Curzon Nursery School & Family Wellbeing Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The school is a happy, safe, caring place for children to be. Leaders, governors and staff have high expectations of themselves and of the children in their care. Children enjoy the school.

Staff think carefully about how to make sure each child benefits from the wide range of exciting activities which are on offer. As a result, children achieve well from their individual starting points and leave the Nursery ready for the next stage of their education.

Children are cherished and respected by staff.

In turn, even the very youngest children learn to respect each other and are kind to each other. They behave exceptionally well and are very friendly to visitors.... Any minor conflicts are quickly and sensitively sorted out.

Staff are proud and happy to work at the school. Parents and carers are delighted that their children go to the school. They appreciate the many ways in which leaders and staff keep them informed and involved in the life of the school.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are extremely well cared for and supported in their learning and development.

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

Leaders, governors and staff share an ambitious vision for the school. Staff are highly committed to becoming the best practitioners that they can be.

Staff respond well to training, and this has helped them to improve their skills in teaching phonics, reading and mathematics. The teaching of phonics and early reading skills is strong. Children learn stories, rhymes, songs and poems.

They learn how to write their names and can hear and recognise some letter sounds. Staff have implemented a core book approach to make sure reading is prioritised and that children develop a love of stories and books. Children can talk about the stories they know and joyfully burst into song without any prompting!

Practitioners think of fun ways to teach early number skills, and children make good gains in this area.

Sometimes the most able children are not stretched well enough to apply and use their early reading, writing and number skills. This is partly due to the fact that curriculum plans are not fully developed and do not yet support teachers to sequence and adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of these children. The curriculum plans do not show how children's knowledge and skills build as they move into their next classes.

Plans and guidance from leaders to support children with SEND are exceptionally effective in helping staff to meet the needs of these children. Children with SEND thrive under the care and skilful support they are given.

Staff draw on children's interests and abilities to create exciting learning spaces which help children to experience all the areas of learning in a practical way.

This helps them to achieve well. During the inspection, children were enthusiastic about making sculptures, after being inspired by their visit to the Tate Modern. They enjoyed number games outside and were fascinated by the chickens who brought the story of 'Rosie's Walk' to life for them.

Staff make sure that children quickly learn about how important being respectful and kind to each other is. This is a great strength of the school's work. Children's behaviour is exceptional.

They take turns and they are kind to each other. We found it heart-warming to observe the children genuinely laugh, learn and have fun together. Staff make sure that any minor disagreements are quickly dealt with and forgotten.

Children are friendly and confident and even offered to help inspectors with their typing!

Lunchtime is a sociable experience for children. They chat happily to each other and to the staff who help them learn how to use a knife and fork.

The school's work to involve parents is a key strength.

Parents benefit from workshops which show them how to help their children learn at home. The home-learning books provide ideas for parents to help them build on the children's learning which has taken place at the school. For example, there are activities relating to stories and themes which have been covered, such as 'making bubbles'.

Parents and children value these books.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

A unique feature of the school's work to safeguard children is the joint work with the children's centre.

Safeguarding leaders work across the children's centre and the school. They have an incisive knowledge of their families and do all they can to make sure they receive support from within the school or from external services.

There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school.

Practitioners see their responsibility of keeping children safe and protecting them from harm as an absolute priority. Leaders and staff are well trained on all aspects of safeguarding. The site is safe and staff are highly vigilant at all times.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

Teachers carefully identify children's skills and knowledge when they start at the nursery. They work collaboratively to plan next steps for children and to create learning spaces which capture their interest and help them to learn. They have implemented a sequenced phonics programme which has had a good impact on children's early reading skills.

They have also worked hard to secure improvements to their teaching of mathematics. However, overall curriculum plans across all the areas of learning are at the early stages of development and are not well sequenced. They do not show how children's knowledge and skills should be sequenced over their time at the nursery.

For example, there is little guidance for staff on how to build on the knowledge and skills that two-year-olds are expected to have, when they move through to the three-year-old classes. Because of this, staff sometimes lack confidence in designing lessons and activities to help the most able children achieve as well as they should. .

The school's curriculum is not yet sufficiently coherently planned and sequenced in some areas of learning. However, it is clear from the action that leaders have already taken to plan next year's curriculum that they are in the process of bringing this about. For this reason, the transition arrangement has been applied in this case.