Selhurst Nursery School and Children’s Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Selhurst Nursery is a special place for children to learn, play and grow. They flourish due to the standard of education and care that they receive.

School leaders are ambitious for their community and have high expectations of what children can achieve. The school is committed to inclusion. Children, including those with a wide range of special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve highly.

Children are safe and happy. They cannot wait to come into the nursery school every day with smiles on their faces. They settle quickly and are fully involved in exciting learning experiences from the moment they arrive.

Music and rhymes are heard being sun...g throughout the day. Staff set a high standard for behaviour, which all children follow. They behave well and know that they should treat each other with kindness and respect.

Children relish the many exciting opportunities offered. For example, they learn about nature and the environment through the on-site forest school. Children love to find and count the many animals, toys and living creatures in the 'Panda Wood'.

Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the school and say that their children thrive. They receive regular and useful information about their children's learning and appreciate the stay-and-play sessions.

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

The acting executive headteacher and senior leaders are highly ambitious.

They lead the school extremely well and have implemented many improvements to the curriculum since the previous inspection. The passion and motivation shown by leaders and staff for giving every child an exciting education are evident.

The curriculum in most areas of learning has been designed to ensure that children develop the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to be well prepared for the next stage of their education.

For example, communication and language underpin the whole curriculum. Stories, rhymes and songs form a central part of this. One can hear music all day long from the children.

Leaders have skilfully chosen core books and rhymes to develop children's early reading and language skills. Similarly, in mathematics, children learn and practise counting and recognising the numbers one to three throughout the day, including when they are lining up, counting fruit or shapes, or playing games outside.

Staff make sure that all children, including those with SEND, make strong progress through the curriculum.

Provision for these children is in many ways exceptional. Children's additional needs are identified quickly upon arrival, and they receive the right support to help them access the full curriculum. This ensures that children are well prepared to move on to primary school.

Some aspects of the curriculum are at an earlier stage of design and implementation. These refinements need further time to be fully embedded and impact on children's learning. Leaders have appropriate plans in place to ensure their ambitions in these areas are fully realised.

Adults' focus on children's physical, personal, social and emotional development is excellent. Two-year-old children have stimulating experiences both indoors and outdoors. The curriculum, and an extensive range of equipment, helps all children to strengthen their bodies and learn important skills such as balancing.

Staff support for children's wider personal development is exceptional. For example, children take part in sessions with the local performing arts school and learn dance and movement skills from a disabled-led dance group. Oral health workshops are provided by King's College London using puppet shows.

All children at the nursery school go on annual visits to places such as the Horniman Museum and Gardens. Staff are vigilant to children's attendance. This ensures that children and their families develop positive attitudes to attending school each day and on time.

Staff morale is high. They value leaders' consideration and the time they are given to discuss their workload, well-being and opportunities for further professional development. For example, leaders have introduced new ways of sharing and tracking the progress that children are making.

Staff feel this is a more efficient process and allows them more time to be with and talk to the children. This is also popular with parents and carers, who feel they are kept well informed.

Governors are highly committed and provide effective challenge and support for leaders.

For example, governors ask leaders thoughtful questions about how to maintain and improve even further the quality of education for children that leaders and staff provide. The local authority also provides accurate and useful oversight for the work of school leaders.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some aspects of the curriculum, including mathematics, are more recent in their development. In these areas, staff need further support to ensure the curriculum is implemented consistently to match the ambition of what has been designed. The school should continue to provide high-quality training to embed the early years curriculum to make sure that all children reach the ambitious goals that have been set.