Frizington Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Frizington Nursery School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Children love their Nursery. Their excited chatter fills the air as they arrive, full of enthusiasm for the day that lies ahead.

Children know exactly where to find all of their favourite toys and resources. Equally, they are curious to explore anything new or different that adults provide for them. The relationships between adults and children are warm and positive.

Children separate happily from their parents and carers each day because they feel safe and secure here.

Leaders and staff have high expectations for children's achievement and behaviour. They provide child...ren with activities that help them to learn and develop.

Children learn to listen carefully to adults and to share their own thoughts and ideas. Children know that if they find anything difficult, an adult will always help them. Children thrive and achieve well in each area of learning.

The children understand and follow the Nursery's simple rules and routines. For example, children know when it is time to play and when it is time to come to the carpet for group activities. They learn to share and treat resources with care.

Children behave extremely well given their ages and stages of development. Leaders and staff act swiftly and effectively to stop any bullying behaviour should it occur.

Children learn to manage their own needs.

For example, they learn how to find their own name and picture to register their attendance each day. They learn how to put on their Wellington boots and raincoats when the weather is wet. These independent attitudes help to prepare children for primary school when the time comes.

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

Leaders have provided a broad, ambitious and exciting curriculum that takes account of children's different stages of development. All children benefit from this same strong curriculum, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

In most areas of the curriculum, leaders have broken down the essential knowledge into smaller, carefully ordered steps.

This helps children to build new knowledge securely upon what they already know.

In a few areas of learning, the curriculum is at an earlier stage of development. Leaders have not completed their work to identify all of the smaller steps of learning that children need to take.

This prevents adults from making sure that children learn everything they need to know in these areas.

Adults are experts at promoting children's communication and language skills. They make sure that they speak clearly using language that the children understand.

They ensure that children have the time they need to think about what they want to say. This helps children to feel confident about speaking, for example to share their thoughts and ideas. Children develop strong communication and language skills over time, including those with SEND.

Leaders have given children's early reading development a high priority. They have carefully chosen a wide selection of books and stories for children to get to know and love. Through these stories, children hear a wide range of new words.

This supports children in developing a strong vocabulary. Children learn about letters and sounds through exciting activities and games. When it is appropriate, children begin to learn how to break down and build up the sounds in words.

By the time they leave the Nursery to go to a Reception class, many children can already read and write a range of simple words.

Adults are knowledgeable about how young children learn and develop. They use this strong knowledge to make sure that children are learning well.

Adults step in with extra help should children need it. Leaders make use of the information from assessment activities to improve the curriculum for children if necessary.

Leaders and staff work effectively together to identify quickly any children who need extra help with their learning.

When children might have SEND, leaders communicate well with parents and with a range of professionals to make sure that these children receive the timely support that they need. Children with SEND achieve similarly well to other children in the Nursery.

Adults ably support children to manage their own behaviour.

For example, adults encourage children to use words to resolve any disagreements. Adults provide gentle but effective reminders that help children to remember how to be ready for learning. For example, in group activities, adults remind children to show that they are listening and looking carefully.

These positive behaviours help all children to learn well in these activities.

Leaders provide children with plenty of activities, trips and visits that support their wider development. For example, children visit a wildlife park to see the animals that they hear about in their stories.

Children learn how to cross the road safely and about the dangers of playing near water. Leaders ensure that children learn in appropriate ways about differences among families and about other faiths and cultures. These experiences help to prepare children for the next stage in their education.

Governors and leaders are considerate of staff's workload when they make decisions about the school. Staff appreciate leaders' concern for their well-being.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

All staff receive regular safeguarding training. This helps them to remain alert to signs that a child might be at risk from harm.

Leaders have clear procedures for reporting and recording any concerns about a child's welfare.

Staff understand and follow these procedures. Leaders work effectively with a range of safeguarding professionals such as family support teams, social workers and the police. This helps leaders to secure help for children and families who need it.

Leaders have appropriate measures to keep children safe when using the internet. They share useful safeguarding information with parents to support children when they use technology at home.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of areas of learning, leaders have not identified all of the essential knowledge that children need to learn or the order in which they should learn this knowledge.

This prevents staff from making sure that children learn all that they need to know. Leaders should ensure that in these areas, they finalise the identification and ordering of knowledge for children's subsequent learning.

Background

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

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 good in December 2012.

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