answers. For example, in a counting activity the teacher deliberately made errors in the number line and then waited for children to identify them.

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Commentary

19. Especially good attention has been given to ensuring that all children, whatever their needs or talents, have full access to the curriculum and the provision for children with special educational needs, gifted and talented children and those with a background of ethnic minorities is excellent. Where a child is at the early stages of learning English they often work with another child or an adult who can help and support them to take part in activities.

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Commentary

20. Children with special educational needs are equally well supported. The nursery has a high number of children who have significant speech and language difficulties and their needs are exceptionally well met through particularly innovative approaches. Several children and their families are taking part in the national ‘Big Wide Talk Project’ which offers the children a wide range of very exciting activities such as rock climbing and camping to help stimulate their imagination and vocabulary development. The school’s own ‘Celebrating Communication’ project, carried out with the help of the speech and language therapist, is also having a very positive impact on providing for children’s needs.

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Care, guidance and support

The school makes very good provision for ensuring children’s care, welfare, health and safety. The school provides children with excellent support, advice and guidance based on monitoring of achievement and personal development. The school has made good attempts to involve the children in its work and development.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• The very good care given to children ensures that they feel secure and work in a healthy and safe environment. • The excellent support, advice and guidance given to children leads to very high achievement. • Children have excellent relationships with staff and complete trust in them. • Excellent induction arrangements ensure that children settle in quickly. • Excellent support is provided for families and children through a wide range of initiatives at school and in their homes.

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Commentary

21. The very good care of pupils has been maintained since the last inspection. Support and guidance have improved and are now excellent. Health and safety procedures are very good. Risk assessments are carried out on all areas and activities are assessed frequently to minimize risk. Codes of practice, for example, are in place for the climbing area, sand area and workshop areas. All staff are very diligent in ensuring pupils’ safety and any issues they raise are carefully assessed. Recently, issues have been raised Bognor Regis Nursery - 16 concerning the use of the new building and appropriate measures have been introduced to address these. Children are made aware of health and safety issues through discussion and through experiences such as using tools and equipment safely, particularly when involved in woodwork activities. Child protection procedures are very good and all staff are aware of what to do if a problem arises and of its importance. The leadership of

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Commentary

the school ensures that the procedures are discussed at staff meetings, particularly when supply staff have been recruited. There is very good liaison with other agencies. The school actively promotes a healthy way of life in its excellent attention to the children’s learning in the outside environment, which is planned for very effectively.

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Commentary

22. All staff, including those funded by the EEC budget, know the children and their families extremely well, are sensitive to their needs and are able to provide excellent support and guidance. Support for families is provided by the Family Link Workers where needed. Key Workers keep meticulous records of children’s personal, social and academic progress and use these most effectively to set individual targets that ensure further development. The excellent relationships between children and staff encourage children to talk freely about any concerns they may have.

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Commentary

23. The excellent induction arrangements include an open week at the start of each term when parents and their children are invited to attend as many of the sessions as they wish. Parents are welcome to stay with their child for as long as it takes for the child to settle. They can also share a packed lunch with the children in the garden if they wish before or after the sessions. The friendly, caring atmosphere of the school usually results in children settling in very quickly, for example, a three year old was completely at ease enjoying her food on her first day at the lunch club. The children’s verbal responses to the questionnaire the school used to question them on their views of the school showed that they are very happy. Parents have very positive views about the school and virtually all think that they can approach the school with any problems and consider that their child is treated fairly.

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Commentary

24. The care and guidance of children with special educational needs are excellent. Very high quality records are kept and are shared with all staff. The quality of the records ensures that children’s individual education plans are particularly effective in promoting their progress. There is very good liaison with other professionals, and the speech and language therapist spends one day in school each week, partly funded by EEC funding, and this ensures effective liaison with staff and parents. These strengths, together with the fact that all adults in the nursery know children very well, help to ensure the special needs of children are met especially well.

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Partnership with parents, other schools and the community

Links with parents and the community are excellent. The projects funded through the Early Excellence Centre (EEC) budget are very effective. The school’s links with other schools and colleges are excellent.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Parents receive excellent information about the school and the curriculum, and are very well informed about their children’s progress. • Links with parents make an excellent contribution to children’s learning at school and at home. • The school makes excellent provision to meet the needs of the community. • The provision now available through EEC funding ensures that the school can respond to parental and community concerns speedily and more effectively. Bognor Regis Nursery - 17

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Commentary

25. Since the last inspection, links with parents and the community have improved and are now excellent. Parents are provided with good quality information about the school through the prospectus that contains curriculum information, regular newsletters, school policies, and through discussion with staff. Curriculum information is also provided on boards outside each classroom and in portfolios outside the Parents’ Room, where parents can make tea or coffee and use the excellent Internet facilities. In addition, parents receive booklets that help them to support their children with reading and writing and with mathematics. They are very well informed about their children’s progress through on-going discussion with Key Workers, access to their children’s records of achievement at any time and through displays of their children’s work. Very detailed reports are provided at the end of the children’s final term at the

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Commentary

school. Parents provide very effective help in school in many ways and also help with preparation of resources. They expressed very positive views about the school at the meeting before the inspection and in the questionnaire response.

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Commentary

26. Parents of children with special educational needs are very involved in the projects that have been initiated through EEC funding to improve the children’s communication skills, and this has proved beneficial for parenting skills and the children’s progress. Parents meet the speech and language therapist and are given ideas for working with their children at home using games and other resources. These projects are having a significant impact on the achievement of children with special educational needs and, as a result, some are likely to reach standards expected for their age group by the end of the Reception year. Parents are fully involved with the individual education plans and are kept informed of their children’s progress.

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Commentary

27. The school makes every effort to meet the needs of the community through ‘Network Group’ meetings attended by a wide range of interested parties including educational specialists, health visitors and local councillors. An impressive programme funded through EEC status and managed by the leadership of the school is in place to support the children and their parents in the school as well as children and adults in the community. Provision has been in place for two years and the school is able to respond to parental concerns much quicker because of the efficiency of the Project Manager and the Family Link Workers. The Family Link Workers take their lead from parents and other adults. They arrange courses in which parents have expressed an interest, such as ‘Cooking with confidence’, led by the Community Dietician and provided in the school’s community kitchen. A few parents are now working towards higher

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Commentary

level courses, such as NVQ, that could lead to new careers. Parents and child minders in the community have also been able to improve their parenting and caring skills by using the excellent ‘Toy Library’ resources and joining the Child Minders’ Network led by the Co-ordinator. As a result, the children’s standards in speaking and listening and other areas of learning have noticeably improved. The extension to the building was opened this term and, once it is well established and the community is fully aware of all that is offered, it is likely that this aspect of the school will be excellent.

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Commentary

28. The school disseminates its good practice to other schools in the local area and internationally by organising visits to the nursery by other practitioners, courses and conferences. The school also publishes booklets, for example, on good practice in organising an effective curriculum. It has very close links with the local educational establishments, including the provision of teaching practice for Chichester University students and training for NNEB students from Chichester College. Bognor Regis Nursery - 18

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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Both leadership and management are excellent. The headteacher is an outstanding leader and she is very well supported by key members of staff. The work of the governing body is good.

p.18

Main strengths and weaknesses

• The headteacher’s leadership is inspirational. • The procedures for monitoring and evaluating the school’s work are of an exceptionally high standard so that developmental planning is excellent. • Throughout the nursery, teamwork is excellent. • The nursery’s exceptionally good practice is shared with other professionals. • The leadership and management of special educational needs are excellent.

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Commentary

29. The leadership of the headteacher is of the very highest quality. Her vision for the nursery, together with the commitment of staff, has enabled her to ensure that the effectiveness of the nursery is excellent. As a result, all children receive a very high quality of education.

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Commentary

30. The headteacher has been instrumental in moving forward the exciting developments that are now in place such as the excellent facilities for parents and the new nursery for young children that is shortly to open. She has improved on the already high quality provision seen at the time of the last inspection and has helped to introduce innovative provision such as the ‘Celebrating Communication’ project. Early Excellence Centre status has resulted in an extensive new range of services for children, their families and the community and is managed very efficiently by the Project Manager. The headteacher has had to deal with a wide, complex range of initiatives, which she has accomplished very effectively and with enthusiasm. Her recruitment of the several new members of staff needed to manage the Centre’s initiatives has been very time consuming but, at all times, the headteacher has ensured that staff have been kept informed and given support with

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Commentary

their changing roles. High standards have been maintained throughout. Practically all parents believe the school is led and managed well.

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Commentary

31. Excellent teamwork has been established among all who work in the nursery and this ensures a consistency of approach. Those members of staff with management responsibilities fulfil their roles very effectively. There is a constant sharing of good practice as well as very effective monitoring and evaluation of their areas of responsibility. Consequently, the nursery is continually developing and improving its provision.

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Commentary

32. The leadership and management of special educational needs, which are undertaken by the deputy headteacher, are excellent. Her communication with other members of staff, monitoring of the work of the special needs assistants and liaison with other professionals are exceptionally good. This has meant that there is a consistent approach to the support for children and this helps them to achieve especially well.

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Commentary

33. The monitoring and evaluation of the nursery’s work are exceptional. Information from the excellent assessment systems is fed into tracking records so that the information available is very comprehensive. This is then analysed so the school can identify where Bognor Regis Nursery - 19 developments are needed, such as where a child with English as an additional language would benefit from extra support. Where specific EEC initiatives have been set up, thorough evaluations have helped staff to refine and improve for the coming year. Both performance management and the professional development of staff are very effective because they are based on a comprehensive range of information from staff interviews and observations. The exceptionally detailed information obtained helps to ensure that the school’s development planning is of the very highest quality. The plan is very well organised and the information in the breakdown of allocation of finance and the

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Commentary

procedures for evaluating the effectiveness of developments means that it is an extremely useful tool in helping the school to move forward.

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Commentary

Financial information for the year April 2003 to March 2004

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Commentary

Income and expenditure (£) Balances (£) Total income 452,673 Balance from previous year 32,089 Total expenditure 397,571 Balance carried forward to the next 87,191 Expenditure per pupil 3,010 The high balance forward was expected. Planned expenditure could not be completed because the building work on the new extension was delayed and funding was carried through to the following year.

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Commentary

34. Governors are very well informed and have a very good understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development. A number of governors have very good professional expertise that is highly valued by the leadership and management and contributes to the effectiveness of the school. Statutory responsibility has only been devolved to the governing body for just over twelve months and governors are increasingly playing an effective role in helping to move the school forward.

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Commentary

35. The school is now playing a leading role in disseminating and sharing good practice with other educational institutions both in this country and abroad. The headteacher has visited nursery schools in China and, during the inspection, another member of staff was visiting Belarus. The headteacher and one of the governors with excellent and relevant experience of early years education organised a conference for a very large number of teachers and other professionals in the area to promote the use of the outdoor learning environment for children’s education. Students from Chichester University and local colleges visit for work experience and other teachers and professionals are welcomed to observe the work of the nursery. These arrangements benefit staff and pupils as well as ensuring that good practice is passed on to others. Bognor Regis Nursery - 20

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AREAS OF LEARNING IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

36. Provision overall is excellent. Above average standards have been maintained in all areas of learning since the last inspection. The co-ordinators of each area work very closely together planning a balance of child-initiated and adult-led indoor and outdoor activities that cover the six areas of learning. Planning is excellent. The resources chosen to meet the requirements of planning are of high quality, continually updated and give excellent support to learning. The leadership and management skills of the co-ordinators are very good. At the end of every morning and afternoon session, staff record significant features of the children’s progress and behaviour that are added to their records of achievement. They record, in particular, what the children can and cannot do yet, and use their assessments to pinpoint what children need to learn the next day. The needs of all groups of children are considered thoughtfully. The quality of assessment is excellent.

p.20

PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Provision in personal, social and emotional development is excellent.

p.20

Main strengths and weaknesses

• The children’s achievement is excellent. • The relationships between all adults and the children are excellent. • Children are given every opportunity to develop skills at their own pace. • The use of assistants and other voluntary helpers is excellent.

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Commentary

37. From well below average standards on entry, children’s achievement is excellent over time and most are likely to exceed the goals they are expected to reach by the end of the Reception year. Many children with special educational needs and from other groups are likely to meet the goals. The timing of the inspection almost at the beginning of the autumn term was useful for inspectors to observe children who had only been attending the nursery for two or three weeks and, in some cases, only a few days. Older children have been attending for one or two terms. The average age of the children at the time of the inspection was 3 years 6 months. Targeted home visits by members of staff, together with opportunities for parents and children to visit and stay for nursery sessions prior to their entry, ensure that most of the children settle in very quickly. A few are not as confident and need the security of staying with their Key Worker. All staff are very caring and give the

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Commentary

new children every opportunity to settle, and encourage parents and carers to stay until the children feel happy. The Parents’ Room is used frequently by parents or carers to have tea or coffee, and then they can return to the nursery to check out how their children have settled.

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Commentary

38. Every effort is made by the staff to help those children and parents with English as an additional language to settle. For example, one of the bilingual Asian mothers works Bognor Regis Nursery - 21 voluntarily in the nursery and is very happy to translate and reassure. Other children who may have special educational needs or whose families are under stress are helped considerably by the Family Link Workers, funded by the EEC budget, who visit homes and help in many different ways.

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Commentary

39. Teaching and learning are very good. Once settled and able to leave their Key Worker, the children are encouraged to be independent and to decide in which workshops they would like to work. As a result, all the staff know all the children very well. This joint knowledge means that the needs of any child who has special educational needs, English as an additional language or who finds a particular skill difficult or who is less secure than others are met very quickly. Throughout the day, teachers, Nursery Nurses and assistants can be observed moving around the school collecting specific children or groups of children, and working with those who need extra help to develop their knowledge, skills and independence. This seamless organisation is a major reason why children make such excellent achievement. Parent helpers are also used very effectively.

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Commentary

40. The children spend a short time each day in their Key Worker group when specific experiences are planned to develop certain areas of learning. In addition, time is spent developing the children’s social skills by teaching them to wash their hands before eating fruit together and taking turns to hand the pieces of fruit around the group. This helps to meet the school’s philosophy of healthy eating and a healthy way of life, and links with the outside garden workshops. One of the teachers reported that one boy would not eat fruit at all when he started last term but is now happy to choose apple, pear or banana. They eat their fruit with great enjoyment. Staff use this time very efficiently and effectively to develop the children’s social skills as well as speaking and listening skills. Children behave exceptionally well both indoors and outdoors. They tidy up and put away their equipment at the end of the sessions and do so very efficiently. They are careful not to hurt

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Commentary

one another even when speeding around on bikes, they make room for their friends when they are sitting on the floor and are friendly and naturally curious about visitors; ‘What’s your name?’ and ‘What are you doing?’, when they spot the visitor next to them writing. The children are encouraged and allowed to develop their individuality and independence, to pursue their natural inclinations and interests to move forward seemingly effortlessly in their development. However, this is all because of the excellent planned curriculum and daily assessment of the children’s needs.

p.21

COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Provision in communication, language and literacy is excellent.

p.21

Main strengths and weaknesses

• The curriculum is excellent and the exceptionally well-chosen activities ensure children achieve highly. • Every opportunity is taken to promote children’s communication and language skills. • Teaching and learning are very good. • Children from all groups are supported very well.

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Commentary

41. A significant number of children enter the nursery with poor communication, especially speaking and listening skills. As a result of the excellent provision, all children make Bognor Regis Nursery - 22 especially good progress and achieve very highly. Most children are likely to exceed the goals children are expected to reach by the end of the Reception year.

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Commentary

42. The curriculum was considered to be very good when the school was last inspected but has improved further and is now excellent. The workshop approach to learning ensures that the development of children’s communication and language skills is addressed in all activities. In the sandpit, for example, an adult will engage in conversation with children, questioning and probing so that children can explain clearly what they are making. All adults are very skilled in using this approach and teaching and learning are very good. There is a very good focus on helping to develop children’s vocabulary with an adult modelling and then supporting the children to respond. When making currant buns, the children were encouraged to use words such as ‘texture’ and ‘measure’. The quality of adults’ questioning is exceptionally high and they intuitively phrase questions that encourage children to respond. By the time they leave the nursery most children are

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Commentary

confident and articulate speakers for their age, happily engaging in conversation with visitors.

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Commentary

43. Children’s recognition of text and its relevance are promoted from an early age. Clear labels, for example, are often accompanied by identifying pictures that are regularly referred to by staff to ensure understanding. In shared story times or, when looking at a book with an individual child, adults encourage children to ‘say’ the word missing from the sentence or to tell the story through the pictures. Older nursery children are very confident in using books, including finding out information about animals or forms of transport, for example.

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Commentary

44. Many activities encourage the co-ordination needed to help children begin to learn to write and the younger children ‘write’ lists, letters to their friends, recipes and labels for their pictures. Older children write their name and begin to attempt other words. Children’s imaginative writing is encouraged through adults scribing children’s stories.

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Commentary

45. The support given to children who have specific needs is of an especially high quality. Where children find communication difficult because they speak only a little English or they have speech and language difficulties, very effective support is put into place to address the problems. The fully inclusive nature of the nursery is evident in all that takes place. Children who speak English as an additional language often work alongside children or adults who can interpret for them, and nursery staff give special attention to helping develop their use of vocabulary.

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Commentary

46. The school is currently involved in two particularly effective projects to promote communication: • The ‘Big Wide Talk’ national project that encourages children to express themselves well using a varied vocabulary, and • ‘Celebrating Communication’, an initiative set up by the school using EEC funding that brings together the work of speech and language therapists, school staff and parents in addressing children’s specific needs. These projects are having a significant impact on the achievement of children with special educational needs and, as a result, some are reaching standards expected for their age by the end of the Reception year.

p.22

MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

Bognor Regis Nursery - 23 Provision in mathematical development is excellent.

p.23

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Very good links are made with other areas of learning. • Teachers have very high expectations. • The curriculum is excellent. • The excellent resources help to promote children’s learning.

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Commentary

47. Children’s achievement is excellent over time and most are likely to exceed the goals children are expected to reach in this area of learning by the end of the Reception year. The school’s records of attainment for the children who left in July 2004 show that a few had already attained the early learning goals in this area of learning. There are numerous opportunities throughout the sessions when the children can practise and consolidate their counting skills. Many are able to count up to ten while counting their friends and can also recognise numerals correctly. Higher attaining children make good attempts at counting to even bigger numbers. Several are skilled at being able to recognise an array of objects without counting. Children were observed playing a game that involved throwing two dice and one child immediately recognised the array of dots as five.

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Commentary

48. Children practised their matching skills by placing appropriate sized bowls, spoons, chairs and beds by the three different sized bears. They began to learn about measuring when weighing flour to make currant buns, they consolidated their understanding of how different buckets and jugs held the most water and how heavy the buckets felt when they were filled with wet sand. Children are beginning to recognise two-dimensional shapes while higher attaining children point out that they are sitting on a hexagonal mat. Sounds of woodwork activities can often be heard throughout the school and children were learning to estimate the length of the nails they needed as well as matching sizes of wood for width and thickness to make a bed or a chair for the bears. A trawl of the school’s portfolio of mathematical development showed photographs of children drawing graphs of their discoveries in a science activity.

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Commentary

49. Teaching and learning are very good. Many examples of very good teaching were observed in both the indoor and outdoor workshops with teachers inviting children to make predictions and asking open-ended questions. Children were very absorbed in an activity in the garden workshop when the teacher encouraged the children to make their own number cards to match those on the washing line and peg them up, which they did with enthusiasm and pride. All of the five children in this group could count, matching one- to-one up to five and all could count up to ten at least. Most of the children sustained their interest for at least one hour. In another workshop, indoors, the teacher’s use of resources was excellent. She began playing a game using conkers and a game board. One child joined the group who had just started at the school without any English. This was a matching activity of throwing a dice and choosing the appropriate number of conkers to

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Commentary

match the squares on the board. The task was very well matched to both children’s needs and the teacher used every opportunity to meet the different needs of each child sensitively using different tactics.

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Commentary

50. Excellent resources and very high expectations were used in a lesson using a washing line. The children were asked to peg up consecutive numbers. Higher attaining children Bognor Regis Nursery - 24 knew that zero meant nothing and could say which card came before a specific number and which came after. The children loved this activity as the teacher made it fun when she asked them to shut their eyes while she turned cards upside down or back to front. The children’s self-esteem was raised when plenty of praise was given for spotting the changes. In this particular session, the children with special educational needs were given every opportunity to work at their own level and the teacher ensured that children who had difficulty understanding the task or did not recognise the numbers were given special responsibilities such as holding the cards or counting using smaller numbers.

p.23

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD

Provision in knowledge and understanding of the world is excellent.

p.24

Main strengths and weaknesses

• The excellent curriculum is based on an exploration and investigation approach. • Teaching and learning is very good overall and excellent for scientific activities. • Achievement is excellent. • The very high quality accommodation and resources help to promote children’s learning.

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Commentary

51. When they enter the nursery, children have only a basic knowledge and understanding of the world around them. They make especially good progress and the majority are likely to exceed the goals children are expected to reach by the end of the Reception year. The standards attained in science activities are well above those seen in children of their age. The whole nursery environment encourages children to explore and investigate things for themselves and the excellent accommodation and resources facilitate this. Displays, for example, encourage children to find out new things, such as which instruments make the loudest sound. The outdoor accommodation has been particularly well planned to enable children to explore. The Garden Room encourages children to discover different textures or different ways of seeing images as well as investigating living things when looking at them on the ‘light’ table. The

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Commentary

consistent approach used by all members of staff in questioning, prompting and motivating children helps children to become natural investigators, looking for tiny details on an insect or experimenting to find the best way to roll string. By the time they leave, children can explain why some materials are porous while others are not, can complete an electrical circuit that will light a bulb, and can describe the differences between a spider and a wood louse.

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Commentary

52. All staff have very high expectations of what children can do. New children, for example, are taught how to control the computer by using the mouse and are soon moving images on the screen. Children like and are successful in making things, whether from large construction blocks or from junk materials. They confidently stick and join paper, card and fabric together. The school is particularly innovative in providing woodwork tools and off- cuts to enable children to join pieces of wood together to make artefacts to re-enact stories the teachers have been reading. Especially good attention is given to helping children to learn about the local environment, such as visiting the local supermarket to buy seeds to plant and grow or visiting a local building site. Following the visit, children made their own models of diggers and cranes. They very much enjoy practical activities and these are very well taught with adults taking great care to ensure that the children develop

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Commentary

the skills needed, for example, in measuring and mixing the ingredients for currant buns. Bognor Regis Nursery - 25

p.24

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Provision in physical development is excellent .

p.25

Main strengths and weaknesses

• The quality of the outdoor environment is outstanding and gives children every opportunity to explore and develop above average skills. • The planning and organisation for this area of learning is excellent. • Excellent use is made of the high quality resources and equipment.

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Commentary

53. Attainment on entry in this area of learning is below and, sometimes, well below average. However, the children make rapid progress and are likely to exceed the goals they are expected to reach in this area of learning by the end of the Reception year. Achievement is excellent due to the vision of the leadership of the school to ensure that the children develop a healthy attitude to learning in the outside environment. The school’s tracking of the children’s progress in this area of learning from last year indicates that the children far exceed expectations for their age group. They have opportunities each day to develop their co-ordination skills and strengthen arm and leg muscles while they scramble up nets, slide down poles, crawl along horizontal ladders and planks, and slide down chutes. There are extensive pathways around the garden where the children can ride many wheeled toys safely with huge enjoyment. They learn how to

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Commentary

steer around corners and other obstacles. Many of the vehicles have room for two or more, and the children develop the ability to trust when being pushed around by someone else. Children built structures with large wooden planks and blocks using their imagination while developing their large motor control. They were observed using all their strength to heave large blocks out of the container. Bats and balls as well as basketball nets were also available for the children to practise their striking, aiming and throwing skills. Staff were always near at hand to ensure safety and to encourage the children to be bold, imaginative and to take another step forward in their explorations of the apparatus available. Staff model actions and play the games with the children and encourage them to become more skilled, for example, by moving a little further away from the basketball net. Teaching is very good in this area of learning.

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Commentary

54. In the garden, there are small wooden buildings that encourage the children to play imaginatively and are used as an extension to the activities that are planned in the indoor workshops. There are many opportunities for excellent links with other areas of learning. Staff took advantage of different weather conditions and helped the children to make simple kites on a windy morning. They took great delight in running about watching their kites fly while absorbing by experience how wind affects objects.

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Commentary

55. Indoors, in other workshops, there are many planned opportunities for the children to develop their fine motor skills every day. Children were cutting card and playdough with scissors, using pencils to draw and to write, using gluesticks and paintbrushes. Their fine motor skills were also being developed using small needles for threading and large needles for weaving as well as using the mouse to move and drag the cursor on the computer screen. The children used fine wire to join small twigs and autumn leaves together to make colourful sculptures. The planned curriculum also includes woodwork as a strong element and children were observed using hammers and nails to make a bed for Goldilocks. Photographic records showed the children handling very small components to make electrical circuits. The children are given every opportunity to experience different types of construction kits, such as very large wooden

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Commentary

blocks and ramps or smaller pieces to join together using nuts and bolts. During the day, the children practise how to fasten their coats with buttons or zips, they pull on boots to go outside Bognor Regis Nursery - 26 if it is wet and they climb up and down the stairs quite independently. They are very confident but also careful and hold on to the banisters tightly.

p.25

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Provision in creative development is excellent.

p.26

Main strengths and weaknesses

• The excellent, wide-ranging curriculum ensures that learning helps to stimulate children’s imagination. • Teaching and learning are very good. • Children’s achievement is excellent. • Very well chosen resources help to develop creativity.

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Commentary

56. Children enter the nursery with limited prior experience of creative activities. The very rich and stimulating curriculum supports this aspect of children’s development especially well. As a result, it is likely that by the end of the Reception year, most children will exceed the goals they are expected to reach. The nursery environment encourages children to explore and experiment and this facilitates their imagination. When making a collage of autumn materials, for example, children moved and combined these to gauge the most pleasing presentation. Children were taught to look carefully at different features in the world around them and began to draw people with a competence above that expected for their age. Stimulating displays and other excellent resources mean that children are encouraged to learn from the work of artists. A recent workshop with a local artist resulted in children helping to make a soft sculpture of particularly high quality.

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Commentary

57. Children have many opportunities to sing and play instruments and adults have high expectations of what they can achieve. Most children can easily maintain the pulse, for example, when accompanying a piece of music and they recognise the rhythm. They enjoy joining in action songs and some volunteer to sing on their own. The very good links with language and literacy activities also help to stimulate children’s imagination. They enjoyed using models and toys to re-tell the story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, as well as acting it out with their teacher. Staff encourage children to re-tell stories and to make up their own with staff scribing these so they can be read to other children.

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Commentary

58. An especially good feature of the provision is that children are helped to develop the skills needed to express their creativity. Many children, for example, are skilled at weaving with materials or using sponges, brushes and their own fingers when painting. Children mix and shade paint to find the right colour and to make 3-dimensional models in clay and dough. Bognor Regis Nursery - 27

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

The overall effectiveness of the school 1 How inclusive the school is 1 How the school’s effectiveness has changed since its last inspection 3 Value for money provided by the school 1

p.27

PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

Overall standards achieved 1 Pupils’ achievement 1

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

Pupils’ attitudes, values and other personal qualities 1 Attendance 3 Attitudes 1 Behaviour, including the extent of exclusions 1 Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 1

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

The quality of education provided by the school 1 The quality of teaching 2 How well pupils learn 2 The quality of assessment 1 How well the curriculum meets pupils needs 1 Enrichment of the curriculum, including out-of-school activities 1 Accommodation and resources 1 Pupils’ care, welfare, health and safety 2 Support, advice and guidance for pupils 1 How well the school seeks and acts on pupils’ views 3 The effectiveness of the school’s links with parents 1 The quality of the school’s links with the community 1 The school’s links with other schools and colleges 1

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

The leadership and management of the school 1 The governance of the school 3 The leadership of the headteacher 1 The leadership of other key staff 2 The effectiveness of management 1

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

Inspectors make judgements on a scale: excellent (grade 1); very good (2); good (3); satisfactory (4); unsatisfactory (5); poor (6); very poor (7).

p.27