Chichester Nursery School

Chichester Nursery School Inspection report

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125808 Unique Reference Number West Sussex Local Authority 333297 Inspection number 1 July 2009 Inspection date Diane Wilkinson 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 141 School (total) The governing body Appropriate authority Val Hughes Chair Candy Daffern Headteacher 4 July 2006 Date of previous school inspection St James Road School address Chichester PO19 7AB 01243 642950 Telephone number 01243 539685 Fax number

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3–4 Age group 1 July 2009 Inspection date 333297 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. 2 of 10 Inspection Report: Chichester Nursery School, 1 July 2009

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by two additional inspectors.

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Description of the school

Chichester Nursery School, Children and Family Centre is an integrated provision offering a range of extended services through the development of the children's centre core offer. The work of the centre is under the leadership of the headteacher and is managed by the governing body. Amongst many other services including an extensive programme of family learning and family support, a Toy Library Service, and Health Visitor drop-in clinics the centre provides both Nursery education and fully integrated childcare provision for children from the age of six months. Both these settings were inspected and the findings included in this report. Part-time Nursery education is offered in both morning and afternoon sessions to children aged three and four years. The majority of children come from a White British background. The six per cent of children who come from minority ethnic groups are at the early stages of learning

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Description of the school

English. The proportion of children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is around average, although a slightly higher than average number have a statement of special educational needs. A significant number of children have speech, language and communication needs. Children's other needs relate to moderate learning, behavioural and physical difficulties. The school holds the Healthy School award and has also won awards for the Best School Garden.

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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: Chichester Nursery School, 1 July 2009

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Grade: 1

Chichester Nursery is an outstanding school providing high quality education and care for children of all the ages who attend. This view is unanimously shared by parents with one expressing a typical view in the comment, 'The nursery is a warm, open, inviting place where all the children are valued and feel cared for. The imaginative activities always grab their attention and my child is so settled and ready for school, a confident four year old.' The excellent provision is due to outstanding leadership and management at all levels, which has seen the provision continue to grow and develop. The headteacher and senior staff are inspirational leaders, with all adults who work in the nursery or children's centre sharing their vision of providing the very best opportunities for children during the time they spend there. Together, they have forged excellent relationships with parents and other schools and agencies,

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Grade: 1

which support children especially well. Governors have enthusiastically embraced their widening role in managing the children's centre and provide excellent support in all aspects of the school and centre's work. The nursery's new duty to promote community cohesion has begun well, with staff and governors now focusing more on supporting this in the national and overseas contexts. When children enter the Nursery, standards are generally below those expected for their age. They make exceptional progress, both in the Up to Threes Nursery and in the Nursery School. As a result, by the time they leave, many children are well on course to reach above average standards by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Excellent attention given to providing each child with activities well matched to their stage of development ensures all do equally well, whether they learn quickly or have learning, language or physical difficulties. Children's

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Grade: 1

personal development is excellent. They leave the Nursery as happy, confident and friendly children who are very well prepared for life in a Reception class. Information gathered from the outstanding systems in place to monitor children's progress is used exceptionally well to plan future activities. Both the indoor and outdoor accommodation has been superbly designed to stimulate children's interest and support their progress across all areas of learning. All who work in the nursery are highly skilled educators, having an excellent understanding of how children learn. Consequently, the support and guidance provided throughout all activities is excellent. The balance of activities when children can choose what to do and discover things for themselves, and those where they work in a group with their key worker, is very good. All staff are very adept at helping children to learn new skills. The systems

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Grade: 1

and procedures in place to safeguard children's health and welfare are exemplary and fully comply with government guidelines.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Build on and extend the opportunities for promoting community cohesion, especially with regard to society in the United Kingdom and the global community.

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Grade: 1

Throughout the Nursery, children make excellent progress. Babies and toddlers become very confident in exploring their environment such as learning how to mix sand and water to discover how different it feels and kneading and shaping dough to bake, thoroughly enjoying getting 4 of 10 Inspection Report: Chichester Nursery School, 1 July 2009 messy in the process. They move on to the Nursery School with very well developed physical skills and an excellent capacity for exploring and learning new things. Here, children's skills across all areas of learning are built on exceptionally well. Their ability to find out new things by experimenting or operating the computer is extremely good. Early literacy and numeracy skills develop very well and children's speech and language comes on in leaps and bounds through the excellent discussions they hold with staff. Those children who are ready for it sound out and write new words very confidently, with the more able exhibiting skills far beyond

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Grade: 1

those typically expected for this age. Virtually all children are on course to reach average standards by the end of the Reception Year with a good number likely to exceed this.

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Grade: 1

Adults are exceptionally good at helping children develop a love of learning and a commitment to try and do their very best. From an early age, children become inquisitive and confident to try out new things, working and playing very happily on their own or in a group. Older children are very self-assured and friendly, talking enthusiastically to visitors about their activities and inviting them to join in. At all ages, behaviour is very good, because of the sensitive support children receive. Nursery children are exceptionally well prepared for the future, for example through role playing of being in a Reception class, all very much enjoying taking turns to be the teacher. Children play a very important part in nursery life because from a young age they learn to take responsibility for resources, older children automatically tidying away after an activity. Children are very happy to suggest new activities, with staff taking very good account

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Grade: 1

of their views. Children develop an excellent awareness of how to keep healthy and safe, knowing how to handle a variety of equipment safely, and confidently talking about which foods they should eat.

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Grade: 1

Learning activities are of exceptionally high quality, being very well adapted to meet individual children's needs and interests. Staff are highly skilled at planning a very wide range of activities for each session, where the resources provided help children to learn and develop new skills especially well. All adults have an excellent perception of when to allow children to discover things for themselves and when to intervene with questions or discussion to help children complete the task they are pursuing. Those who work with the under-threes are expert at helping young children develop an excellent range of skills appropriate for their age. This was clearly evident, for example, in the sand tray set out to encourage children to develop control in mark making. Nursery staff are equally good at planning highly challenging activities which help older children make exceptionally good progress. For example, during the inspection, an

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Grade: 1

excellent 'Wimbledon' tennis area helped children develop very good ball control skills. Learning is always fun; for example, children learnt about the mathematical application of area through selecting the correct sized paper to wrap a present for a friend, and wrote the label themselves. The key worker system is used very well to ensure that each child develops new skills across all areas of learning. This was evident in an excellent activity where children had to describe the texture of different materials in the 'feely bag', increasing their awareness of the properties of materials and vocabulary, and learning to take turns. The many art, craft, music and role play activities enhance creative development especially well, with children very much enjoying 5 of 10 Inspection Report: Chichester Nursery School, 1 July 2009 being taught to play the drums by pupils from Portfield Community Primary School, which is

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Grade: 1

Staff and governors are fully committed to ensuring children's safety and welfare at all times, with many parents writing in praise of the safe and caring environment. This is evident from the start of the day, with breakfast club children settling in happily and enjoying a healthy breakfast. The excellent sleep room for babies and toddlers is cool in hot weather, providing quiet, soothing music. Nappy changing facilities are scrupulously clean and staff are rigorous in making sure learning resources are free from germs. Children have access to drinking water at all times, wear a hat outside and do not spend too long there in hot weather. Healthy food is provided at snack and meal times and very good liaison with parents ensures dietary needs are met and routines are consistent. The excellent sensory room in the nursery helps children relax after busy activities. With children's centre staff, the nursery has forged excellent

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Grade: 1

partnerships with other agencies, benefiting children's welfare exceptionally well, especially for those who have specific needs. The procedures for assessing and tracking children's progress are excellent, ensuring planning is very effectively updated to provide for future learning. Staff are especially good at checking how each individual is progressing and intervening with special programmes where necessary. For example, staff identified that in communication, language and literacy the progress of some of the more able children had slowed. The resulting activities put in place ensured that in this area these children are achieving well beyond the levels expected.

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Grade: 1

The headteacher, together with senior leaders and governors, provides excellent leadership for the strategic direction of the school. Subject leaders are very effective and, together with the whole-school community, they support development especially well. Governors are extremely knowledgeable and, through their very effective committees, provide excellent challenge and support for the nursery and centre's work. Very close working between the nursery and centre managers benefits both children's and their families' welfare especially well. The school has very successfully built on and extended its high quality provision since it was last inspected. In particular, planning and procedures have been adapted especially well to meet the requirements of the new Early Years Foundation Stage framework. These strengths give confidence that the nursery is extremely well placed to improve further. This very caring school makes a major contribution to ensuring that equality of opportunity

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Grade: 1

and absence of discrimination are promoted especially well not only amongst the children but, through the work of the children's centre, amongst parents also. Outstanding systems and procedures are in place for monitoring the school's work and children's progress. These allow relative weaknesses to be speedily and successfully addressed and for the nursery to reach the very challenging targets it sets itself. Financial management is excellent, with resources being used exceptionally well to benefit children's welfare and development. 6 of 10 Inspection Report: Chichester Nursery School, 1 July 2009 .

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Grade: 1

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 7 of 10 Inspection Report: Chichester Nursery School, 1 July 2009

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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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EYFS?

Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well being? 1 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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Achievement and standards

1 How well do children in the EYFS achieve? 2 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/or disabilities make progress

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children?

1 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 1 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 1 The extent to which learners enjoy their education 2 The attendance of learners 1 The behaviour of learners 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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The quality of provision

1 How effectively are children in the EYFS helped to learn and develop? 1 How effectively is the welfare of the children in the EYFS promoted? 8 of 10 Inspection Report: Chichester Nursery School, 1 July 2009

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Leadership and management

1 How effectively is provision in the EYFS led and managed? How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education 1 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 1 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 1 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination eliminated 2 How well does the school contribute to community cohesion? 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: Chichester Nursery School, 1 July 2009

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

2 July 2009 Dear Children Inspection of Chichester Nursery School, Chichester PO19 7AB Thank you for welcoming us to your nursery. We had a great time seeing all that you do. I am really pleased to tell you that we think your nursery is excellent and that you and your parents think so too.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Here are some of the things we found out were really good about the nursery:

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ You love coming to the nursery, work very hard and make really good progress.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ We were very impressed by how friendly and kind you are and how good you are at getting on with activities on your own or working with your friends. ■ Staff plan lots of really interesting things for you to do and they are especially good at helping you to do your best. ■ Adults take excellent care of you, and you and your parents know that you are safe all the time. ■ Staff are especially good at working with your parents and other people to make sure you do really well in your development. ■ You have an excellent headteacher and, together with all staff and governors, she is working really well to make sure your nursery keeps getting even better.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Here is what we have asked your nursery to do now:

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Staff are very good at helping you all get on well together. We have asked them to make sure that you learn how to get on just as well with people who live in other cities or countries. You can help by making sure that you are always kind to other people. Thank you again for all your help and good luck for the future. With best wishes D Wilkinson Lead Inspector 10 of 10 Inspection Report: Chichester Nursery School, 1 July 2009

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