Scartho Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

All staff in this school have high expectations for how they want children to treat each other.

Relationships between children and staff are characterised by warmth, care and kindness. Children then demonstrate this consideration to others. Children learn positive learning behaviours that help them to concentrate and engage in their learning for sustained periods.

Staff intentionally teach children how to do important things such as taking turns and showing good manners. For example, during snack time, staff model to children how to say 'please' and 'thank you'. Children quickly learn the importance of this and begin to do it without reminders.

Staff introduc...e routines to help children develop their independence. Some transitions between different parts of the school day are not as focused as they could be, so some learning time is lost.

The school works with parents and children to promote high attendance at school.

Children are taught to recognise their own emotions and to consider the impact of their actions on their peers. Children are encouraged to be thoughtful individuals who understand that their actions can affect how others feel. The school's high expectations for children are generally reflected in the curriculum.

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

Leaders have made refinements to the early years curriculum. Across the seven areas of learning, the starting points and end points of the curriculum are clearly identified. In most areas of the curriculum, the school has considered the most important skills and knowledge for children to gain by the end of Nursery to be ready for starting school.

Where the curriculum is more clearly defined, interactions and activity choices are ideally suited to the small steps of learning in the curriculum sequence. For example, in mathematics, staff skilfully model counting strategies up to 10 when sharing out snack items. However, in some other areas of the curriculum, this is not as well established and there is not enough clarity about the small steps in knowledge and skills that children should develop.

Children have any special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) quickly identified. Staff support children with SEND well to recognise and communicate their emotions.

The school prioritises children's development in communication and language.

Children enjoy hearing stories that the school has carefully chosen to promote vocabulary. Children hear a range of stories, many of which are chosen to give them an understanding of important concepts such as friendship, kindness and sharing. Staff give children practice at speaking out loud and to an audience.

For example, during 'morning meetings', children are encouraged to talk about their morning before arriving at Nursery or through learning themes such as 'life cycles' or mini-beasts. Staff use every opportunity to develop children's language by introducing and extending vocabulary about what children are learning.

Leaders place a high focus on children's personal development.

Children learn how to treat each other with respect and empathy. The personal, social and emotional development curriculum supports children's self-confidence and self-esteem which enables their learning. Children's understanding of the wider world is developed by learning about different celebrations linked to world faiths.

The school has engaged with local services such as the local police and the fire service to come into school and teach children about people who help them and keep them safe in the community. During the school day, staff help children understand sun safety, the importance of healthy snacks and staying hydrated.

The recently formed governing body works well with school leaders to continue to improve the school.

Governors understand their roles. They offer challenge and support to leaders. Governors promote a culture of positive workload and well-being for leaders and staff.

School leaders undertake regular monitoring of the areas of school that are being improved, such as the curriculum. Some of these checks do not identify precisely enough where strengths are and where further work is needed to move the school forward.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some of the smaller steps of knowledge and vocabulary in some areas of the curriculum are not clearly defined as in others. This means that some interactions and activities develop and extend children's learning better in some areas than in others. The school should ensure that the smaller steps in knowledge and vocabulary are clearly defined from the starting point to the end point across the whole curriculum to support all staff in promoting children's learning at every opportunity.

• The school's monitoring of the implementation of the curriculum and other parts of the school's development priorities does not identify where practice is strong and where it needs development as precisely as it should. As a result, some of the training for staff is not specifically targeted to improvement priorities. The school should ensure that the monitoring and checks undertaken are used to inform further professional development for all staff and prioritise areas identified as needing improvement.

• Some transitions between different parts of the school day are not as focused as they could be. Some learning time is lost, and children are sometimes not given the best chance to develop their independence and positive learning behaviours. The school should ensure that there is clarity around routines and expectations for transitions between different parts of the school day.