Lilycroft Nursery School

Inspection Report Lilycroft Nursery School

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107187 Unique Reference Number Bradford Local Authority 287733 Inspection number 13 °14 December 2006 Inspection dates Roger Gill Reporting inspector

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

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Lilycroft Road School address Nursery Type of school Manningham, Bradford Community School category West Yorkshire BD9 5AD 3 °5 Age range of pupils 01274 545647 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01274 496115 Fax number 63 Number on roll (school) Mrs Shakila Begum Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Ms Eleanor Larmour Headteacher 8 May 2001 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 287733 13 °14 December 2006 3°5 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

Lilycroft is an inner city nursery school serving, primarily, its local British Asian community. In addition to the placements for three to five year olds, governors and social services have established a Children's Centre providing extended integrated education and all year round care for children from six weeks to five years. The vast majority of children are learning English as an additional language and a broadly average proportion have learning difficulties and/or disabilities. A governing body has been established since the school was last inspected in 2001. The school received a national Young Artists of the Year Award in 2003, and several awards for the children's garden.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Lilycroft Nursery School, 13 °14 December 2006

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Grade: 1

Lilycroft is an outstanding school that is the pride of its community. Its awards for excellence and its appearance in nationally available videos of noteworthy practice, confirm what parents and governors already know. Children's progress is fundamental to everything that happens; staff have a highly developed appreciation of how best learning occurs. This happens because the school is so skilfully led. The headteacher's vision for successful children and well supported families burns brightly. The highly effective deputy headteacher and hard working staff share and implement this vision superbly. Despite the school being described as very good in its last inspection report in 2001, improvements since then have been huge. These include the proliferation of parental involvement and a massively enriched curriculum. The curriculum has benefited enormously from the national initiative of Creative Partnerships that, in this case,

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Grade: 1

enables children to work regularly with professional artists. The potential for the school to maintain and build on its previous successes and extend the provision for children from birth to five is first class. This is why it offers outstanding value for money. Children's achievement is excellent. It is the rapid rate of progress in personal development and communication, language and literacy that underpins their accomplishments in other areas. First-rate teaching builds on children's abilities to play well together, for example, to extend and deepen their learning. By the time they leave, children's standards are broadly average. It is only in mathematical development that standards are below the average, but this still represents good progress from a well below average starting point. Children make the slowest progress in the calculation strand of mathematics, which is the beginning of addition and subtraction.

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Grade: 1

From the moment the doors open in the morning, the school's aim of being a 'safe happy school where children can learn and develop with confidence' is pursued meticulously. Children go straight to purposeful, imaginative and absorbing tasks. They enjoy what they do and this is reflected in their regular attendance. Parents are often amazed at their children's self-assurance. Some talk enthusiastically about the significance of their children's early attempts at writing, for example, because they receive expert guidance from the school in these matters. Children make significant strides in learning English. Many know some words and phrases when they arrive, but by the time they leave, they can talk about what they are doing without much, if any, support from the skilful bilingual teachers and teaching assistants. Higher-attaining children forge ahead because lessons contain many exciting challenges and avenues for them to explore. For example, they operate camcorders,

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Grade: 1

make video footage, create special effects like mirror images and play the finished product through a television for all to enjoy. Those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities thrive equally well. The small steps that they make are evaluated so precisely that plans for future learning are fully effective. The new governors know a great deal about the school and understand why children's achievement, personal development, the curriculum and the care they receive are 2 Inspection Report: Lilycroft Nursery School, 13 °14 December 2006 outstanding. The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation is extremely good: it knows exactly what works well and what needs to be developed, for example, mathematical development. The school rates itself as a good one, but it is too self-critical. It accentuates more than is necessary the progress needed in children's mathematical development above its very striking achievements.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Improve children's achievement in the calculation aspect of mathematical development.

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Grade: 1

The outstanding achievement demonstrated by children as they are about to leave the nursery is due to the first-rate provision they receive. The starting point is well below average. The weakest areas of attainment on entry are literacy, mathematics and creative development, all of which depend crucially on the ability to communicate in English. By the end of their time in nursery, standards in personal development, physical development and knowledge and understanding of the world are above that expected for children of their age; a small proportion of higher attainers are even further ahead than that. Attainment is average in literacy and creative development, which shows how quickly children have acquired basic skills in English. They are below average in mathematics, despite progressing well. This is because their capability in calculation weakens the result.

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Grade: 1

Children enjoy everything that they do. With hands deep in a tray of water, cornflour and ice cubes, for example, the expression on their faces and the words they conjure up, tell it all. Outstanding behaviour and safe play are the norm. Children love to play imaginatively and exercise briskly outside. Inside, they concentrate hard on tasks that need care and a steady hand, such as wrapping Christmas parcels or writing letters to Santa. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is excellent. Children show wonder when their teacher plays the accordion, for example, and derive excitement from working with artists and visiting galleries. Social graces exhibited at lunchtime are splendid: children are polite, confident and aware of which foods are good for them. High quality personal development has an immediate effect on other learning. One typical parent said that her child was transformed from being shy and retiring

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Grade: 1

into a confident and outgoing learner within days of being at the school. 3 Inspection Report: Lilycroft Nursery School, 13 °14 December 2006

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Grade: 1

In this school, teaching and assessment are closely entwined. Children's comments are often recorded, as evidence of their thought processes. High quality plans are then drawn up to develop their understanding. A television studio was set up in school and children saw each other on screen. One child said to their friend, 'I can see you. How did you get stuck in the TV?' By the end of the project, children had a much better idea about how images were produced. The partnership between teachers and support staff is central to children's success. The quality relationships in every lesson, the judicious use of children's home language and the time allowed for children to extend an idea, all make learning first-class.

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Grade: 1

Children are surrounded with fascinating things to do. Some very well chosen children's fiction (core stories) is at the centre of the curriculum. For example, a popular story about baby owls provides a wonderful chance for children to think about their own confidence away from home. There are exciting opportunities for children to work with artists and dancers. Large dolls of different religions and cultures are used to widen children's understanding of the world. Above all, play of all kinds is used as an extremely well resourced vehicle for top quality learning. For example, children learn about growing plants and then have a chance to play in a very well equipped 'garden centre'. Those with particular gifts and talents, and those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, are given very well designed tasks in lessons. The easy availability of sound centres, camcorders and digital cameras gives children a confidence with

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Grade: 1

technology, which sets them up very well for the future.

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Grade: 1

The care and support provided are highly influential in children's outstanding personal development. This is made more possible by the way that parents are closely involved at every stage. They can read the core stories at home, thereby understanding their significance, and have regular updates about their child's learning. Child protection arrangements and health and safety procedures are in place and working effectively. The way that children are guided in their learning is wonderful. Adults regularly summarise what has been learnt and check children's understanding. Moreover, children are asked to say what they have liked and disliked about an activity, which plants the seeds of self-assessment very well. 4 Inspection Report: Lilycroft Nursery School, 13 °14 December 2006

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Grade: 1

The headteacher and key staff have created a highly successful school. The impetus for development grows not only from a crystal clear vision, but also painstaking hard work and great links with all kinds of groups and individuals. This journey now includes a body of governors who have been expertly inducted by the headteacher and staff. The close partnership between parents, governors, children and staff has been far more effective since the parents' room was opened. This is a daily hive of activity. Detailed examination of children's progress and the quality of teaching makes sure that the headteacher and governors know exactly what the school is like. Plans for development have an impressive effect on children's achievement such as a recent plan to improve children's knowledge of letter sounds. There is a similar plan in place to develop mathematical thinking, but it is too soon to see the results.

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Grade: 1

5 Inspection Report: Lilycroft Nursery School, 13 °14 December 2006 .

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Grade: 1

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Lilycroft Nursery School, 13 °14 December 2006

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Inspection judgements

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

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Overall effectiveness

How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 1 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 1 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 1 The capacity to make any necessary improvements Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

1 How well do learners achieve? 3 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 1 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

1 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 1 The behaviour of learners 3 The attendance of learners 1 How well learners enjoy their education 1 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 1 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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and interests of learners?

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

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and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average to below average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low. 7 Inspection Report: Lilycroft Nursery School, 13 °14 December 2006

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and supporting all learners?

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities Yes Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? No Does this school require special measures? No Does this school require a notice to improve? 8 Inspection Report: Lilycroft Nursery School, 13 °14 December 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Thank you very much for making my job so enjoyable. You all made my two days at Lilycroft a lovely time. Yours is a wonderful school. These are some of the things that I really enjoyed: • all the adults who teach you provide such interesting things for you to do - they even play the accordion • I loved the stone lion that you carved with an artist - it looks so strong and friendly • the digital photography and movie-making that you have done this term is top quality • I loved talking to many of your parents because they like what goes on so much • eating lunch, for full-time children, is a great chance to practise your English and learn how to be polite and friendly • your headteacher and staff make every child in your school feel special. I am suggesting one thing that I think will help you all do even better: • you need more practice in counting items in different groups and saying which have more or less objects in them. After that, you will be able to add numbers together and take them

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

away from each other. You can all help by thinking hard about numbers in any activity. I know you can do it. 9 Inspection Report: Lilycroft Nursery School, 13 °14 December 2006

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