Taywood Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Children become the communicative, resilient, independent and imaginative youngsters that the school aims for them to be. This is because it has high expectations of children and the knowledge that they will learn.

Through the school's mostly well-considered and delivered curriculum, children achieve well.

Children enthuse about their learning. They benefit from the school's well-organised activities, including in its woodland area.

Children learn about the importance of safety, caring and friendship. They feel happy and at ease at the school. It helps them to form close relationships with one another and with key staff.

Children learn essential conc...epts such as same and different, growing and changing and being my best. The school deliberately teaches children rules about their personal privacy. This helps children, including two-year-olds, to communicate their needs and feelings, such as their likes and dislikes.

They behave well.

Children develop their understanding of the importance of equality. The school builds on children's knowledge, for example, of who is in my family and what a home may look like.

It helps children to learn about differences between themselves and other people and communities. Children are well prepared for their lives in modern Britain.

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

Children, including two-year-olds, gain a successful start to their early learning and development.

This is because the school uses its expertise to provide children with a curriculum that builds their knowledge of important concepts. The school makes prudent use of advice and support from early years experts, such as in other nursery schools and in the local authority, to inform its work. Children at the school develop a secure foundation for their future education.

Mostly, the school has redesigned its curriculum to focus successfully on the knowledge and the order of learning that is essential for two-, three- and four-year-olds. It uses assessment strategies carefully to review whether children know and remember what they have learned. Nevertheless, in a few areas of learning, the school does not identify clearly enough the knowledge that children will learn.

This makes it harder for staff to teach children some of the essential information that they need for their future learning.

The school provides children with many thought-through opportunities to learn stories, rhymes and poems. Staff revisit important knowledge, such as about the storyline and characters in the fiction books that they read to the children.

The school ensures that information, for example about authors and their works, sticks in children's memories.

In the main, the school ensures that children learn well. On occasion, some staff think less carefully about the activities that will deliver the school's curriculum content.

This means that sometimes, children gain less knowledge than they could.

The school links with other professionals, parents and carers to identify the needs of each child with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) accurately. The school supports children with SEND effectively.

These children progress well through the school's curriculum.

The school takes a well-considered approach to developing children's understanding of language. For example, it explains important new words to children carefully and often.

As a result, children become skilful and successful communicators. Those children who can, develop an understanding of many new and important words.

The school makes its expectations for children's punctuality and attendance clear to parents.

It double-checks the absences of children to ensure that they are safe and that parents bring them to school as often as possible. Children's attendance and punctuality are improving well.

The school helps children to understand its code of conduct.

Staff set clear routines and expectations, including for two-year-olds, guiding children about how to share and cooperate with others. Children behave kindly and sensibly.

The school has established a range of well-designed opportunities that support children's wider learning.

For example, children recently learned about different animals from observing millipedes, butterflies and a snake. The school helps children to understand healthy eating, including, for instance, debating why cake is only for special occasions.

Since the previous inspection, the governing body has strengthened its expertise and sharpened its attention on supporting and challenging the school.

It now reviews the school's work more carefully and effectively. The quality of staff's work with the children benefits from the support and access to training that the school provides. The school ensures that staff have enough time to support children's learning and not be overwhelmed by paperwork.

Leaders at all levels have created a happy school for the benefit of children, families and staff.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some of the curriculums, the school has not identified some of the key knowledge that staff will teach to children.

This means that staff are not sure what essential knowledge children should learn. This affects some children's success. The school should make certain that the curriculum in each area of learning is equally well thought out so that staff are clear about the knowledge that children need to remember.

• Sometimes, the school does not make sure that staff create activities that will deliver its curriculum in the way that it intends. This means that some children do not learn as well as they could. The school should ensure that staff have the expertise they need to put the school's curriculum into action.

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