Langley Moor Nursery School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• To further accelerate children’s learning in their understanding of the world by providing even more opportunities for them to study changes in the environment with a focus on growth and decay in plants.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The calm and caring headteacher has embedded a culture of continuous improvement in the nursery. She took very successful actions to address all the recommendations from the last inspection. But not resting there, she continually reflects on the performance of the nursery and builds on the successes. Everyone in the nursery has high aspirations for all the children.
• The headteacher has effectively led the staff on the redesign of the indoor and outdoor space, with a focus on improving outcomes for children. This has meant that the most able and older children are now making even more rapid progress in their learning. All resources, whether indoors or outdoors, now stretch children’s thinking, imagination, knowledge and understanding.
• Through commissioning high-quality training for all staff, the headteacher has ensured that they are using questioning more effectively to encourage children to work things out for themselves.
• Opportunities for developing reading, writing and mathematical skills have been maximised throughout the nursery, with staff undertaking weekly evaluations of the learning environment to make absolutely certain they are fully meeting the needs and interests of the individual children. Through this they have identified a need to enhance the opportunities for children to have practical experience of growing plants and vegetables.
• The new, exceptionally effective, assessment procedures mean that staff know precisely the progress and attainment of every child on a daily basis, meaning any delay in children’s learning is swiftly recognised and addressed so that no child falls behind.
• Staff are recognised as the most valuable resource in the nursery. Leaders and managers ensure that they are highly valued and that they can access courses and other support to continuously improve their skills and abilities. This means staff are highly knowledgeable and up to date in their thinking and practice ensuring only the best for the children.
• An impressive range of enrichment activities enhances the children’s learning experience in the nursery. When shopping locally for snacks, they write lists and get to use money in a real-life situation. They learn about keeping themselves safe, by visits to the nursery from the police and fire brigade. The children enjoy using other languages they have learned such as when greeting each other in the morning, choosing to say this in French or German as well as English.
• Additionally, resourced activities for the more disadvantaged children are well-focused. This means that these children soon catch up to others and are equally well-prepared for the Reception class in school by the time they leave the nursery.
• The opportunity and challenge to develop provision for two-year-old children has been enthusiastically addressed. The highly skilled staff appointed have shared their skills with other practitioners in the nursery, so enhancing everyone’s knowledge and confidence in working with the youngest children. The integration of these children into the main setting has been exceptionally effective and they have equal access to the high-quality learning environment. This means that they make equally rapid progress when compared to the older children.
• Relationships with parents are exceptionally strong. Parents know their children make excellent progress. They feel valued by the nursery when supporting their children’s learning. Every parent acknowledges the exceptional involvement they are able to have with their children’s learning, development and assessment. Those parents who made their views known to the inspector stated that the nursery ‘provides wonderful care, support and education for their children’. That staff are ‘courteous, keep us very informed and we are invited to participate at every opportunity’. And how they ‘often go out of their way if extra support or guidance are needed and you’re never made to feel stupid!’

Governance of the school

• The members of the governing body provide extremely strong leadership. Effectively led by the chair, who is a national leader of governance, they have a thorough knowledge of the school. Their focus is always on improving outcomes for all children, with a particular interest in outcomes for disadvantaged children.
• Governors have developed a rigorous process of selection of new members ensuring that there is a high commitment and detailed understanding of the role of the governing body. This means governors can ‘hit the ground running’ and are confident and able in the role of support and challenge to the nursery.
• The challenges governors make are always based on an in-depth analysis of children’s progress information, as well as knowledge gained from focused visits to the nursery.
• Governors are appropriately informed of how well staff are working towards their individual performance objectives and so have a clear view of the standard of teaching in the nursery and how this is improving. Governors set the headteacher stretching performance management objectives, making good use of advice from the education development partner.
• The governing body readily responds to recommendations from external reviews reflecting leaders’ philosophy of continuous improvement, such as in ensuring that the school development plan is now more focused and measurable against outcomes.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The governing body holds regular reviews to make sure all procedures are being followed and meet legal requirements.
• All statutory checks are carried out before any adult is allowed to work in the nursery, and the headteacher and members of the governing body have all been trained in safer recruitment practice.
• The nursery staff receive annual update training in safeguarding practice and procedures. They know exactly what to do should they have any concerns about the children in their care.
• All members of staff who work with children hold a paediatric first aid certificate.
• The building and the site are secure so that no one unknown can enter the premises. The governor with responsibility for health and safety regularly visits the nursery to ensure security and safety. Parents are particularly impressed by the care taken by staff, such as the use of passwords should a child be picked up by someone unknown to the nursery.
• All members of staff have received training to keep children safe from exploitation and extremism.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• The quality of teaching is outstanding in both the two- and three-year-olds provision. Staff use questioning highly effectively to deepen children’s thinking or increase their understanding. Staff consistently use opportunities arising from children’s interests to extend conversations and expand vocabulary, meaning children can further develop skills and knowledge.
• Planning and assessment are robust. Staff effectively use robust daily assessment of children’s learning and other opportunities for observations to plan for individual children. This means that teaching effectively leads to rapid and sustained progress in all areas of learning and children rapidly catch up should they fall behind.
• New skills are introduced and taught progressively across the year meaning that children embed learning and their knowledge and skills are secure, before moving on to the next level. Staff always check children’s learning and understanding as they are teaching so that they are assured of progress being made in every session.
• Reading, writing, communication and mathematics are now embedded across the learning environment and curriculum giving children open-ended opportunities to practise and develop skills in their own learning. For instance, when playing in an outdoor shed, children turned it into a cafe. They then used the resources to write orders, exchange money and act out being customer and waiter.
• The teaching of phonics is highly effective. Children demonstrate their high-level knowledge and understanding in the use of phonics in both reading and writing. The most able are beginning to write short sentences using phonic principles and basic punctuation.
• Children have a love of stories. Staff have taught them to have a very sophisticated knowledge of the elements of a book. Children know the role of the author and how this differs from the illustrator. They recognise similarities and differences in types of books. They can empathise with characters and feelings and understand how punctuation works.
• Children are taught the different purposes of writing. For example, when and how to write sentences or lists. They demonstrate this knowledge well when writing lists of animals, and when writing simple sentences about what an animal did in a story.
• Mathematics is securely taught. Children have mastery of early mathematical skills and concepts such as shape, space, measure and number. When being taught how to use a number line to help with addition, subtraction and order, the teacher skilfully moves from a game using the children themselves, to puppets, to the abstract use of numbers for the most able. This helps all children develop their understanding of numbers.
• The children know the difference between circles and ovals. During the inspection when children were asked to sit in a circle, one member of the group suggested an oval might be better because of the space available. Outdoors, children were observed problem solving, filling a large set of scales with cones in one bucket and then stones in the other to achieve balance.
• Parents report that children take immense pride in their work. This was seen during inspection when children read their own writing out loud to the inspector. All staff have the highest aspirations, which are reflected in the attainment and progress of all children.
• The children are extremely resilient. They keep going at their tasks, and consistently concentrate for prolonged periods of time. This is because activities inspire them to learn and engage them, building on their interests. For instance, the two-year-old children were observed filling bottles and lidded jars, moving water from one tray to another. They then extended this play by adding toy fish from the freely accessible resources. This continued for a considerable length of time developing concentration in even the youngest children.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Children in the nursery have an excellent understanding of the needs of others and how this may affect their feelings. They willingly support and help each other. For instance, during a thunderstorm they hold each other’s hands to comfort and reassure one another.
• The children have outstanding attitudes to learning. There is no low-level disturbance during sessions. The whole ethos of the nursery and the highest expectations for behaviour mean there are no forms of bullying and indeed no incidents are reported.
• Even the youngest children take on responsibilities at tidy up times and snack, clearing and cleaning the tables and putting resources back where they belong, without prompting.
• Children are taught how to use resources safely, such as carrying scissors, or climbing on outdoor equipment. Parents state how children then transfer this learning to home, demonstrating their understanding and knowledge.
• Children are encouraged to set their own challenges when using resources in their play and to develop solutions to remain safe. For instance, a younger child recognised a small round log would roll away when they tried to stand on it. A member of staff used effective questioning to promote further exploration. The child then experimented and identified that a log with a flat side would not roll and would be safe to stand on. An older pair of children were observed constructing a bridge together using a branch. By trial and error, they worked out it was safer to cross by lying on the branch rather than trying to walk over it.
• Staff encourage children to be as independent as possible. The youngest children use hand gel by themselves at snack time to wash their hands. They understand that they need to have clean hands before eating. When going outside, children change their shoes and put on their coats in inclement weather, without adult support.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. The nursery is a calm environment conducive to learning. Children move around the spaces carefully, and settle quickly to either self-directed learning or when brought together for an adult-led group activity.
• Children in the nursery are extremely confident. They have excellent relationships with staff and show this through their sense of humour and positive attitudes. Children know the routines to follow, such as self-registration and planning their first activity.
• The children know how to use resources for learning because staff spend time introducing new areas and equipment and model effective learning behaviour.
• Children listen carefully to each other’s contributions in discussions, and respond appropriately. They are polite and well-mannered to each other and to adults in the nursery. In play, they know how to share equipment and wait to take turns for instance when filling the water bucket.
• Children enjoy coming to nursery because activities are interesting and engage them in learning. Parents are very confident in, and have excellent relationships with, the staff, which the children see and reflect. Children and parents understand the importance of attending nursery regularly and this is instilling good routines for the future.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• All children make at least good progress from their starting points, with the majority making rapid progress. This is because staff know the children well and use high-quality information from observations and assessments to plan for learning. Staff get the best out of each child through extended conversations and skilful questioning. As a result, children are exceptionally well prepared for their next stage of education.
• Differences in the attainment of disadvantaged children rapidly diminish because the additional resource for these children is effectively targeted. This means that by the time they leave the nursery the attainment of these children matches that of the others.
• The most able children can read and write simple three-letter words. They enjoy writing their own versions of known stories using their phonic skills to construct simple sentences. The home loan library is appreciated by parents to support them to develop a love of reading in their children.
• The introduction of the two-year-old provision has had an extremely positive impact on these very young children particularly in their personal and social skills, and speaking and listening. The experienced staff have an excellent understanding of how young children learn and provide exactly the right challenge within activities. The integration with the three- and four-year-old provision means they rapidly learn from these role models, and quickly progress in the development of their skills. Those who continue in the nursery make strong progress and settle very quickly.
• The very few children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are effectively supported, because staff identify exactly what they need. Working in close partnership with other professionals and parents, staff plan activities which precisely meet these children’s needs. As a result, they make very good progress.
• Staff successfully meet the needs of the very few children who speak English as an additional language. Children and their families receive additional support to help them to improve their understanding and speaking skills. Consequently, these children make rapid progress from their starting points.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 113977 Durham 10023855 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Nursery School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Maintained 2 to 5 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 79 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Julia Millard Susan Simon 0191 3780830 www.langleymoornursery.co.uk langleymoornursery@durhamlearning.net Date of previous inspection 21–22 January 2014

Information about this school

• The nursery is smaller than the average-sized nursery school. It offers flexible provision from 8.00am until 4.30pm.
• The pre-school admits children aged two to three. The Nursery class admits children aged three to five.
• Almost all the children are of White British heritage, with very few at the early stages of learning English as an additional language.
• There are very few children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• The chair of the governing body is a national leader of governance.
• The school provides training and support for other schools and providers of early years education through the local authority ‘Buddying’ programme.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

• The lead inspector carried out joint observations of teaching and learning with the headteacher, both indoors and outside, looked at examples of children’s work and spoke to children.
• The lead inspector met with the headteacher, three governors including the chair of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.
• The lead inspector scrutinised the school’s website and a range of documentation, including records of assessment and children’s progress, planning for improvement, monitoring of teaching and learning, governors’ meetings and those relating to attendance and safeguarding.
• The lead inspector considered the 26 responses made by parents to Parent View and spoke with seven parents.
• Additionally, the lead inspector looked at the 11 responses to the staff questionnaire and spoke to members of staff.

Inspection team

Geoff Dorrity, lead inspector

Ofsted Inspector