Ashfield Nursery School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 4 June 2024

There is a strong sense of community in this diverse and inclusive school. Staff build positive relationships with children and their families. Children enjoy coming to school. They are happy and safe here. This is reflected in their enthusiasm for learning. During the inspection, children were keen to show inspectors what they had been doing. For example, one child proudly showed a painting he had done of his teacher, while others wanted to share the writing they had produced. The school has high expectations for children's achievement. Ambition is evident for all children and many achieve well. They make clear progress between playgroup and the end of Nursery. The school is working to further strengthen the curriculum in some areas. This is helping to increase the ambition of the curriculum further and ensure that staff build on children's existing experiences more effectively. Personal, social and emotional development is a strength of the school. Children behave very well. They understand the routines and expectations that are in place. There are very few incidents of poor behaviour. Children play cooperatively together. They actively share resources and show respect for each other. Children can sustain concentration at activities for long periods of time. They show perseverance and resilience when they are unable to do something the first time.

What the school should improve

• There is variation in the quality of the implementation of the curriculum. Sometimes adults miss opportunities to extend children's language and learning, despite having been trained in how to do this. This means that children receive an uneven quality of education. The school should regularly check the quality of the provision to ensure that all staff implement the training they have received.
• The support plans for children with SEND are not sufficiently precise. Targets are too broad and are hard to measure. Consequently, they remain on plans for long periods of time and children do not achieve as well as they could. The school should work to refine support plans so that targets are precise, measurable and achievable.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)