Grove House Nursery School & Children’s Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Grove House Nursery School & Children's Centre continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a very happy nursery school.

Children and staff enjoy warm and trusting working relationships. Children are surrounded by adults who know them inside out and care for them deeply. Staff smile, encourage and praise children for every success.

Children enter school enthusiastically. They move quickly to engage with the range of carefully chosen activities available for the day.

School leaders are determined to ensure that all children thrive in their learning and development.

Staff have the expertise to support all children in... achieving ambitious personal targets. The school is a highly inclusive community. Children with special education needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive sharply tailored support.

All children leave the nursery extremely well prepared for starting primary school.

Children's behaviour is excellent. Right from the start, staff establish clear routines and set high expectations.

Staff help children to understand when they make a 'sad choice' and how to move quickly to making a 'good choice'. Children soon make friends and get to enjoy each other's company. They play together and use their imaginations, like going on a picnic, selling ice-cream or role-playing doctors and patients.

Parents said that staff keep them in the loop, 'every step of the way', about their children's progress and how they too can support their children at home.

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

The school's curriculum thinking is sharply focused on meeting every child's learning and development needs. Staff have great expertise in knowing how children learn.

The key persons have a pivotal role in getting to know the children and their families well before they arrive at school. They keep a close eye on them as they journey through the nursery. There are well-established systems for baseline and ongoing assessments.

Staff know every child's starting points. Throughout the day, all staff note children's interests and activities. They also identify gaps in children's learning.

At the end of the day, they use these insights with great skill. They check how well children are achieving their targets. They then plan for children's next steps for the following day.

Developing children's communication and language skills has a high priority. Staff use every possible opportunity to engage children in extended conversations. They introduce them to and practise often new vocabulary.

Children enjoy singing nursery rhymes. These assist them to gain other knowledge, such as the sequence of numbers.

In reading, leaders have identified a set of around 18 core texts that they want the children to know and remember well by the time they leave.

There are opportunities to repeat these texts several times over the year. This aids retention and develops children's love of books. Story time offers an opportunity for children to engage in activities that prepare them for later learning of phonics.

Staff consistently refer to key vocabulary like 'illustrator' and 'nocturnal' in reference to a book. Different approaches to story time are used to meet children's needs. For some, story sacks with props and acting out are most appropriate.

For others, a simpler text and objects relating to the story are handed around. These support children to build attention and understand simple words. Staff and therapists also use a range of communication strategies to help children with SEND who are at the early stages of speaking.

These include visual prompts and sign language. Extra-focused support is given to all children who have additional needs. The daily 'Sunshine' provision provides a suitably resourced and quiet space for one-to-one or small-group targeted help.

As a result, all children achieve highly.

Children play happily with each other, taking turns and following adults' instructions and prompts. Children demonstrate resilience, initiative, independence and self-care skills.

Staff are adept at addressing any issues that arise between children. They take the opportunity to develop children's understanding of their emotions and how to relate to others. Leaders keep a close check on attendance.

They work to support any families who need help to secure their children's regular attendance.

The school provides children with many opportunities that go beyond their everyday experience. Visits include shops, a farm and a fire station.

Children's cultural development is supported through visits to places of worship. Children are taught how to keep themselves healthy. For example, they visited a dentist to focus on oral health.

Children are excited by the opportunities to see their pet African snails in the playground. They had discussed with adults their habitats and the countries where they are found. Opportunities like these also broaden their understanding of caring for animals.

Staff spoke highly of senior leaders and how much they take care of their personal well-being needs. They said workload demands are reasonable. They also spoke about the opportunities they have for training and development.

These support their ability to undertake their roles confidently and effectively.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Background

When we have judged a school to be outstanding, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains outstanding.

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 would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which 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 second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be outstanding in November 2013.

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