Madeley Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Madeley Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Children get off to a great start to their education at Madeley Nursery School. Leaders are highly ambitious for all children. They offer an exciting child-centred, creative approach to learning for every child.

Learning is fun, with time for reflection, including daily opportunities for meditation and outdoor activities. Children enjoy opportunities to work with expert gardeners to grow fruit and vegetables in the school garden. During walks to explore the local community, children find out about people who help them.

Such opportunities help children to excel in all aspect...s of school life.

Children's behaviour is exemplary, despite some only having attended for a very short time. The early days in school are well organised and children adapt to routines very quickly.

Staff set clear expectations. Children live up to these expectations and behave well. Children show consistently high levels of respect and care towards each other.

They are kind to one another. They are highly motivated and focused on their learning. Children are happy and safe.

Leaders establish positive relationships with parents right from the start. They make sure that open and effective discussions take place. Parents are very happy with the quality of education and care that their children receive.

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

Leaders have carefully planned and sequenced an ambitious curriculum for all children. Staff have the subject knowledge they need to teach the curriculum well. Leaders provide good-quality resources.

They offer a wide range of exciting learning opportunities for all children. For example, children learn to work skilfully with clay and paints. They enjoy counting the number of slugs in the garden or the number of legs on spiders.

Staff regularly check how well children are learning the curriculum so that they can plan next steps for them. Children are exceptionally well-prepared for the next stage of their education.

Reading is at the heart of this school's work.

Throughout the day there are many opportunities for children to listen to stories and sing songs and rhymes. Staff sometimes accompany this singing with the guitar or clarinet. Children really enjoy these experiences.

Parents join story sessions, share home books and receive family 'book gifts' that help to support children's reading in the home. Adults encourage children to talk about their learning in depth. They make sure that any child who has fallen behind is well-supported to catch up quickly, which they do.

Right from the start, leaders identify any child in need of extra help and support. They work effectively with external partners, such as speech and language therapists. This means that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) get the help they need swiftly.

As a result, children with SEND achieve exceptionally well.

Opportunities such as composting and finding out about the local area help pupils to develop wider interests and care for the environment. Visits to the local orchard and allotments help children to learn about organic farming.

Children learn about road safety during walks in the local community. A wide range of religions and cultures within the nursery are studied and explored, including Sikh and Pagan cultures. Children enjoy learning about Chinese New Year, Diwali and Christmas through music, art and storytelling.

Children enjoy singing to elderly residents and sending cards at Christmas time.

Children develop an understanding of right and wrong through the school rules. They are polite and courteous and regularly use good manners such as 'please' and 'thank you'.

They learn about friendships and how to share. They help and look after one another. In addition, children listen carefully to adults and focus well on their tasks.

Leaders, including governors, know the school well. They set the right priorities for the school. They regularly review the impact of the school's work.

Governors hold leaders to account for the work of the school.

The school successfully engages parents in their children's learning. Parents express very positive opinions about the school.

Staff too are overwhelmingly positive about support from leaders to manage their workload and well-being. They value regular training and opportunities to learn from others. This includes some staff visiting an international school.

Staff say this helps them to reflect on their practice and professionally develop.

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 December 2012.