Everton Nursery School and Family Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Everton Nursery School and Family Centre continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Children thrive in this exceptional school.

They enter their classrooms with broad smiles. Children, including those in the two-year-old provision, settle quickly. They are taught how to be gentle and to respect others.

Children are happy. They form trusting bonds with staff. This helps children feel cared for and secure.

The school has extremely high expectations for children's learning. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Children achieve remarkably well.

They move on to primary schools extr...emely well-prepared for the next stage of their learning.

Children are supported to be well behaved. They are skilfully shown how to share and take turns.

Children relish the praise and rewards that they receive for following the school rules.

Children take part in learning activities, such as mixing paint and modelling clay, with confidence. They engage in creative activities, including music, cooking and woodwork, with gusto.

They trust that attentive staff will help and support them.

Children learn to care for living things, such as chickens, tadpoles and a therapy dog. They benefit from educational trips and visits, for example visiting a ship, a recycling centre and watching theatre performances.

Children also enjoy exploring the extensive outdoor areas. This helps them to learn more about the wider world and nurtures their imaginations.

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

The school has thoroughly considered how the curriculum will be taught and delivered.

It is clear about how each aspect of learning should be broken down so that it is easily understood and remembered by children. This clear curriculum thinking also supports staff very effectively. Staff check what children do and do not know meticulously.

They take every opportunity to address any gaps in children's knowledge. The school has ensured that staff have the training and experience they need to be experts in promoting children's development in all areas of learning.

Staff draw on their in-depth knowledge of child development to identify the additional needs of children with SEND at the earliest opportunity.

They adapt the delivery of the curriculum so that these children learn alongside their friends. As a result, children with SEND achieve exceptionally well. This includes children taught in the specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND (specially resourced provision).

Here, children receive highly effective support from staff who have a strong understanding of the particular difficulties that these children face. Children thrive in this supportive environment and are fully involved in the life of school.

Children's early communication and language skills are given the highest priority.

Children are immersed in stories, songs and rhymes. Staff are wonderful role models for children. They expertly listen to children as they talk and purposefully extend their vocabulary.

Staff know that this repetition of key words supports children to learn and remember more.

The school has well-established routines. Children join in activities with little fuss and listen attentively.

For example, children take part in yoga and massage with their friends calmly and are eager to join in discussions about their learning. Children, including two-year-olds, learn how to be kind and helpful. They understand the importance of looking after equipment such as when they help to tidy toys away enthusiastically.

The school supports children's wider development remarkably well. Children develop the confidence to take, and manage, their own risks when playing. They show high levels of resilience during their everyday play.

For example, children challenge themselves to climb the hills and trees in the school's woodland area. Children are gently encouraged by staff to manage risks and to stay safe. Children put on overalls and wellington boots by themselves.

They learn to use woodwork tools, cooking utensils and scissors safely. This helps children, including those with SEND, to develop their independence and important physical skills.

Governors use their expertise to provide the school with highly effective support and challenge.

They are resolutely focused on providing outstanding education and exemplary support for the pupils, parents, carers and staff of the school.

The school considers the workload and well-being of staff when making decisions. For example, the school has provided staff with high-quality training.

This creates a culture where staff are well supported to hone and develop their expertise.

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 May 2014.