Effra Nursery School and Children’s Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The school is a nurturing and safe place to be. Staff make sure that children are warmly welcomed when they join the school and helped to settle in quickly.

Children are happy here and build trusting working relationships with staff.

Staff use the large spaces indoors and outdoors to provide a wealth of learning. Typically, they plan this well to build up children's understanding cumulatively across different areas of learning.

Children love getting involved in all the different learning available to them each day. They have lots of opportunities to find out about nature through regular visits to a community 'nature-nurture' garden and local parks.

C...hildren play well together and are encouraged to be considerate of each other.

They are taught to be kind and that 'sharing is caring'. Staff support children to manage their emotions and sort out any disagreements quickly and calmly.

Parents and carers appreciate how closely the school works with them to support their children's learning.

Staff have children's best interests in mind in everything that they do. Children are well prepared for the next stage in their education when they move to primary school.

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

Home visits and discussions with parents help staff to get to know each child and their interests.

When children join the school, staff check what children already know and can do. They use this to plan suitable next steps in learning for each child. The school has high ambitions for all children.

At times, limited precision about what children need to know and be able to do and the order in which it should be taught results in a lack of clarity about what children need to learn next. The governing body and school leaders work together to identify where further improvements to the work of the school are needed, including to the school's curriculum.

The school is quick to identify any children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The needs of children with SEND are well catered for. The school works with external professionals to provide specialist help, such as music therapy, and speech and language support. The school recently set up a 'nurture space' where staff adapt teaching and resources to meet the needs of children with SEND and any children who may need additional support.

Staff enjoy working at the school. Leaders are considerate of staff workload and well-being.

Staff are skilled in developing children's communication and language skills.

Staff seize opportunities to talk with children, modelling language and encouraging children's communication. For example, staff asked children to talk about the cakes they had made using modelling clay. Children were encouraged to describe their cakes and explain why they had chosen certain colours.

Children learn about the world around them, such as why leaves change colour in autumn and why they fall from the trees. Children used new vocabulary that they had learned when acting out a role-play between two dinosaurs eating leaves from trees. Children enjoyed gathering an abundance of conkers and pine cones.

They compared how many they had collected, using words such as 'more' and 'less'. Children working in the outdoor spaces used magnifying glasses to look more closely at worms they had dug up. They handled them carefully.

Staff encourage a love of books. They read frequently to children and use stories to support children's learning. For example, children had fun counting the ducklings in one story and heard about Kenyan culture and heathy eating in another.

Children choose books to take home and read with their parents. Older children were inspired by the story of Peter Pan to imagine their own pirates and create swords, hooks and dragons from a range of materials.

Children behave well.

They follow simple instructions and learn to listen carefully. Children follow routines such as 'tidy-up time' and are taught the importance of 'doing the right thing'. Children's curiosity is encouraged.

Staff draw children into discussions and conversations about what they are doing and answer their questions. Leaders work closely with parents to emphasise the importance of attending school every day.

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 has not identified precisely the components of knowledge and skills that children need to learn and when in all the areas that children need to learn. As a result, sometimes staff are unsure what children need to learn next. Leaders should continue their review of the curriculum to ensure that their curriculum thinking sets out all the key content that children need to know and when.