Langley Moor Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Children at Langley Moor Nursery bounce into school every day. They have an infectious enthusiasm to learn.The nursery environment is calm and ordered.

There is a very clear structure of routines and organisation. The school has well-defined behaviour expectations that children understand and follow. For example, two-year-old children respond swiftly to the 'hands up' signal that identifies the end of a session.

As a result, children's behaviour is exemplary.Children are kind and respectful to each other, to staff and to the environment. Children engage enthusiastically in a wide range of activities indoors and out and show positive attitudes to their learning.
...r/>Children sustain high levels of concentration and show perseverance when facing challenges.The school provides children with excellent pastoral support. It teaches them to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy.

The school uses the woodland area effectively for outdoor learning. Practitioners ensure that they make meaningful links to the seven areas of the early years curriculum. For example, children listen attentively to a story, use their fine motor skills to cut and pick natural resources while practitioners model mathematical language, such as longer, shorter, more and less.

The school ensures children are well-prepared socially, emotionally and educationally for the next stage in their learning.

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

Since the last inspection, the school has successfully reviewed and refined their early years curriculum. It has carefully considered the small steps of knowledge and skills children need to acquire from two- to four-years-old.

For example, in physical development, it ensures before children need to cut a zigzag line with scissors, they learn to hold scissors correctly and practise snipping in a straight line.The school prioritises children's vocabulary acquisition. It has established essential vocabulary for each area of learning.

The vocabulary is tiered to reflect simpler and complex language choices. The school displays the vocabulary in the nursery to ensure that adults are emphasising the right words. This ensures consistency from all staff.

Practitioners, through facilitating play, make sure that children are using this essential vocabulary.The school puts books at the heart of the curriculum. It purposefully selects age-appropriate texts.

For example, books for two-year-olds focus on repetition and rhyme while the older children progress to texts about diversity, different family types and ethnicities. The school has a 'rhyme of the week'. These start as easy repetitive rhymes for the youngest children, progressing to more complicated counting rhymes for four-year-olds.

Children sing these rhymes independently at snack time and as they play.Practitioners have strong subject knowledge. This has built over time through continuous professional development opportunities.

Their training to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities ensures that their interactions support these children exceptionally well.The school teaches important mathematical knowledge, skills and vocabulary discretely in group time. There are subsequent opportunities to explore and practice mathematics across all areas of learning.

The school uses the extensive outdoor space creatively. For example, children confidently explained the concept of full and empty using different-sized containers in the water tray.The school has a system for checking what children know and remember.

Practitioners gather information relating to children's achievements after each adult-led task. They use this to inform additional play-based activities and to compile 'mini reports' for parents.The school's personal, social and emotional development (PSED) curriculum reflects the high ambition of leaders to consistently promote the personal development of children.

Practitioners share a commitment to provide a rich and varied range of experiences that develop children's understanding of their place in the school, the community and the wider world.The school's links with a local university enhances and enriches children's understanding of careers. For example, children look at freezing and melting through the work of a glaciologist.

The school's leaders have incredibly high and ambitious expectations. There is a powerful coherence and consistency to the school's practices. The staff share the school's educational vision.

The governors have an extensive knowledge of the school's improvement journey since the last inspection. They have monitored the school's progress, challenging leaders in a supportive way.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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