Purley Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Purley Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Purley Nursery is a happy and welcoming school.

Staff share a heartfelt commitment to ensuring children get the best possible start to their education. This ambition is realised. The motto of 'achieving and growing together' is embodied by children and staff each day.

Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the school. They feel well informed and know who to go to if they have any concerns.

Purley Nursery provides children with a calm and purposeful space, where routines are well established and consistently reinforced.

Children behave well dur...ing both focus sessions and at other times. They are kind and considerate, engage positively and play very well together. Children are kept safe at school.

The curriculum is ambitious and well designed. Learning, both inside and beyond the classroom, is meaningful. Children enjoy climbing, riding the bikes and growing their own vegetables to cook.

In the forest school, children experience an array of opportunities to sing songs, toast marshmallows and become immersed in the world around them. Everyone is focused on helping children to become confident and independent. For example, children experience their local community by visiting the shops, cafes and library.

They learn about road safety when going out.

Children's experience at Purley Nursery prepares them exceptionally well for the next stage of their education.

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

Leaders have established an ambitious curriculum that identifies the knowledge, skills and experiences children need to secure through each area of learning.

The curriculum is designed to encourage children to follow their interests and learn through play while building the knowledge and skills they need.

From the time children join the school, staff work closely with parents and carers to understand each child's interests, needs and circumstances. This information is used to inform the range of rich and interesting activities that underpin the curriculum.

As a result, children engage in a stimulating mixture of familiar and new experiences that build knowledge and encourage curiosity. For example, children develop their understanding of colours by seeing them in the different contexts of fireworks, Diwali and Rangoli patterns.

Children's early communication and language skills are given high priority.

For example, staff read and share stories and rhymes to children each day. These are chosen carefully for their rich content and repetitive phrases, which children learn and readily join in with. Staff set up opportunities linked to these books for children to extend their spoken language.

This prepares children well for learning phonics from their Reception Year.

Staff are well trained and knowledgeable about early education. Leaders and staff regularly take time to discuss what each child has been learning.

This information is used effectively to refine what children need to learn next and identify any additional help they might need. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities achieve well. This is because they are swiftly identified.

Staff adapt activities and ensure that children get the right support to be fully included.

Behaviour is calm, and the children move around the setting well, including at snack time. Mutual respect and high levels of care can be seen between staff and children.

Children learn about and practise good behaviour. For example, they learn to take turns and listen when adults and other children are speaking. Leaders work closely with parents to make sure that everyone feels safe and that children attend school regularly.

There are high expectations for children's personal development. Lots of opportunities are provided to embody the values of the school, including being kind and respectful. The curriculum is designed to develop children's independence.

For example, they are encouraged to work with different people and ask for help when they need it.

Staff enjoy working at the school. They feel valued by leaders, including those responsible for governance.

Staff feel listened to and are confident that their workload and well-being are taken seriously by leaders.

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 2013.