Bordesley Green East Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Bordesley Green East Nursery School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

The school's motto of 'play, learn and grow' branches out through all aspects of nursery life.

Children move through the school rooms as explorers, inventors and researchers. Staff support children to settle to nursery routines and expectations well. Where children find this a little tricky, a kind word, a hand held out and time with a favourite object all help to wipe any tears away.

Children enjoy listening to stories, moving in time to wonderful musical sessions and building large structures that can be a ...bus or a house as their wishes demand. Their imagination is fired up as they paint exploding fireworks on large pieces of paper and they mould clay that, with the twist of a thumb, becomes Spiderman's house or a birthday cake.

Kindness, sharing and learning to be a good friend who can take turns shine through.

Children listen carefully and follow instructions. The session and daily routines help them to feel safe and secure. These give children a platform from which they gradually explore more, increase their confidence and extend their learning.

The school's high expectations for children to be active learners who know right from wrong and respect each other are met.

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

Since the previous inspection, there has been a change in the leadership structure of the school. An initial interim model of sharing a headteacher between two nursery schools has been made permanent.

This has brought stability, structure and effective checks to school life. This in turn has made sure that the leaders' focus is on making the right decisions that are all about the children in their care. They do this well, especially for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The school has invested in staff training and the way each room is set up. Much thought has gone into how children can access and use the resources on offer. This is paying dividends.

Staff chat to and communicate with children with clarity. This helps children to grow the number of words that they know and how they put their sentences together. Staff introduce children to sounds and stories in a fun and flexible way.

Children learn to make different shapes with their mouths in readiness for later learning. They love reading stories several times over. Repeated readings of carefully chosen texts are helping children to grow their memories and understand how stories work.

The school has a distinctive approach to putting the learning together for children. The theme for each half term is planned with care and purpose. Chosen themes allow children to develop a sense of who they are and how to organise and express themselves.

They also help children to learn how the world works so that they can be responsible citizens who share the planet with others in a respectful way. This works well within the indoor learning spaces but is underdeveloped in the outside areas.

Children show independence.

They register themselves each morning, choose what they would like to play with and how they use the resources and equipment. Occasionally, there are inconsistencies in how fully staff support this independence. This means that not all children are given every opportunity to think or do things for themselves.

For children with SEND, staff are adept at stepping in or stepping back at just the right moment to guide them through their learning journey. The school works well with parents and carers and outside agencies to gather information. They use this to good effect to identify, know, understand and meet children's needs.

Every child has a clear pathway through the transition to the next room or on into school.

Children experience a whole host of wider opportunities during their time in nursery. They visit theatres and buy ingredients at the local shop for their cooking.

They develop understanding of cultures and diversity through celebrating festivals and having visits from authors. The in-residence artists add further joy and expertise to the daily routine. The school sets out to achieve, and achieves, being a place where children question, laugh, play and dream.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school does not promote children's independence consistently across the daily routine and learning. This means that on occasions staff do things for children that children can do for themselves.

The school should further develop staff so that they have the knowledge and expertise to support children to show what they know and can do without adult help. ? The school is in the process of developing the outdoor learning environment. This is a work in progress.

There is more to do in terms of resources and staff training and development. As a result, children's learning is stronger when indoors than outdoors. The school should replicate the leadership and development of staff expertise and skill thus far for the indoor curriculum into the learning that happens outside.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in March 2019.