Fairfield Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Children are happy at Fairfield Nursery School. They confidently say goodbye to their parents and carers each day. Children feel safe and trust the adults to look after them.

The school motto, 'every bud deserves a chance to blossom', is at the heart of everything this school does.

Most children, including two-year-olds, 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 well. They are polite and well mannered.

They proudly showed ...inspectors their favourite books and resources. Children take part in learning activities with confidence. They know that caring staff will help them to play and explore.

Children enjoy special activities, such as learning outdoors in the woodland area. They engage in creative activities, including painting, baking and sewing, with gusto. Children relish 'stay and play' sessions when their parents come along to take part in mathematics and art activities.

Children learn to care for living things, such as stick insects and butterflies. They benefit from educational trips and visits, for example picnics in the park, travelling by train to the seaside and learning about modelling clay with a sculptor.

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

The school has designed an ambitious curriculum that meets the needs of all children, including two-year-olds and children with SEND.

The curriculum identifies the key knowledge that children should learn and the order in which content should be taught. Staff have a well-informed understanding of the curriculum. They use this guidance, alongside their in-depth knowledge of child development, to provide children with learning activities suited to their needs, development and interests.

Mostly, staff successfully join in children's play, supporting and extending their ideas. However, many children are at an early stage of acquiring language and communication skills. On occasions during conversations, gaps in children's language or misconceptions go unchecked by staff.

This means that some children do not have the opportunity to pick up the basics of language. They find it difficult to communicate with their friends and adults and to connect what they know to new learning.

Children's needs, interests and talents are known well at this school.

There are effective systems in place to check children's learning and to identify the additional needs of pupils with SEND. For instance, staff use the two-year-old progress check of children's development to identify any early concerns about individual children.This helps staff to adapt the delivery of the curriculum to help these children overcome their barriers to learning.

The school teaches children how to behave appropriately. Staff deal gently, but effectively, with children when they forget to be kind to one another. Children know that the school rules help to keep them safe.

The school has thought carefully about children's wider development. Children have the opportunity to try as many new activities as possible. This helps them to develop new interests.

Children learn about diversity among people and families. They know that there are people in the community who can help them, such as people who work in the emergency services.

Governors provide effective support and challenge to the school.

They are committed to the success of every child and check on the school's work to achieve this. Staff appreciate the steps that the school take to support their well-being and workload. When making decisions, governors are considerate of the impact on staff's workload.

The school provides detailed guidance for parents on how best to support their children's learning at home. For example, the school shares learning activity ideas through 'Family Fun Trails' in school as well as providing weekly home learning activities.

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 ensure that some staff engage in high-quality interactions with children. This means that some staff do not identify gaps in children's language knowledge well enough to help them overcome their difficulties in communication. The school should ensure that staff are suitably trained to identify and rapidly address gaps in children's communication and language knowledge.