Windham Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Windham Nursery School continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Children are extremely happy and settled here.

Staff make sure that they are safe and well cared for. Children play together and explore their environment with confidence.

Leaders and staff expect all children to excel.

Staff provide experiences throughout the day that create a sense of awe and wonder. These experiences give children a real thirst to learn more. For example, children gasped and giggled as the balloon helicopter they had made flew around the room.

The arrival of the school rabbits has provided children with valuable and exciting new learnin...g opportunities. Children enjoy cleaning out the hutch and putting out food and water. They take their roles as carers very seriously.

Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the school. As one parent put it, 'I can't think of a better place for my child.' Parents particularly value how staff involve them in their children's learning.

Typical comments praised the way that staff 'go over and above what any other nursery does'.

Children's behaviour is exceptional. Unkind behaviour, including bullying, is not accepted.

Staff help children to share, be kind to each other and build strong friendships. Adults encourage children to be independent and express themselves. Even the very youngest children become engrossed in the experiences offered.

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

Windham Nursery is an exceptional place. It inspires children to learn and achieve highly. Leaders are particularly proud of how learning is planned from children's interests.

Staff start by visiting families at home to find out as much as possible about each child. They use this information to sequence children's learning carefully. Planning combines high expectations for children's achievement with activities that children find highly relevant.

Children leave the school very well prepared for the next stage of their learning.Staff are experts in promoting children's development. They design activities which build children's knowledge systematically.

Staff ensure that children apply their growing knowledge of the world in different contexts. For instance, we saw children draw on what they already knew to make doughnuts.

Children cannot wait to join in with the high-quality activities led by adults.

These activities are carefully planned to strengthen children's early language development. Staff make ambitious choices in the words they want children to use. For example, during a drama activity, a child said, 'I am going to be a herbivore as they eat plants.'

Another child, making a hedgehog, told me that the matchsticks 'are for its spines'.

Promoting children's love of reading is a clear priority. Children explore a rich range of books, songs and rhymes.

They enjoy singing the nursery rhymes they know by heart. Staff choose books that match children's interests. They also introduce children to texts which foster new interests.

Children hear the same texts more than once. This means that they join in confidently with repeated phrases and can tell the story themselves.

Staff teach children how to hold books correctly and turn pages one by one.

They make sure that children understand that words have meaning. For example, one child enjoyed telling me a story using the pictures and pointing at the words. Staff also provide plenty of opportunities for children to read and write their own names.

Adults are ambitious for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Carefully planned activities enable these children to play and learn alongside their friends. Staff are skilled at developing children's social and communication skills.

For instance, teaching carefully incorporates resources such as balance balls, flashing lights and vibrating toys. These resources support children to express their ideas and learn to take turns.

Leaders and governors know their school and community very well.

Parents appreciate the activities that value the diversity in the local community. For example, children recently learned about and celebrated the festival of Diwali. All children take part in activities to support their wider development, including yoga, gardening and local outings.

Children enjoy visiting the local pet store to buy supplies for the rabbits.

Leaders manage staff workload well. One member of staff said that 'well-being is central to the school ethos'.

This was typical of staff's views. Staff feel valued and listened to.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have developed a strong culture of safeguarding. Staff are well trained. They are clear about the actions they must take if they have concerns about a child or a member of staff.

Leaders ensure that any concerns are followed up appropriately.

There are systems in place to ensure the safe recruitment of staff. Governors check safeguarding procedures regularly.

Leaders are aware of risks within their school and community. They help parents to better understand how to keep their children safe online.Background

When we have judged a maintained nursery 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 a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be outstanding in October 2012.

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