Wyndham Park Nursery School

Wyndham Park Nursery School Inspection report

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120364 Unique Reference Number LINCOLNSHIRE Local Authority 291702 Inspection number 28 °29 March 2007 Inspection dates Sue Hall 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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Nursery Type of school Community School category 3 °4 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 107 School

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The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Denise Kitson Chair Ms Daphne Carre Headteacher 27 May 2002 Date of previous school inspection Hill Avenue School address Grantham Lincolnshire NG31 9BB

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01476 563966 Telephone number 01476 563966 Fax number

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3 °4 Age group 28 °29 March 2007 Inspection dates 291702 Inspection number .

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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

This is a smaller than average sized nursery that serves the town of Grantham, an area which is largely average in economic terms. The majority of children are from White British backgrounds but there are a few who speak English as an additional language. The proportion with learning difficulties and/or disabilities in the main nursery is average. There is also an Assessment class for 16 part-time attendees with significant special needs. The headteacher has recently announced her retirement and the school is in the process of appointing a new headteacher.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 10 Inspection Report: Wyndham Park Nursery School, 28 °29 March 2007

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Grade: 2

Wyndham Park Nursery provides a good quality of education. There are outstanding features in some areas. Parents are almost unanimously delighted with the quality of education offered. As one notes 'Wyndham Park Nursery School has been a fantastic experience for my son and myself'. The school provides good value for money and has good capacity to continue to improve. Children enter the nursery with mixed early experiences and skills that are largely in line with the national expectations for their age. Their personal, social and emotional development, their ability to communicate with others and their physical development are initially slightly better than their standards in other areas. Children make good overall progress and by the time they leave the nursery most are at least on track to meet the expectations for their age, and many exceed these targets, especially in their personal, social and emotional development. Children

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Grade: 2

of all abilities achieve well. Those in the Assessment class also achieve well in relation to the targets in their individual education plans. The personal development of the children is outstanding. They are extremely well behaved, share equipment readily and are really keen to join in with activities. Children have excellent understanding of how to be healthy following the recent launch of their Healthy Schools project. They enjoy their fruit snacks and take part in lots of active play to help keep them fit and healthy. They have an exceptionally good understanding of how to keep themselves and their friends safe. The quality of teaching and learning is consistently good. Staff use praise well to motivate children to try hard. They plan well for groups of different abilities and the level of challenge offered is good. However, at times staff miss opportunities for children to discuss their ideas or to encourage them to use key vocabulary more. The curriculum is good. It is broad and well

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Grade: 2

balanced and helps equip children very well for their future. The care, guidance and support of children are outstanding and widely recognised by parents as a key reason for the nursery's popularity. The support for children with learning difficulties or disabilities, particularly in the Assessment class, is very good and promotes their good progress. Staff have considerably improved the way they assess and track children's progress across the nursery since the previous inspection. Leadership and management are good. A particular strength is the way in which all staff work really effectively together. The headteacher provides a good focus for further improvement, ensuring that the school continues to move forward. Governance is satisfactory and governors are working hard to develop their role further. The monitoring of the work of the nursery is often informal and, whilst generally effective, lacks the evaluative rigour to identify the small

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What the school should do to improve further

• Take every opportunity for children to discuss their ideas and become confident in their use of key vocabulary. • Extend the opportunities for staff, and where appropriate for governors, to monitor and evaluate rigorously the work of the school. 4 of 10 Inspection Report: Wyndham Park Nursery School, 28 °29 March 2007

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Grade: 2

Children enter the nursery for morning or afternoon sessions in the academic year following their third birthday. They have a wide range of early experiences. Overall initial skills, knowledge and understanding are in line with the levels expected for their age. Many are confident and happy children. They also have average communication, language and literacy skills and physical development. Their early mathematical skills, their knowledge and understanding of the world and creative abilities are often initially slightly less developed but still mainly average overall. Children settle well in the warm and supportive environment and make good progress in all areas of their learning. They make particularly good progress in the vital area of personal, social and emotional development and when they leave the nursery they are often on track to exceed the targets for their age. Their skills and knowledge in all other areas are at least in line with,

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Grade: 2

and quite frequently above, the expectations for their age. Boys and girls of all abilities, including those speaking English as an additional language achieve well. Children in the Assessment class also make good progress and achieve well in relation to their abilities.

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Grade: 1

Children really enjoy their time at nursery, particularly when painting and using the very well equipped outdoor play area. They behave extremely well and get on together with their friends and adults alike. One parent notes 'Since attending, my son has blossomed in self-confidence and knowledge'. Children have excellent understanding of what makes a healthy diet and all know they should eat five fruit and vegetable portions a day. Through recent work they can easily identify the range of vegetables they handle, draw or dig out of the sand tray. They know how to stay safe and are very good at checking that their friends are safe when they are playing outdoors. The school has very good links with a range of community groups and organisations, including a babies group and toddler sessions, which help promote community cohesion. Children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is exceptionally good for their age,

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Grade: 1

with particular strengths in moral and social understanding. Attendance is average for the age of the children, but understandably affected by early childhood illnesses.

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Grade: 2

The quality of teaching and learning is consistently good across the school. There are a good number of teachers and support staff. Unusually, all classes are taught in job-share arrangements. In practice this works well because the staff, including those in the Assessment class, liaise very well together and are a strong and enthusiastic team who obviously enjoy working in the school. This is seen to good effect in the classrooms where staff react unobtrusively to children's needs, providing either additional support or extra challenge to move learning forward. On the very rare occasions when children in the Assessment class struggle to maintain good behaviour, they are very well managed. The information gained from the checks of children's progress is used well to plan activities that provide a good level of challenge to meet the needs of those of different abilities. However, staff miss some opportunities to encourage the children to enjoy

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Grade: 2

5 of 10 Inspection Report: Wyndham Park Nursery School, 28 °29 March 2007 developing their speaking skills through discussing their ideas and repeating, using or recording key vocabulary.

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Grade: 2

High quality resources and the purpose-built accommodation are used effectively to provide a wide range of interesting, enjoyable and exciting activities. There is a good focus upon the development of early skills in reading, writing, mathematics and other areas, including information and communication technology (ICT). The planning of activities is generally good but at times does not identify well enough the opportunities to extend children's vocabulary. The current focus on leading a healthy lifestyle includes ideas for children of how to look after themselves, such as cleaning their teeth and personal hygiene. This illustrates the good work staff undertake to provide meaningful tasks for children to develop not just the range of basic skills, but also to become confident individuals. This equips them extremely well for their future.

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Grade: 1

The pastoral care of children is outstanding and parents speak with great pleasure about the warmth and care shown to all the children which enable them to make big gains in their learning. The school has established baby and toddler groups and a lunch club, all of which help support the children's development very effectively. Nursery children are well known to their key workers who have close relationships with most families, which make it easy for everyone to recognise when a child is unhappy or needs extra help or care. There are appropriate checks of the adults who help in school and training in how to keep children safe. Staff make very good use of the range of assessment information to plan activities to meet the needs of different groups of children. The support then provided for those with learning difficulties or disabilities, including those in the Assessment class, meets children's needs very well.

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Grade: 2

A key strength of the nursery is the very effective way in which the headteacher, teachers and support staff work closely together. This is at least in part because of the good leadership of the headteacher who values the work of all staff. Since the last inspection she has led the team in improving assessment routines which in turn has improved curriculum planning. School self-evaluation is good. Governance is satisfactory, given that there is a high turnover of parent governors. In the last year there has been an extended period where there was no elected chair of the governing body, which put an additional burden upon the headteacher. Governors are now well led and are working hard to extend the programme of visits to the school in order to further develop their role as 'critical friends'. While staff and governors monitor the work of the school to good effect, this is often on an informal basis and lacks the evaluative rigour to

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Grade: 2

identify the sometimes small steps that will lead to further improvement. 6 of 10 Inspection Report: Wyndham Park Nursery School, 28 °29 March 2007 .

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Grade: 2

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 7 of 10 Inspection Report: Wyndham Park Nursery School, 28 °29 March 2007

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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? 2 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 2 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 2 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. 8 of 10 Inspection Report: Wyndham Park Nursery School, 28 °29 March 2007

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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? 9 of 10 Inspection Report: Wyndham Park Nursery School, 28 °29 March 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

30 March 2007 Dear Children Inspection of Wyndham Park Nursery School, Hill Avenue, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 9BB Thank you very much for looking after me when I visited your nursery. I enjoyed chatting to you and some of your parents. I think that there are lots of things that are good about your school and there are some things that are excellent! These are the things that I think are best: • you really enjoy coming to the nursery and get on well together • you try hard with your work • the staff care for and look after you really well • you have lots of ideas about how to stay fit and healthy • you make plenty of progress because teachers do a good job of helping you to learn • all the staff work well together and make sure everything is well organised. This is what I think could be even better: • the staff could give you more chances to discuss your ideas with your friends and learn to use lots of new words

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

• the staff and governors could check what happens in school more, so that they know what they can do to make things even better. Thank you again for chatting to me and enjoy your time at Wyndham Park. Yours sincerely Sue Hall Lead Inspector 10 of 10 Inspection Report: Wyndham Park Nursery School, 28 °29 March 2007

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