Beverley Manor Nursery School

117698 Unique Reference Number East Riding of Yorkshire LEA 290902 Inspection number 16 May 2006 to 16 May 2006 Inspection dates Mrs Margaret Shepherd Reporting inspector

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This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 which gives Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools the authority to inspect any school in England. The inspection is to be treated as a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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Manor Road School address Nursery Type of school Beverley Maintained School category HU17 7BT 3 to 5 Age range of pupils 01482 882631 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01482 882631 Fax number 140 Number on roll Mr Graham Bolt Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Yvonne Norvock Headteacher 1 March 2001 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 290902 16 May 2006 - 3 to 5 16 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 an Additional Inspector The inspector held meetings with the headteacher, teachers, nursery nurses, governors and parents. She talked to children and observed some teaching and learning in all the different parts of both a morning and an afternoon session. The school’s documentation was scrutinised, including the planning and assessment systems and 95 parental questionnaires were analysed.

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Description of the school

Beverley Manor Nursery School serves the town of Beverley as well as surrounding villages. There are 140 children on roll who all attend on a part-time basis. Children spend between one and five terms in the school. They move on to six different primary schools and leave in the term when they are five years old. This results in a different combination of children in the school each term, with some children joining the school and others leaving. Nine per cent of children have learning difficulties. There is no national data to compare this with other nursery schools.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Manor Nursery School, 16 May 2006 to 16 May 2006

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Grade: 1

This parent’s view is evident from the moment that you step through the front door of the school. As children and parents arrive the whole school team welcome children and begin their teaching immediately with comments directed at individuals that show the very high levels of knowledge that all staff have of every child. The great success of this school is due to the determination of every staff member to place every child at the heart of her or his own learning. The organisation of the learning experiences that the school offers is meticulous and systems run like clockwork. The planning for each daily session is very carefully balanced. It provides a finely-tuned combination of small group, paired and individual tasks, either led by adults or carried out independently, both outdoors and indoors. This ensures that children benefit from a huge variety of experiences within a carefully structured framework.

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Grade: 1

Children are extremely confident about what to expect from the different activities. They settle immediately into the carefully managed groups at the start the day and thoroughly enjoy planning their choices for the session. Staff use a stimulating range of different strategies for children to record their daily choices. This is typical of the school’s resolve to match every task to each child’s needs and to extend her or his skills systematically. More able children receive high levels of challenge, for example by writing out key words using accurately formed letters. Children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are sensitively helped to learn using special resources and carefully focussed support from their teaching assistant. The staff consider extremely carefully all the different aspects of the nursery curriculum. Parents greatly appreciate this feature. One parent wrote, “We have been amazed at

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Grade: 1

the attention to detail and preparation and thought which goes into every single aspect of the children’s development.” Each term there is a new and exciting theme, such as Creeping with the Crawlies. The end result of such careful and detailed planning is that children reach very high standards and make outstanding progress across the full nursery curriculum. The different areas of the building are used extremely efficiently. Each area of learning has an indoor base, with a rich variety of stimulating resources. The outdoor area too, systematically addresses the different features of the curriculum for this age group. No opportunity is missed to reinforce previous learning or introduce new skills. Children move confidently between activities, such as counting out milk bottles and delivering them to numbered child-sized front doors, visiting a café and ordering a snack from the menu, writing a story with recognisable characters, or completing a simple Sudoku

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Grade: 1

puzzle. All staff are highly skilled in interacting with individual children to extend learning. Due to the high quality assessment systems, every adult has a clear understanding of the children’s individual targets and these are reinforced wherever the child chooses to work. Staff’s questioning skills are high quality. They use language very carefully to match each child’s needs. They give children time to think and respond, which leads to outstanding achievement in their communication skills. The organisation of review 2 Inspection Report: Manor Nursery School, 16 May 2006 to 16 May 2006 sessions each day ensures that staff can track the children’s own views of their own learning. This organisation also creates strong relationships between each child and their key member of staff. Parents really appreciate this system and they have great confidence that their children’s care and welfare is in safe hands.

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Grade: 1

That every child matters is central to this school’s beliefs. Children develop high levels of independence and become skilled in making choices, sharing with others and navigating their way through the treasure chest of opportunities that surround them. The school greatly values the children’s own views and makes a high quality start to developing citizenship skills through discussion and consultation. When asked about how it was decided to organise the new bird area, children were quite clear that it was their opinions that counted. “We had to put our heads down and think hard and vote.” The key to the outstanding effectiveness of this school is the headteacher. She leads from the front, knowing every child and supporting staff and parents. She is always keen to refine and enhance further the school’s work and strives ceaselessly to take the school forward. She places great value on continuing professional development

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Grade: 1

and brings in stimulating experts from around the country to expand the whole staff’s level of expertise. She uses everyone’s skills to the full. Her leadership and management of children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are outstanding. She provides high quality weekly planning for the staff who specifically help these children. This is rooted meticulously on the previous week’s learning and provides a rich diet of carefully chosen tasks. She analyses assessment data thoroughly. She has identified a downward trend in children’s basic skills on entry to the school and an upward trend in children’s exposure to technology. The school is now in a good position to work with parents to make best use of the technology available to many children at home to develop their basic skills. The headteacher sets the standard for the school’s high quality partnership with parents. One commented, “I have always felt included in his schooling and have been

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Grade: 1

consulted at all times and in all aspects of his progress.” The homework system is exemplary and carefully designed to match different children’s needs and covers the full curriculum. It also comes with clear instructions so that parents can help with the practical tasks. Governors have a wealth of expertise and are fully committed to and involved in the school’s work. They share the headteacher’s determination to take the school ever forward. Governors monitor teaching and learning thoroughly and have a very good understanding of children’s achievement because the headteacher provides them with very clear information. As the school is well aware, it now needs to tackle the requirements for developing its provision to include extended child-care. A typical example of this school’s determination to extend their provision is the multi-sensory room. Designed to widen children’s learning, it provides yet another

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Grade: 1

range of opportunities for children to experience an exciting new world of experiences. It is the result of the headteacher keeping abreast of educational thinking, careful budgeting by the governors, the development of staff’s expertise and the use of their imagination. This example shows the commitment and hard work of all adults, working together to provide an extremely high quality start to children’s schooling and 3 Inspection Report: Manor Nursery School, 16 May 2006 to 16 May 2006 confirming a parent’s view, “My child’s development has been dramatic; his language and creativity are remarkable and this is due to the excellent support and stimulation he receives.”

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Grade: 1

Achievement is outstanding and standards are very high across all the Areas of Learning. School data shows that children who are only in the school for a term increase their skills and understanding very well and children who attend for the full five terms make dramatic progress.

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Grade: 1

Personal development and well-being are outstanding. Children are eager to learn. They approach each new experience at their own level and when they are unsure, they know just where to find reassurance and support amongst the excellent staff. They try out new healthy foods confidently, work and play happily and safely and have a very good understanding of the nursery rules.

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Grade: 1

Teaching and learning are outstanding. The headteacher, teachers, nursery nurses and teaching assistants work together in a highly organised network. Wherever a child goes, throughout the nursery, there is skilled support at hand to extend their learning.

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Grade: 1

The curriculum is outstanding. It has depth and considers every aspect of the nursery curriculum in detail. The quality and range of resources are excellent. A parent wrote, “Her natural skills have been encouraged and enhanced, whist those areas where she was less confident have also been developed.”

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Grade: 1

Care, support and guidance are outstanding. There is a high priority on ensuring every child is fully included in the school’s provision. Risk assessment, child protection and health and safety are tackled systematically. A parent’s comment says it all, “It is good to know that our little girl is in a safe, happy and fun environment….The communication systems in place are excellent.” 4 Inspection Report: Manor Nursery School, 16 May 2006 to 16 May 2006

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Grade: 1

The headteacher’s leadership and management are outstanding. Her long term vision for the school drives her ever onwards. She inspires her staff, governors, parents and children. They use words like dynamic, compassionate, energetic, a wonderful role model, to describe her characteristics. Governors take their responsibilities very seriously. One commented, “It is humbling to be involved in such a fantastic establishment.” 5 Inspection Report: Manor Nursery School, 16 May 2006 to 16 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: Manor Nursery School, 16 May 2006 to 16 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 1 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 1 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 1 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 1 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

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0207 421 6800 F 0207 421 6707 Ofsted helpline 08456 404045 Mrs Yvonne Norvock Manor Nursery School Manor Road Beverley HU17 7BT 16 May 2006 Dear Children, Thank you for having me in your school. I had a wonderful time. I really enjoyed talking to you all and everyone was so polite. I was very impressed with how hard you work and play. You know the nursery rules really well. You are so sensible as you move around the school. I thought that you all made excellent choices about what to do when you first came into school and you remembered what you had chosen really well. I think that all your teachers are excellent. They help you to learn how to do lots of different new things. You have a wonderful headteacher, who is always thinking of new ideas to make your school better. Your governors work very hard. Your mums and dads and granddads and grandmas all think that your school is great.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Your headteacher tells me that you gave yourselves a good clap because you did so well when I came to see you and I think that you should give yourself another clap from me. Yours sincerely, Maggi Shepherd

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