Ightenhill Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Ightenhill Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Children are incredibly happy. They make many friends and settle quickly.

Children feel safe and form excellent relationships with staff, who they know care deeply about them. Children benefit greatly from the exciting and first-rate curriculum that the school has designed. Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve very well because the school expects the absolute best of them.

Children are proud of their school, including being in the caterpillars, butterflies and ladybird groups with their key person. Children take car...e of the school's many toys and resources. They act responsibly and tidy the classrooms when the special music is played to alert them.

From their time in the class for two-year-olds onwards, children learn from staff how to cooperate and be patient. Children learn to be kind to one another and behave calmly. They use gentle speaking and actions, just like they see modelled by the expert staff.

Children learn to respect the views and opinions of other people.

Children develop immense confidence, not least because of the time that they spend learning in the school's beautiful and extensive garden and woodland area. They flourish because of the many opportunities that staff give them to experiment and investigate.

Children become passionate, knowledgeable learners.

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

The school has a deep understanding of how young children, including those with SEND, develop and learn. It has used its vision, ambition, impressive expertise and attention to detail to establish an innovative and inspiring curriculum.

Children benefit immensely from the exceptional education that they receive.

The school draws on educational research and from the advice of external experts to challenge its own curricular thinking. It invests with great success in the training and development of its staff.

This leads to consistency in the high quality of staff's delivery of the curriculum. Two-year-olds, as well as three and four-year-olds, gain a wonderful foundation for their future lives.

Children learn to communicate their ideas, needs and desires to others.

Staff listen closely to children and respond to them skilfully. For example, staff use gesture to help children, including those with SEND, to communicate. Teachers and teaching assistants use new words highly effectively with the children.

Those children who can, develop a rich and deeply understood vocabulary.

The school thinks in depth about which fiction, non-fiction books and poems to read to the children as part of its curriculum. Children gain an extensive knowledge about a rich array of different characters, stories, authors, poets and illustrators.

Older children learn from staff to read letters and words using phonics. Children love books, stories and language.

With accomplished expertise, the school pinpoints what children know and remember of its curriculum.

Staff build a clear picture of the needs of children with SEND. Teachers and teaching assistants give children exemplary individual support to build their skills and knowledge. Children, including those with SEND, blossom while at the school.

The school is a peaceful yet happy hive of activity. Disagreements and upset between children are rare and short-lived. This is because children learn from staff how to manage their own feelings and behaviour very well.

Children's behaviour is impeccable.

Children benefit from the extensive and well considered opportunities that the school provides for their personal development. For instance, through exploring photographs, stories, music and dressing up they learn about different community festivals and celebrations.

By making educational visits with staff around their local area, they come to understand the important roles of people such as shop keepers. They learn about the essential role of the dentist who visits them at the school.

Governors support and challenge the school expertly.

The governing body also considers very carefully the school's long-term priorities. The school is a place where staff are listened to, valued and supported exceptionally well. It has reduced the workload of staff associated with completing unnecessary paperwork.

Staff make the best use of their time to support and extend children's learning in this inspirational school.

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 October 2014.