Mary Paterson Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Mary Paterson Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a nurturing, welcoming and happy school.

Everything that leaders and staff do focuses on helping children to blossom in their learning and grow in independence and self-confidence.

Whether children are cooking food at the firepit, constructing obstacle courses in the garden or sharing stories, staff expertly build up and extend children's understanding. Every step of the way, each child's development is planned with great thought and ambition.

Children are exceptionally well prepared to move to primary school when the time comes.

Staff give c...hildren lots of help to settle in and follow the school's day-to-day routines, such as getting ready to go outside or tidying up after an activity. Staff are always on hand to guide children on how to use equipment and resources safely.

They teach children how to play with others and to be considerate. Because staff understand each child so well, they are quick to spot and support those children who may find these things difficult at first.

Parents and carers could not be happier that their children attend Mary Paterson.

They like the way that leaders and staff work in partnership with them to support their children to enjoy school and learn successfully.

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

The curriculum is rich, highly ambitious and methodically planned. Leaders place the needs of all children at the forefront of their curriculum thinking.

They know exactly what they want every child to know by the time they leave Mary Paterson. The building blocks that children need to learn to achieve these goals have also been identified with precision.

Leaders and staff work as a highly skilled team to deliver the curriculum.

This is shaped by their in-depth understanding of each child. They know when children should practise and revisit key ideas, and when they are ready to learn something new. When children need it, staff use their expertise to break down the building blocks of the curriculum into smaller, more manageable steps.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those at risk of falling behind are identified promptly. They receive additional support that is finetuned to their needs. Because of these strengths, each child's development is promoted exceptionally well.

Children flourish in their language development. Each aspect of the curriculum comes together seamlessly to support children to become confident communicators. Leaders make careful decisions about which words children should learn and when.

Because of this, staff plan activities and resources purposefully. They make sure that children get lots of practice using these words in different contexts and in different ways.

The curriculum is designed and delivered around a rich repertoire of 'core books'.

Through this, staff immerse children in stories, songs and rhymes. Children have great fun hearing stories read to them and acting them out. For example, children took great delight joining in with a song to retell 'Little Red Riding Hood'.

Others enjoyed pretending to make biscuits for the 'Gingerbread Man' and coming up with ways that he could get home safely.

Adults are also highly skilled in developing children's ability to pay attention and recognise sounds. For example, as children excitedly looked for a teddy bear hidden in the garden, adults and children chanted 'We're going on a bear hunt'.

Children knew that the louder the adults were singing, the closer they were to discovering the teddy bear's hiding place.

Provision for children's wider development is of consistently high quality. Staff foster children's self-confidence and fascination with the world around them.

Outings in the local area and further afield are used to broaden children's learning further. Through staff's expert guidance, children learn about how to behave in different situations. For example, children and adults worked together to cook ratatouille at the firepit.

Children collected logs and kindling for the fire and chopped up ingredients, remembering what adults had taught them about how to do these things safely.

Leaders, governors and staff work together to pursue excellence. If something could be better, they take prompt and effective action to secure improvements.

The governing body sets clear priorities shaped by the needs of families and children. Its support and challenge have been pivotal in the school's continued success.

Staff value how leaders support their professional development, including, for example, working towards additional qualifications.

Staff also appreciate leaders' work to ensure that workload is manageable, for example by reducing the paperwork involved in assessing children's development

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and staff are well trained in potential risks to children's welfare. They know what signs of harm to look out for.

Any concerns, no matter how small, are picked up and acted on promptly. If children or families need extra help or protection, leaders make sure that this is provided. This includes making sure that families are aware of and can access additional support from a range of external early help services.

Children are taught about different risks in an age-appropriate way. For example, they learn about what consent means and that they can say 'no', 'stop' or 'I do not like that'. Both indoors and outdoors, adults guide children on how to manage risks and make sensible choices.

For example, at the workbench, children learn and practise how to use a hammer and nails safely. During their campfire times, they know why it is important to sit at a safe distance from the fire.

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 February 2013.