Speedwell Nursery School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 5 November 2024

Adults pride themselves on the strong relationships they foster with children and families at Speedwell Nursery School. This begins as soon as children start school. Adults warmly greet children each morning. They have a deep understanding of the children and their interests. This helps children to settle quickly and feel safe. Parents and carers appreciate this. The school is ambitious for all children. It has started to make improvements to the quality of education. These ambitions are not yet fully realised. As a result, the quality of education the children receive is variable and inconsistent in the way it enables them to build knowledge well in all areas of the early years curriculum. Adults have high expectations of children. Children respond with enthusiasm and keenness. Songs help children to understand and follow the daily routines such as hand washing before lunchtime and circle time. There is a buzz of excitement as children transition into 'explore' time. Children learn how to develop resilience and independence. Adults encourage children to cut up their own fruit during snack time and put on coats and wellies to go outside. Children learn about difference and acceptance. The school celebrates diversity. This enables children, including those who speak English as an additional language, to embrace difference.

What the school should improve

• The important knowledge and ambitious vocabulary children need to learn have not been fully identified. This means that children do not build knowledge cumulatively over time. The school needs to identify the component knowledge and ambitious vocabulary across all areas of learning so that children build a rich body of knowledge and achieve well.
• The school has not ensured that all adults make the most of every opportunity to further children's learning during independent times. As a result, some children do not deepen their knowledge and understanding of the intended curriculum. The school needs to ensure that all adults have the necessary skills and expertise in order to support children to know and remember more.
• Assessment is in the early stages of development. It is not used to check how well the children learn the curriculum. This means that any gaps in children's knowledge remain. The school needs to ensure that assessment is used to check what children have learned, identify gaps and use this to shape the future curriculum design.

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