Crossens Nursery School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 8 May 2024

Children are happy at this welcoming and nurturing school. The school's motto 'kind hearts' underpins the caring relationships between everyone at the school. Children are loved and cherished. They form trusting bonds with staff and each other. Most children achieve well. This is because the school has high expectations for every child, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Typically, children move on to primary schools ready for the next stage of their learning. Children behave sensibly. They are polite and well mannered. Children in the two- year-old provision are ably supported by staff to understand the rules and routines of the nursery. They settle quickly. Children take part in learning activities with confidence. They know that staff will help them to play and explore. Children enjoy special activities, such as learning outdoors with staff in the nursery garden. They proudly showed inspectors their learning environment and favourite equipment. Children engage in creative activities, including painting, dancing and woodwork, with gusto. They learn well. Children are involved in projects in the local community, such as litter picking and making charitable food donations. They benefit from educational trips and visits, for example visiting the dentist, travelling by coach to a farm and exploring local woodland areas.

What the school should improve

• In some areas of learning, the school has not identified clearly enough the important knowledge that children should learn. This hinders staff in knowing what learning they should prioritise when designing activities. This sometimes slows some children's learning. The school should make clear to staff the key foundational knowledge that it wants children to learn in these areas of learning.
• At times, some staff do not check on children's understanding of key knowledge in the curriculum. As a result, in a few areas of learning, some children are not as well prepared for the next stage of education as they could be. The school should ensure that staff are supported to identify and address any gaps in key knowledge that children may have.

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