Crossens Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Children are happy at this welcoming and nurturing school. The school's motto 'kind hearts' underpins the caring relationships between everyone at the school. Children are loved and cherished.

They form trusting bonds with staff and each other.

Most children achieve well. This is because the school has high expectations for every child, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Typically, children move on to primary schools ready for the next stage of their learning.

Children behave sensibly. They are polite and well mannered.

Children in the two-year-old provision are ably supported by staff to understand... the rules and routines of the nursery. They settle quickly. Children take part in learning activities with confidence.

They know that staff will help them to play and explore.

Children enjoy special activities, such as learning outdoors with staff in the nursery garden. They proudly showed inspectors their learning environment and favourite equipment.

Children engage in creative activities, including painting, dancing and woodwork, with gusto. They learn well.

Children are involved in projects in the local community, such as litter picking and making charitable food donations.

They benefit from educational trips and visits, for example visiting the dentist, travelling by coach to a farm and exploring local woodland areas.

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

The school is ambitious for children to become happy, confident and curious learners. Since the last inspection, the school has made a successful start to revising the content of its curriculum.

Children gain a successful start to their education.

The school has ensured that the curriculum is ambitious. In many areas, the curriculum outlines what children should know and be able to do.

However, in a few areas of learning, the school has not identified clearly some of the important knowledge that children should learn. This makes it difficult for staff to know what essential information that they should prioritise when designing learning activities. This means that, on occasion, children do not gain the building blocks of knowledge that are crucial to their later learning.

Typically, staff join in children's play, supporting and expanding their ideas successfully. In much of the curriculum, staff take opportunities to address any gaps in children's knowledge. However, in some areas of learning, staff are less clear on what children do and do not know.

Sometimes, staff do not revisit and reinforce important learning. This means that some children do not deepen their knowledge as well as they could.

The school identifies the additional needs of children with SEND effectively.

For instance, staff use the progress check at age two of children's development to identify any early concerns about individual children. This helps staff to pinpoint where they need to adapt their delivery of the curriculum to help children to overcome barriers to their learning.

Most staff ensure that children learn to communicate and to listen attentively.

Staff make story time interesting, by reading carefully chosen books with enthusiasm and enjoyment. Staff regularly check how well children are developing their communication and language knowledge. They provide focused support for children who may be at risk of not keeping up in their learning.

These children benefit from the support that they receive.

Staff teach children the school's expectations for their behaviour sensitively. Children, including two-year-olds, learn how to be kind towards others.

They understand the importance of looking after resources and eagerly help to tidy toys away.

The school has thought carefully about its support for children's personal development. It provides a range of opportunities to extend children's learning beyond their immediate environment.

For example, it takes children to visit the local library, shops and veterinary surgery to learn about occupations and local facilities. Through the stories and celebrations that staff carefully share, children learn to respect the differences between people and communities. This helps children to be ready for life in modern Britain.

Governors use their expertise to provide the school with valuable support and challenge. They display a strong sense of purpose and passion to bring about positive outcomes for the children, parents, carers and staff of the school. The school engages well with staff and acts to support their well-being.

When making decisions, the school is considerate of any impact on staff's workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some areas of learning, the school has not identified clearly enough the important knowledge that children should learn.

This hinders staff in knowing what learning they should prioritise when designing activities. This sometimes slows some children's learning. The school should make clear to staff the key foundational knowledge that it wants children to learn in these areas of learning.

• At times, some staff do not check on children's understanding of key knowledge in the curriculum. As a result, in a few areas of learning, some children are not as well prepared for the next stage of education as they could be. The school should ensure that staff are supported to identify and address any gaps in key knowledge that children may have.

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