Duke Street Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Duke Street Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

This is an incredibly happy school in which children feel safe and thrive.

Each child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), is welcomed, accepted and valued by the expert staff. Children find that staff are deeply and genuinely interested in their opinions and ideas. Staff treat children as important people.

Children learn that they can ask questions, such as what inspectors were doing at the school and why.

The school is calm and peaceful, as well as being full of play and conversation. Children become keen to explore and ...experiment because staff skilfully support and extend their thinking.

They are inspired by their time at the school and become eager to learn even more.

The school's highly successful focus on behaviour begins in the classroom for two-year-olds, where staff capably guide children on how to manage their own feelings and behaviour. Children become kind, cooperative and thoughtful.

Should the need arise, staff give children gentle reminders about the school's rules. Children's behaviour is exemplary.

Children develop a rich array of important foundational knowledge from their learning activities.

They achieve highly because of the school's high expectations. Children are very well prepared to continue their education at primary school.

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

For more than two decades the school has provided an excellent education for children.

Its work continues to be first-rate. This is because leaders, governors and staff use their deep understanding of early years education to continuously refine the school's provision. Staff enthuse children about their learning.

Children develop an impressive wealth of knowledge, such as about stories, songs, numbers and the features of the world around them.The school strives to include children, such as those with SEND, in all that it does. It seizes every opportunity to help each child excel in their learning of its curriculum.

At the earliest possible time, the school identifies the needs of children with SEND. It acts swiftly to ensure that children receive the support that they need for their development and learning. As a result, children with SEND flourish while at the school.

Staff, such as those in a key person role, know the needs, interests and development stage of their group of children deeply. Staff understand how well each child is learning the school's curriculum. The school ensures that staff revisit and deepen key learning with children when needed.

Children build new knowledge securely. They understand how to independently continue their learning.

The school ensures that its curriculum helps children to communicate and use language remarkably well.

The school's curricular thinking draws on up-to-date educational research and its own investigations into what works well when educating children. As a result, children blossom in their communication skills. Many children build a rich understanding of important words to use when talking to each other and to adults.

Books, songs and rhymes are central to daily life at the school. Staff think very carefully about which stories to read to children and when they should do so. Children remember many rhymes, such as 'Hey Diddle Diddle' and 'London Bridge', because of the frequent, meaningful ways that staff sing with them.

Starting in the classroom for two-year-olds, children benefit from multiple opportunities to read books independently and with staff. Children understand the joy that words and the sharing of stories and songs can bring.

The school ensures that children's learning is meaningful.

Its attention to detail means that classrooms and outdoor learning areas are enticing, fascinating places in which to learn. Children are deeply involved in the learning opportunities that the school provides. They behave impressively well.

The school caters exceptionally well for children's wider development. It makes sure that children learn about their own family and heritage as well as that of other children. To help children to learn about the wider world, the school organises valuable extra experiences, such as when a local farm came to visit.

These experiences benefit children, including two-year-olds, exceptionally well in their language and thinking.

The school explains children's education thoughtfully to parents and carers. It also supports parents' own well-being and parenting skills.

It helps them to understand the importance of children's attendance at school. Many parents told inspectors how impressed they are with the school's work.

Governors use their expertise to challenge and support the school very effectively.

Part of the school's continuing success is its genuine focus on supporting staff. It considers staff's well-being carefully and acts to reduce their workload. Staff benefit greatly from the training that the school provides.

They enjoy their work with the children immensely.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Background

When we have judged a school to be outstanding, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains outstanding.

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 would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which 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 outstanding in December 2014.

Also at this postcode