Hollywood Park Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Hollywood Park Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 25 July 2018, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be outstanding in October 2014.

This school continues to be outstanding. The leadership team has maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the last inspection. This is the second time that the school has been graded as outstanding.

The whole school community should be proud of this achievement. Both of you work exceptionally well as a team. Because of your very effective ...leadership, you have made sure that the outstanding provision and highest outcomes have been maintained.

You and your staff are wholly committed to early years education. Complacency is not an option at the school. Everyone is continually looking for ways to improve and develop the quality of education and care that you provide.

This ensures that all children get a splendid start to their education in this nurturing and highly inclusive school. Since the last inspection, you have successfully integrated two-year-olds into the school. There has been a significant increase in the proportion of children attending the specially resourced provision for children who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities (specially resourced provision).

Many of these children have complex needs and have been referred to your school by other professionals. You have improved children's attendance at school. Staff plan for children's learning more carefully, for example by creating activities linked to children's interests.

Staff check children's progress with greater rigour. This ensures that staff identify and address any underachievement by children very quickly. To support the development of early years education, you and your staff are involved in research projects with Plymouth University and the Department for Education.

Both initiatives focus on improving children's communication skills and further developing provision for children who have SEN and/or disabilities. Staff hold you in the highest regard. They feel valued and are very proud to work at Hollywood Park.

With your support and encouragement, staff have been empowered to develop their roles in education. Staff share your aims and ambitions for the school. Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about all aspects of the school.

They queued up at the start of the school day to express their positive views to me. They talked avidly about the excellent progress that their children make, especially those attending the specially resourced provision. Parents told me that transition arrangements for children into the school and onward to the next stage of their education are effective.

I believe that the following comment sums up how parents feel about your school: 'I could not be happier with the quality of education provided by Hollywood Park Nursery School. The school provides a caring, fun and creative environment. Staff are incredible.

They will always go the extra mile to ensure that the needs of children are met.' Children's behaviour is exemplary. Their joy at being at your school is evident from their happy, smiley faces, which never waiver throughout the day.

Children rarely have squabbles because they are so engrossed in their learning. At the last inspection, inspectors recommended that you and the governors enhance staff's teaching skills. Inspectors also asked you to encourage parents to contribute to their children's electronic learning journeys, to enable them to take a more active part in their children's learning.

Both issues have been resolved. A greater proportion of parents now make regular contributions to their children's online assessments. In addition, staff have regular opportunities to observe and learn from each other.

This has a positive impact on the quality of teaching. However, as part of this inspection, I identified that the feedback given to staff after monitoring the quality of their teaching, at times, lacks precision. The school's website is bright, very informative and easy to navigate.

It provides parents with an extensive range of useful information. This enables parents to have a clear understanding of how children spend their time and what they are learning while at the school. Safeguarding is effective.

At the top of your list of priorities is keeping children safe. A culture of safeguarding is firmly part of everyday life at the school. All staff are fully aware that safeguarding children is everyone's responsibility.

They are well trained and vigilant in noticing any signs that children may need help. Staff know exactly what procedures to follow should they be concerned about a child's welfare. They also talk with confidence about the latest national and local concerns, such as extremism, radicalisation and sexual exploitation.

Staff keep the entrance to the school secure and check the credentials of visitors closely. Leaders ensure that staff give timely support to vulnerable families. Leaders' procedures for the recruitment and selection of staff are comprehensive.

At the time of the inspection, the single central record was compliant, and there were no breaches to the statutory welfare requirements for the early years foundation stage. Staff supervise children well. Leaders and staff are always present to offer parents and children a warm welcome at the start of the morning or afternoon session.

This gives parents an opportunity to talk to staff about any issues or concerns that their children may have. Staff teach children about personal safety as part of the daily routine. Inspection findings ? Children start at the school with widely differing abilities to one another.

For some children, mostly those in the specially resourced provision, their skills and knowledge are significantly below those of children of a similar age. As a result of first-class teaching, many children make substantial gains in their learning. This ensures that children leave the school as happy, confident youngsters ready to thrive in the next stage of their education.

• Learning at this school is active, magical and fun. The quality of the learning environment, most notably indoors, is superb. Classrooms are wonderful places for learning.

High-quality resources are organised exceptionally well and help children to make independent choices about their play. The activities planned by staff are exciting and cover all areas of children's learning. Children have ample space to move around freely and in comfort.

• Leaders and staff place a very strong focus on developing children's social, communication and physical skills in the two-year-old's classroom. There is a real buzz of conversation as children explore shapes, build models and make marks with a wide variety of different materials. For example, children giggle with delight as they each have a go at scooping pasta into containers.

They then, in turns, shake the containers and listen to the different noises made. Children are forming firm friendships as they work and play together happily. Staff ensure that they help children to understand the importance of taking turns and sharing.

• Older children, aged three and four years, are highly confident and independent. They are very secure of the routines that operate in the school and share a tight bond with their key person. Children are very keen to learn.

Without hesitation, they sound out words such as 'peg', 'pig' and 'bed'. With beaming smiles, they use their hands to feel and then describe the texture of foam. Staff develop children's early scientific skills very well, such as when children actively explore what happens to ice cubes when placed into tepid water.

• Children have as much fun learning outdoors as they do inside. For example, in the school's nature garden children dig for worms, make tents using sticks, climb trees and toast marshmallows over an open fire. Such wonderful opportunities contribute significantly to the excellent progress that children make.

• Leaders keep a watchful eye on the quality of teaching to ensure that it is of the highest standard. Staff have access to regular training to keep their teaching skills fresh and up to date. However, the feedback given to staff, after the monitoring of their teaching, does not focus sharply enough on the progress and learning that different groups of children make.

• Staff settle new children into the school very well. This is because arrangements are tailored to meet the individual needs of children. Those who start at the school aged two years, and in the specially resourced provision, receive a home visit.

Staff use these opportunities to play alongside the children and to start developing positive relationships. Parents are encouraged to take an active part in staff's initial assessments of children when they start at the school. ? Leaders make careful arrangements for children's transition to the next stages of their education.

Teachers from primary schools visit the school, so they can get to know the children in a safe and secure environment. During these visits, Reception teachers learn about children's likes, dislikes and capabilities. Such effective practice smooths children's move into primary school.

• Governors are committed and highly ambitious for the school. They have a secure understanding of what the school does well and the priorities for further development. They have a good awareness of the progress that children make during their time at the school.

Governors take an active part in monitoring and evaluating the school's effectiveness. They keep a close eye on the budget to ensure that the school remains financially sustainable. Governors offer leaders good levels of challenge and support.

• There are many aspects of excellent practice in this school which are worthy of dissemination to others. However, there is no structured approach in place to enable this to happen. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? feedback to staff, after the monitoring of their teaching, places an even sharper focus on the progress and learning for different groups of children ? the strong practice in the school is shared with other schools and early years providers in the locality and beyond.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Stockport. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Sheila Iwaskow Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection I held meetings with both of you and with three members of the governing body.

I also held informal discussions with staff, and with parents as they brought their children to school. I spoke by telephone with a representative from the local authority. I toured the school to see the learning that was taking place.

I looked at examples of children's work in their individual files and in displays on the walls. I reviewed a range of documentation, including the single central record, the school's self-evaluation and development plans. I took account of the 24 responses from parents to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, as well as the school's own questionnaires to parents and staff.