McMillan Nursery School

Inspection Report McMillan Nursery School

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117692 Unique Reference Number Kingston-upon-Hull Local Authority 290899 Inspection number 26 September 2006 Inspection date Margaret Shepherd 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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Eleventh Avenue School address Nursery Type of school Hull Maintained School category HU6 8HT 3 °5 Age range of pupils 01482 331370 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01482 331370 Fax number 140 Number on roll (school) Mrs Maureen Shaw Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Andrew Shimmin Headteacher Not previously inspected Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection date Age group 290899 26 September 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 an Additional Inspector.

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Description of the school

McMillan Nursery School serves an area with high levels of social and economic difficulties. Standards on entry are well below those typical for the children’s age. There is a small proportion of children with English as an additional language. The school was designated a Children’s Centre in March this year. Within this centre the school runs a nurture unit for children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities in the morning. These children and their teaching staff work in the main school in the afternoons. The governing body has been extended to include the additional responsibilities of the Children’s Centre. The deputy headteacher moved to the post of headteacher at the beginning of this term.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: McMillan Nursery School, 26 September 2006

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Grade: 2

This is a good school. There is a good mixture of well-established and new staff, who all have a commitment to the core values of the school. These values are based on providing an education that carefully matches the specific individual needs of nursery children. The result of this concerted effort is consistently good achievement. Children enter the school with standards that are well below those typical for their age. By the time they leave the school, standards are at least at the expected level. Children with English as an additional language achieve just as well as their classmates. The school greatly values children’s speaking and listening, creative and physical development. This excellent provision results in outstanding achievement in these areas. The development of the school into a Children’s Centre plays a valuable role in extending the school’s work, particularly in the work of the Nurture Unit. The

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Grade: 2

purpose-built facilities and the high quality teaching result in outstanding achievement for these children. The contribution of this team in the main school, together with the Nursery staff’s expertise, ensures that all children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities achieve extremely well. The school provides a curriculum that responds very well to the needs of the children. Staff provide interesting programmes of work called ‘learning journeys’, which provide a good balance across the curriculum. Teaching and learning are good quality. The organisation of the activities and the range of the curriculum in the outdoor provision are not as rich and varied as they are inside the school. The quality of the school’s care, support and guidance is outstanding. Staff work in a very close partnership with parents, who are united in their praise for the school. The school takes great advantage of the Children’s Centre to access outside specialists as

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Grade: 2

well as using other avenues of expertise. These high quality partnerships combine with the staff’s excellent skills in extending children’s personal development. Staff skilfully guide children to take the initiative and make decisions about their own learning. This supports their future economic well-being extremely well. Children have an excellent understanding for their age of the importance of keeping safe and healthy. They thoroughly enjoy coming to school and understand the role they play within the school community. All these features combine to ensure outstanding personal development and well-being. Leadership and management of the school are good. The headteacher’s previous role as deputy headteacher in the school is ensuring a good level of continuity across the changes of the leadership. He has a very clear vision of the type of education that matches the needs of this particular age group, within the community that the school

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Grade: 2

serves. He understands the need to extend his skills and to build a new senior leadership team. The governors also appreciate the need for them to work together in different ways, now that their membership has been extended to take account of the new designation of Children’s Centre. The school has worked consistently well to improve their provision since the previous inspection. This commitment is still evident and gives the school a good capacity to improve. The school provides good value for money. 2 Inspection Report: McMillan Nursery School, 26 September 2006

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What the school should do to improve further

• extend the range of provision in the outdoor learning • consolidate and extend the roles of the senior leadership team and governing body.

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Grade: 2

By the time the children leave the school, standards are at least at the expected level and the children’s achievement is good. Achievement is outstanding in speaking and listening because all staff spend considerable time with individuals to encourage each one to respond to their experiences through speech. Achievement is outstanding in creative and physical development. This is due to the very rich curriculum in these aspects and the careful organisation of teachers. These features result in excellent progress with children extending their skills of investigating materials, such as paint and clay, and developing confidence in handling tools and exercising their bodies. The achievement of children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is outstanding. The children from the Nurture Unit make equally outstanding progress in the special unit and when they work in the mainstream classes. Children with learning difficulties

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Grade: 2

and/or disabilities in the main Nursery also make excellent progress. Children with English as an additional language achieve well. Staff interact sensitively with these children to support their learning.

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Grade: 1

The school places a high emphasis on this aspect of its provision resulting in outstanding personal development and well-being. Children have much higher levels of independence and decision-making than is typical for their age. They select activities and materials with great confidence and thoroughly enjoy their learning. They have an excellent understanding of the importance of taking turns and sharing equipment. These qualities, together with their development of basic skills, are preparing children very effectively for their future economic well-being. Children have a very good understanding of healthy living, both in eating and drinking and in the impact of physical exercise on their bodies. They understand the importance of being safe, such as the way they need to move around the buildings. The school organises its curriculum into modules called learning journeys. This system requires children to make choices

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Grade: 1

about what they want to learn. Children take these responsibilities very seriously and understand the part they play in their school community. Staff provide many high quality opportunities for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, resulting in outstanding development in these areas. 3 Inspection Report: McMillan Nursery School, 26 September 2006

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Grade: 2

The quality of teaching and learning is good. Staff work very well together in carefully organised teams. They provide a stimulating choice of activities for children within the classrooms. Staff are particularly good at offering creative learning opportunities and children experiment very confidently in a wide range of artistic materials. The organisation of learning experiences is not as effective in the outdoor areas as it is in the classrooms. The teaching and learning of children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is outstanding. In the Nurture Unit, the teaching team is very high quality. Staff manage the children with behavioural difficulties extremely well, resulting in these children learning to control their responses. Staff in the main school are skilful in integrating these children into their classes. The school uses well organised assessment systems to record individual progress. Parents appreciate the way they

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Grade: 2

The quality of the curriculum is good. There is a good level of consistency in the curriculum across the three separate classes because staff work closely together and share each other’s ideas. Staff provide a good balance across different areas of the curriculum within the school buildings. The range of the curriculum is not as varied or challenging in the outdoor learning areas. The organisation of the learning journeys ensures that the particular needs of the nursery age group are met very effectively. Children’s interests are taken into account. For example, boys responded very well to a focus on football. The quality of the creative and physical curriculum is outstanding and results in high standards in these areas of the curriculum. The school brings a wide range of exciting visitors into school, which extends children’s personal development very effectively. The curriculum for children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities

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Grade: 2

is outstanding. The special sessions for small groups in the main school provide an extremely well-focused range of work.

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Grade: 1

Care, support and guidance are outstanding. The importance of providing a safe and secure context to support every single child is at the heart of the school’s values. Staff work very closely with parents and carers, who are unanimous in their praise for the school. The extension of the school’s work as a Children’s Centre provides very valuable additional resources for children and their families. The school works with a very wide range of outside specialists to support children’s and families’ particular needs. This has a very positive impact on children’s personal development. Safeguarding systems 4 Inspection Report: McMillan Nursery School, 26 September 2006 are considered very carefully. Staff have a very good understanding of each child’s rate of progress and they use this skilfully to provide guidance for their future learning.

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Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good. The headteacher has a very clear vision of the educational needs of this age group. His previous role as deputy headteacher gives him a good understanding of the particular features of the school’s children and families. This provides continuity for the school and results in high standards in children’s personal development and good achievement through the school. The headteacher is aware of the need to analyse school data of children’s progress more effectively in order to identify trends across whole classes of children and across different areas of the curriculum. The current lack of a deputy headteacher reduces the effectiveness of the senior leadership team. The school has a strong focus on staff development and uses courses well to extend and refine the school’s provision. The governing body is going through major changes in their organisation due to their new

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Grade: 2

designation as a Children’s Centre. Governors are keen to learn to work together to take the school forward. Staff and governors evaluate their school’s strengths and weaknesses well. 5 Inspection Report: McMillan Nursery School, 26 September 2006 .

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Grade: 2

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: McMillan Nursery School, 26 September 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? 2 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 2 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

2 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 2 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: McMillan Nursery School, 26 September 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: McMillan Nursery School, 26 September 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

The Children McMillan Nursery School Eleventh Avenue Hull HU6 8HT 27 September 2006 Dear Children I enjoyed coming to your school very much and seeing all the different things that you do. You are all so good at deciding what you want to learn and trying out new ideas. Your mums and dads all think that you have a lovely school. They think that your teachers look after you very well and I agree with them. You are really good at using paint and clay and you really know lots about how to keep healthy. Your teachers are going to make the things you do outside even more exciting and I hope that you enjoy doing these new things. Best wishes Maggi Shepherd Additional Inspector 9 Inspection Report: McMillan Nursery School, 26 September 2006

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