Ofsted inspection: 20th February 2018
Overall effectiveness: Outstanding
Click to read the report in full Ofsted 2018
Key findings:
- Since the previous inspection, you have become the executive headteacher of both Golborne Children’s Centre and Maxilla Nursery School. You have managed the transition highly effectively and have developed a unified staff team that shares and fulfils your vision for the school. Together, you have created an inclusive school community where all children have an equal opportunity to be successful, irrespective of their backgrounds or their abilities. You nurture children who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities extremely well. As a result, they access all that the school has to offer and make outstanding progress similar to all children.
- Children’s work and information about progress from their varying starting points show that all children make strong and sustained progress during their time at Golborne. The majority of children leave the school with knowledge and skills which are above or well above those seen typically for their age range.
- Staff ensure that children make extremely strong progress in early ready and writing skills. Phonics is taught very well. Children develop a love of reading and books. They focus on letters and words in books extremely well for their age. They confidently answer comprehensive questions which practitioners skilfully ask. They are able to begin to apply emerging phonics skills.
- Children are given very many opportunities to practise mark-making (pre-writing) and writing skills. Children’s work shows that some children successfully make plausible attempts at writing using the sounds and letters they have been taught in phonics sessions. The most able writers’ work is well above what is typical for their age range.
- Changeovers from breakfast club to school and from after-school provision are smooth. Children understand routines well. The exceptional quality of teaching, learning and assessment during the school day continues into the after-school sessions. Relationships between children and adults are warm, caring and professional. Activities capture and hold children’s interest. Leaders and staff ensure that tasks excite children and that children’s individual needs are exceptionally well catered for. Breakfast and “tea” times are social events. Children behave well, take turns and are polite to each other and to staff.
- Throughout the nursery, children thrive and achieve. One of the key features across the school is the high quality of language and communication that underpin learning. This is modelled by staff and exemplified by the children, many of whom speak English as an additional language. Children demonstrate a love of the spoken word. I saw how much they enjoy they enjoy using new words and phrases, saying them out loud while they complete tasks. They rehearse sentence starters whether working alone, in groups or with adults. For example, children enjoyed making “chocolate” in the mud kitchen. Throughout a sustained period while gathering different varieties of mud, they repeated key phrases such as “I need this” or “Now I need this”. This initially was to explain to me what they were doing but continued long after I had walked away.
- You check children’s attainment and progress rigorously. Your analysis of assessment information is sharp and incisive. Information shows that all children make at least good progress from their starting points, some of which are low in comparison to children nationally. The majority of children make exceptional progress and achieve well above what is typical for their age in all areas of learning. You and your staff have an up-to-date picture of children’s achievements. Staff review individual children’s learning each day and address any children’s misconceptions or unmet targets during subsequent sessions. Staff know the children very well. They are passionate about, and committed to, helping the children to do the very best that they can. As a result, the children at Golborne continue to receive an outstanding quality of education.