Allens Croft Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Allens Croft Nursery is a large, well-equipped nursery school at the heart of its community. Staff give children a warm welcome and keep them busy.

This helps children to settle in quickly and enjoy attending.

Staff ensure that activities are matched to children's interests. Through a mix of play and focused activities, most children learn well.

They make friends and pick up important social skills. Adults speak clearly to children, read lots of stories and encourage plenty of conversation.

As children grow, staff teach them about the importance of taking turns and sharing.

They teach them about how their behaviour can affect others and help... them to feel good about what they can do. Children respond well to this and behave well. Most of the time, the nursery is a calm place.

This helps children to feel safe and secure. There is no evidence of any form of bullying.

Leaders provide plenty of guidance about what staff should do in different situations.

However, they have not done enough to check that this guidance is being followed and a few routines have slipped.

Parents and carers hold the nursery in high regard and appreciate the support for families.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Lots of good things happen at this nursery school.

Each day is packed full of interesting activities and children learn a lot.

Indoors and outside, the school has well-resourced and spacious areas. Typically, staff make good use of the space and equipment to support children's learning, play and development.

Attention to children's physical development is a particular strength.

Leaders ensure that staff are well trained to identify children's different needs. The support that they provide for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is particularly effective.

These children are included in all that the school does, and staff provide lots of advice and support for parents.

Two-year-olds are very well supported by staff to settle into the nursery routine. They engage in a range of learning activities that support their care and development.

For example, they enjoy adding water to cornflour and seeing it change state. High-quality interactions between staff and children mean that most children achieve well.

Staff use high-quality books to develop children's early reading skills.

A focus on rhyme, repetition and song helps children to learn about letters and the sounds they represent. Reading is also used as a route into wider learning. For example, after sharing a book called 'The hungry caterpillar', staff help children explore the lifecycle of the butterfly.

They prompt children to observe mini-beasts in the outdoor area and watch a video clip. By drawing and labelling pictures, children are helped to remember their learning.

Children learn to count confidently.

For example, when reading 'The three little pigs' story, children count the animals in pictures. This everyday focus on number helps children to develop crucial early mathematical skills.

While planning and assessment 'in the moment' are well judged, longer-term curriculum guidance in some areas of learning is not yet good enough.

Although leaders have plans in place to develop the curriculum, the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed this important work.

The nursery provides many opportunities for children's moral, social and cultural development. Recently, children enjoyed learning about the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations and about Diwali.

In many cases, learning is based on creative approaches. Through music and art, children learn about the world, one another and themselves.

The pandemic has had a significant impact on nursery life.

Leaders prioritised keeping the nursery open, which has meant that some aspects of their work are not as well developed as they would have liked. This has led to variability in the quality of provision, supervision and children's experiences during the day and over time. Leaders' focus has been on ensuring that the school is adequately staffed and managing staff through difficult times.

However, their checks on what should be happening have slipped.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have ensured that staff have the training and information they need to keep children safe.

Staff record and report any safeguarding concerns to leaders. Leaders make sure that children in need of help get the right support. They work closely with external agencies when necessary.

Leaders ensure that staff undertake appropriate checks before they start working at Allens Croft Nursery School.

Leadership capacity has been stretched during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, oversight of some health and safety issues has not been good enough.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school's well-designed systems, policies and routines are not consistently implemented or overseen by leaders. This has led to variability in quality, supervision and children's experiences throughout the day and over time. Leaders should ensure clearer oversight of practice and health and safety routines to ensure consistency of practice.

• Leaders' plans to improve long-term curriculum guidance have been slowed by the disruption caused by COVID-19. This means that staff do not have a clear enough view of long-term ambitions for children's achievements. Leaders should accelerate curriculum developments to ensure that children's learning journeys from start to finish are more widely understood by staff.

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