Stoneygate Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Stoneygate Nursery School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

Children are happy at Stoneygate Nursery School. They benefit from caring and supportive relationships with staff.

Children enjoy playing and investigating in the well-equipped classrooms and outdoor areas. They take part in learning activities with confidence. They know staff will help them to play and explore.

Children achieve well from their differing starting points. This is because the school has high expectations for every child, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Typica...lly, children move on to primary schools ready for the next stage of their learning.

Children behave sensibly. Staff promote positive behaviour from the moment children join the two-year-old provision. Children learn to play cooperatively.

They share and take turns with their friends. On rare occasions when children find this difficult, staff gently and effectively remind them of behaviour expectations.

Building independence is an important aspect of the school's ambition for its children.

Skilled staff help children learn the knowledge and skills to realise this. For example, children develop independence in pouring drinks, putting on aprons and tidying toys away. Through stories and celebrations, such as for Eid and Christmas, children learn about diversity among people and families.

These experiences contribute well to children's broader development.

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

The school has worked effectively to secure improvements to the quality of the curriculum since the last inspection. It has diligently considered the needs and interests of all its children and has developed an ambitious curriculum.

In most areas of learning, the school has carefully considered what it wants children to know and the order in which important knowledge will be taught. However, in one or two areas of learning, the school is still identifying the essential knowledge children should learn. This means that, on occasion, staff do not place the right emphasis on the knowledge the children need for future learning.

This sometimes prevents children from learning as deeply as they can and making connections with what they have learned before.

The school places a sharp focus on developing children's early communication and language skills. Children benefit from carefully chosen books, songs and nursery rhymes.

Staff make story time interesting such as by reading books with enthusiasm and enjoyment. Staff regularly check how well children are developing in their communication and language. They provide focused support for children who may be at risk of falling behind.

The school identifies the needs of children with SEND early. It works closely with parents and with wider professionals to ensure that effective support is put in place. Children with SEND achieve well.

Staff routinely check on what children know and remember. They use information from these checks effectively to determine what children should learn next. The school has reduced the amount of paperwork that staff collect when they carry out these checks on children's development.

This gives staff more time to support children in their learning.

Staff skilfully and sensitively teach children to understand the expectations for their behaviour. Children, including two-year-olds, learn how to be kind towards others.

Staff support children ably in developing the vocabulary they need to express their feelings and emotions. This enables children to confidently seek help and support from adults and from one another. Children who need extra help to manage their emotions receive the help and support they need from nurturing staff.

The school supports children's wider development well. Children have the opportunity to try as many new activities as possible, for example visiting the library and taking part in yoga. Visitors, including from the emergency services, talk to the children about their roles and responsibilities.

This helps children to understand that there are people in the community who can help them. These meaningful experiences prepare children for life in modern Britain.

The school considers staff's workload and well-being, for instance how to best implement new initiatives without overburdening them.

While governors are committed to the school, some have recently joined and do not have an accurate view of the school's strengths and priorities. This means that there are times that governors do not challenge the school well enough.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of areas of learning, the school is still determining the essential knowledge that children should learn. This makes it difficult for staff to design learning activities that build on what children already know. The school should clarify the foundational knowledge children should learn in each area of the curriculum.

• Some governors are still developing in their roles. This means that the level of challenge the governing body currently offers does not hold the school fully to account. Governors should improve their knowledge and skills so they can support and challenge the school effectively to further improve the quality of education that children receive.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in May 2019.