Collyhurst Nursery School

Inspection Report Collyhurst Nursery School

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105385 Unique Reference Number Manchester LEA 277347 Inspection number 8 May 2006 to 9 May 2006 Inspection dates Mr John Heap CfBT Lead Inspector Reporting inspector

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This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Teignmouth Avenue School address Nursery Type of school Collyhurst Community School category Manchester, Lancashire M40 7QD 3 to 5 Age range of pupils

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0161 205 1744 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 0161 203 5831 Fax number 71 Number on roll Mrs S Hopcyn Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Linda Rogers Headteacher 23 November 1999 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 277347 8 May 2006 - 3 to 5 9 May 2006 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report 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.

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by one Additional Inspector.

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Description of the school

Collyhurst Nursery School has, since April 2006, been part of the newly formed Collyhurst Children's Centre. It serves an area of high deprivation; 85% of children are entitled to a free school meal. Levels of attainment on entry to the school are well below average overall. Most children are white British and there are small groups from a range of black, Chinese and mixed heritages. Eleven children do not speak English as a first language. A broadly average number of children have learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The school enjoys Gold Healthy School status.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Collyhurst Nursery School, 8 May 2006 to 9 May 2006

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Grade: 1

This is an outstanding school that provides excellent value for money. In its self-evaluation the school has been very cautious, underestimating its effectiveness. Children's personal development is outstanding. They feel safe and secure and enjoy coming to school. Exceptionally strong links with parents and outside agencies reinforce the very high level of care. Parents are delighted with the provision, as this typical view illustrates: 'They know my child brilliantly and I'm happy with the school. He is encouraged and expected to like the others and he knows they all love him.' By the end of nursery, children reach average standards for their age and progress is rapid. Achievement is outstanding for all the children, including those with many and varied extra needs. A key factor is the outstanding tracking of children's achievements, particularly in the clearly identified weaker areas of communication, language and

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Grade: 1

literacy, and personal, social and emotional development. The excellent curriculum is interesting and exciting. Overall, the quality of teaching and learning is excellent. Relationships are very strong and the management of behaviour is exemplary. The headteacher and newly appointed head of children's centre work superbly as a team and are very successfully steering the school through a challenging transitional period. They are very well placed to continue to improve the school. Senior management is well supported by the governing body. This new set of governors have systems for checking the quality of provision, but it is too early for the systems to have a significant impact. As a result, the governing body relies too heavily on the headteacher's reports as their method of evaluating the school.

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What the school should do to improve further

The school has already identified that in order to build on its strengths it should: • ensure that governors use their skills, knowledge and understanding to gather information about the school and make accurate evaluations about the school's work.

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Grade: 1

Children's achievement is outstanding in all of the six areas of learning. By the end of nursery, children reach average standards. All groups of children make rapid progress in the pre-nursery class and the nursery class. They make particularly strong gains in literacy and social skills and meet challenging targets. Children work very well together and benefit from sharing resources and ideas which help each other's understanding. The very strong leadership and management gives priority to lowering significant barriers to learning faced by individual children. For example, each child is assigned to a key worker who closely checks that the child is challenged, happy and supported to a high level. Where the school identifies weaker areas, such as creative and physical development, they are rightly boosted so that children make exceptional progress in all areas. 2 Inspection Report: Collyhurst Nursery School, 8 May 2006 to 9 May 2006

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Grade: 1

Children with extra needs make excellent progress. This is because of the very early identification of individual needs. Day-to-day support is of excellent quality and matched very closely to the individual child.

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Grade: 1

Children's personal development, including their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding. Attendance is good. The school is an extremely orderly community where all are valued equally. Children are proud of their many achievements and keen to share them with all concerned. They forge very strong bonds with practitioners and respond very well to the school's highly supportive and effective ethos. Behaviour is exemplary. Children understand how to play safely and know the difference between right and wrong. In activities such as making sandwiches they show clearly that they understand the link between cleanliness and health and safety. Children enjoy their lessons and show amazement and delight when making discoveries. The school celebrates the diverse nature of their population and children learn from this diversity that all people are to be treated equally. A crucial feature of children's personal development is the outstanding way that the

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Grade: 1

school develops caring relationships with their parents. As a result, parents assist their children to respond very well to routines and thereby become more confident and independent learners. Excellent gains in basic academic skills provide the children with an exemplary foundation for future learning.

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Grade: 1

Overall, the quality of teaching is excellent. Key features are: • excellent tracking of children's achievements promotes the setting of activities and challenges that stretch learning • exemplary relationships and management of children's behaviour lead to calm rooms where children gain knowledge, skills and understanding at a rapid rate • activities and visits capture children's interests and encourage them to take reasonable risks • the use of an artist-in-residence to foster good observation, accurate skills and vivid use of colour. Day-to-day planning is detailed and reflects the very strong knowledge and understanding that teachers have of the areas of learning and the children. Opportunities to develop literacy and social skills are rarely missed, regardless of the work being covered. Consequently, quiet guidance and strong encouragement foster rapid progress for all, including those capable of learning quickly. Children with extra

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Grade: 1

learning and/or social needs are identified early, supported very well and make outstanding progress. Parents are particularly pleased that the school includes them 3 Inspection Report: Collyhurst Nursery School, 8 May 2006 to 9 May 2006 in any decisions about their children's individual learning programmes. Moreover, they are delighted to receive guidance on how to help their children.

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Grade: 1

The outstanding curriculum exceeds the requirements of the national guidelines for the Foundation Stage. It is very broad, finely balanced and highly relevant for the specific needs of the children and their families. It is packed with a very wide range of activities that promote health, safety and enjoyment and this has been recognised in the Healthy School Award. High quality and plentiful resources support learning, as do the well trained and motivated staff. The curriculum is enriched by interesting and highly informative visits and visitors and through the teaching of simple Spanish. The work of the artist-in-residence is an exemplary spur to creative development and fosters spoken language and thinking skills in a highly successful way. Of particular delight is the use of canvas for painting and the opportunities to do 'big' pictures. Although the outside area for the nursery class is used well and extensively, the lack

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Grade: 1

of permanent markings is a drawback. The extensive provision for individual parents and families is making a significant contribution to lowering barriers to learning.

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Grade: 1

The school provides excellent care for children and adults alike. Exemplary liaison with a wide range of service providers ensures outstanding care and support for all children and most families. The school rightly prides itself on the early identification of child, adult and family needs. This leads to sensitive and highly effective support for those with extra needs. Health and safety procedures are highly effective. Child protection procedures are clear and widely understood. Very effective assessment systems track how well each child makes progress. Staff very efficiently check that the needs of children and their families are met effectively. Parents rightly recognise how well their children are doing and are delighted with the skills they are learning.

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Grade: 1

Overall, leadership and management are outstanding. The headteacher and the head of the children's centre are highly focused professionals. They are very strongly motivated towards successfully: • improving children's knowledge, skills and understanding across all areas of learning • removing barriers to learning and fostering excellent personal development. It is to their great credit that they are achieving these challenging goals. They receive good support from staff and governors. They know their school and are well aware that they need to carry on improving, even though much of the school's work is first-rate. The commitment to equal opportunity is outstanding. The opinions of all 4 Inspection Report: Collyhurst Nursery School, 8 May 2006 to 9 May 2006 children, adults and families are highly valued and included in all that the school does. Financial management is prudent and decisions about spending are carefully thought

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Grade: 1

out. Governors and management have very strong procedures that ensure the school gets value for money when purchasing supplies and services. The governing body supports management well. There is much expertise that the school can call upon and this has been very obvious in the excellent links with outside agencies, such as Sure Start. Governors play a full part in decision-making and the implementation of the strong and innovative development plan. However, evaluation by governors rests too heavily on the work of the headteacher. Governors do not yet use their systems sufficiently well to gather their own information to evaluate the work of the school. 5 Inspection Report: Collyhurst Nursery School, 8 May 2006 to 9 May 2006 .

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set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s

website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Collyhurst Nursery School, 8 May 2006 to 9 May 2006

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Overall

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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learners?

NA 1 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? NA 1 The quality and standards in foundation stage NA 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation NA Yes The capacity to make any necessary improvements NA Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

NA 1 How well do learners achieve? NA 3 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 1 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners NA 1 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

NA 1 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 1 The behaviour of learners NA 2 The attendance of learners NA 1 How well learners enjoy their education NA 1 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 1 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community NA 1 How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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needs and interests of learners?

NA 1 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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needs and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low.

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and supporting all learners?

NA 1 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 2 How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self-review NA 1 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can NA 1 How effectively and efficiently resources are deployed to achieve value for money NA 2 The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities NA Yes The adequacy and suitability of staff to ensure that learners are protected

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The extent to which schools enable learners to be healthy

Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to eat and drink healthily Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to take regular exercise Yes Learners are discouraged from smoking and substance abuse Yes Learners are educated about sexual health

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The extent to which providers ensure that learners stay safe

Yes Procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements Yes Risk assessment procedures and related staff training are in place Yes Action is taken to reduce anti-social behaviour, such as bullying and racism Yes Learners are taught about key risks and how to deal with them

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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution

Yes Learners are helped to develop stable, positive relationships Yes Learners, individually and collectively, participate in making decisions that affect them Yes Learners are encouraged to initiate, participate in and manage activities in school and the wider community

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The extent to which schools enable learners to achieve economic well-being

Yes There is provision to promote learners’ basic skills Yes Learners have opportunities to develop enterprise skills and work in teams NA Careers education and guidance is provided to all learners in key stage 3 and 4 and the sixth form NA Education for all learners aged 14–19 provides an understanding of employment and the economy

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

What a lovely time I had in your excellent school this week. Thank you for the warm welcome and help you gave to me. I learned a lot about your school and have returned home with lots of memories. I will try very hard to share some of the special memories with you in this letter. I am very impressed by your excellent behaviour and the way that you help each other when working or playing together. You ride your toys carefully around the 'road' and look out for dangers. You are much better at gardening than I am! All the adults in the school are very friendly and helpful. They work hard and successfully to give you a fantastic number of exciting things to learn. Your work with the artist-in-residence was very exciting and I enjoyed watching you paint on canvas. It was obvious that you listen for a long time and that you understand what you are doing. Around the school were lots of good paintings and I looked at photographs of you working hard and enjoying your lessons.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

In addition to teaching you very well, the staff are really good at showing you and your parents the best way to do things. So, they are kind, thoughtful, helpful and hard-working. Their example is helping you to grow up as very generous and caring children. You will be ready to go successfully and happily to your next school. The staff work very hard to make sure that you and your parents have everything that you need and deserve. They are rightly proud of the way that you are learning. They are also always looking for ways to make things even better for you. They are helped by the governors of the school, who are keen to become even better at what they do. Finally, keep working hard and getting on with everyone inside and outside your school.

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