Gamesley Early Excellence Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Gamesley Early Excellence Centre is an inclusive and welcoming setting where children thrive. Staff know all the children well and want the very best for them.

Children start their school day with confidence and a smile. Staff ensure that children enjoy attending and feel safe.

Children are happy and inquisitive.

They explore the school grounds with growing confidence. Children particularly enjoy their walks around the school field, where they learn about their surroundings. They love to learn about animals, making daily check-ins on the school chickens.

Children try their best to meet the school's high expectations of their behaviour. Staff promote ...positive behaviour from the moment children join the two-year-old provision. Children know and model the two school rules of 'being kind and listening to adults'.

They learn the importance of sharing and cooperating with one another. Staff provide effective support for those children who need extra help with managing their emotions.

Children readily engage with the exciting learning opportunities.

They are eager to teach others about their school rules. This includes writing letters to the 'cheeky shark' to remind him of their expectations. Learning is purposeful and children achieve well.

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

The school has created a broad and interesting curriculum. It has identified much of the important knowledge that staff will teach and the order in which children will learn it. In the main, children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are well prepared for their next steps.

In a small number of areas across the curriculum, the school has not identified some of the important knowledge and vocabulary that children should learn in sufficient detail. This makes it tricky for staff to know what they should prioritise when designing learning activities. In these areas of learning, some children do not learn precise knowledge and vocabulary as well as they could.

Underpinning the curriculum is the school's focus on developing children's communication and language skills. Mostly, staff use talk and a wide range of communication strategies to engage with children successfully. However, on occasions, some staff's talk with children does not aid their learning as well as it could.

When this happens, children's language is not extended as fully as it might be.

The school has given lots of thought to the books, rhymes and songs that children will hear and read. Children, including two-year-olds, know and enjoy many different stories, rhymes and songs.

They gain a secure foundation for continuing to learn to read at primary school.

Staff observe, support and extend children's learning of the curriculum well. They act promptly if they identify that any child, including those with SEND, needs extra help from staff or other professionals.

Children with SEND benefit from an education which is as ambitious as that of their peers.

Children behave well. Staff teach them to care for one another, look after resources and to respect adults.

Children follow routines and enjoy the praise that they get for their positive behaviours. Any children who need extra help to regulate their emotions are supported well by nurturing staff.

Children benefit from a range of opportunities to broaden their personal development.

For example, they learn about different festivals and enjoy learning about different countries. Children develop their imagination in the role play areas. Particular favourites include their recent 'trip' to France on the classroom aeroplane.

Children are active throughout the day. They make good use of the climbing equipment and trampoline to improve their agility. Children, including those with complex SEND needs, are well supported to develop core strength, and take risks.

The school guides parents and carers well through the big step of helping their child to start school for the very first time. Parents are positive about the relocation of the nursery to the school site, which took place in September 2023. Staff communicate well with parents about their children's learning.

The school is considerate of staff's workload and well-being. Staff value being part of the close-knit team.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some areas of learning, the curriculum has not been designed with the same precision as the rest of the curriculum. Where this is the case, the school is not as clear in its expectations of the precise knowledge and vocabulary that children need to learn. The school should ensure that the curriculum design outlines precisely the knowledge and vocabulary that children need to learn, so that children achieve even better across all areas of learning.

• On occasion, staff do not build children's knowledge through talking with them about their learning as they play. This means that some children do not expand their language as well as they might. The school should ensure that all staff make full use of opportunities to support and extend children's learning and language through talk and discussion.