Harewood Centre Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Harewood Centre Nursery School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Every child is seen as unique at this nursery. Staff know the children well and give them the support that they need to develop in all of the areas of learning. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do particularly well as staff work hard to find ways to support their specific needs.

Due to this support, children quickly learn important knowledge and skills like taking turns or counting to five.

Staff establish effective routines. Children move sensibly from one activity to another.

For example, in the two-year-old provision, staff coun...t to 10 on their fingers for children to know when to move from sitting on the carpet to choosing their own independent learning. Children enjoy playing and chatting with staff and with each other. They learn how to be independent and look after resources in their environment.

Children behave well and care for each other. Staff support all children to improve their behaviour through warm and nurturing support. When children do something that is not in line with staff's high expectations, staff talk to them about what they should do.

They calmly explain what was wrong so that children understand how they should act in future.

Parents and carers are highly appreciative of what staff do to help their children develop. As one parent said, 'The extremely caring staff create special bonds with my child and I have regular updates from their key worker'.

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

Leaders have rightly focused their curriculum on the important communication and language skills that they know children need to develop. They have planned out the vocabulary that children need to learn and understand in each area of learning. For example, in understanding the world staff use words like 'rough' and 'hard' when discussing pinecones outside.

Children use what they have been taught in their play and when embarking on ambitious projects like searching for minibeasts and digging for dinosaur fossils.Leaders have clearly mapped out what children should be able to do and know at the end of each half term. Staff plan for smaller steps of learning so that children can reach these long-term milestones.

However, leaders recognise that sometimes this is quite difficult for staff to do as the half-term milestones are so broad. This means that some parts of the curriculum lack important precision and staff do not pick out the important knowledge and skills well enough.

Leaders have ensured that the assessment that staff use is helpful and does not cause unnecessary work.

Leaders have reduced the amount of assessment that staff need to do so that they can spend more time with children rather than filling in paperwork. Staff assess children's knowledge well. Key workers identify what their assigned children can do and what they need more help with.

Through regular meetings, staff discuss what children need to do next and so all staff know how to support children in taught sessions and interactions.

Staff have a good understanding of early child development. Although some staff are new to their roles, leaders have trained them effectively and ensured that they have high expectations of what children can achieve.

Staff watch what children are doing and then ask questions or remodel language to aid children in building up their vocabulary. Staff design activities matched to the curriculum.

As well as enjoying stories and songs, staff ensure children get the grounding that they need in reading words.

Staff emphasise rhyme and the sounds in words when reading to two-year-olds. By the time they come to the end of their Nursery Year, children can break down words like cat and pig into the sounds that make them up. This helps them move on to Reception Year with the knowledge that they need of the sounds that make up words.

Children with SEND are well supported and their plans are very well considered. Children with SEND are asked what they enjoy and what they are good at. Parents are consulted on what their child needs.

These contributions are well incorporated into the key worker's planning and practice. Staff help children with SEND develop in their speaking and other important literacy and numeracy skills while also helping them to develop socially and make friends.

Leaders have planned out how to support children to develop an understanding and wonder of the world.

Children take part in Wakefield's '50 things to do before you're 5'. This includes visiting Pontefract Castle and going for a walk in the woods. Staff teach children about forming healthy relationships and the concept of democracy.

All of this is done in an age-appropriate way that is helpful and meaningful for the children.

Governors have worked well with the local authority to improve the quality of the questions that they ask about what is happening in the school. Some governors visit the school to check on this.

However, governors do not know enough about the content of the curriculum and how well this is being taught.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Governors are very effective in checking on the safeguarding arrangements in school.

They have encouraged leaders to bring in a new recording system. They visit the school to check that the site is safe and that staff are properly trained. Leaders in school use the new recording system well.

Staff log concerns and leaders do not hesitate to follow this up with parents and external agencies if needed. Staff are well trained and they understand what to look out for and who to report concerns to.

Leaders ensure that the welfare requirements of the early years are met.

For example, all classrooms have a first aid box and all incidents are logged and passed on to leaders when needed. All staff have the training that they need and are suitable to work in the school. The record that leaders keep on this is accurate.

However, some minor additions needed to be made to the single central record. This was done while the inspectors were on site.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders have not broken down some of what children need to do in the curriculum into sufficiently small steps.

Staff are sometimes not as clear or precise in what they need to do next with children. Leaders should ensure that they map out the curriculum with the small steps of progress that staff need to know. Staff should use this curriculum to plan activities and then assess against how well children have met these planned out small steps.

• Governors do not know enough about the substance of the curriculum nor how well it is being implemented. Leaders do not pass governors enough information about this. The curriculum is not given sufficient evaluation by governors and so some of its deficiencies are missed.

Governors should ensure that they evaluate the quality of education in the school. Leaders should pass on information to governors that helps them to do this.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 a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in December 2013.