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Education and Training Inspectorate

Report of a Short Inspection

Ravenscroft Nursery School Belfast

Inspected: February 2002 STATISTICAL INFORMATION - NURSERY SCHOOLS

School: Ravenscroft Nursery School

Ref No: 111-6158

Date of Inspection: W/C 11 February 2002

Number of teachers (including Principal and part-time teachers): 2 (Full-time equivalent = 32.4 hours)

Number of nursery assistants (including part-time assistants): 3 (Full-time equivalent = 30 hours)

Total Enrolment: 52

Number of children attending full-time: 52

Number of children attending part-time: -

Average attendance for the previous school year: (this should 89% be calculated from the date when the intake is complete)

Percentage of children entitled to free school meals: 25%

Full-time: 9.00 am-1.30 pm

Duration of sessions:

Part-time: 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Ravenscroft Nursery School is situated in Ravenscroft Avenue, Belfast. The children come from areas of housing which are close to the school. Twenty-five per cent of the children are entitled to free school meals.

1.2 The arrangements for the inspection of pastoral care included the completion of questionnaires by the parents as well as meetings with parents and governors. The comments indicated that almost all of the parents, and all of the governors, were satisfied with all aspects of the school’s provision. A small number of the parents mentioned issues such as the lack of information from the school about their child’s progress, how they could help their child, and the child protection procedures. These issues are dealt with in the body of the report.

2. SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS

2.1 The staff are committed to the welfare of all the children and relationships between the staff and the children are good. The children are welcomed into the playrooms at the beginning of the day. The majority of the children relate well to one another and settle quickly to play; a significant minority, however, do not co-operate readily with others, and at times engage in boisterous and unacceptable behaviour. There is inconsistency in the approaches taken by the staff to foster appropriate behaviour and to follow-up on incidents when play is disrupted. The staff needs to develop more effective strategies for promoting settled play and acceptable behaviour.

2.2 The parents are encouraged to come into the school; for example, during the inspection, a parent volunteer assisted in one of the playrooms. The parents are made welcome and there are opportunities at the start and end of the session to have informal discussions with the teachers about their child’s progress. It is timely that these informal links will be strengthened in the near future by the introduction of formal meetings with the parents at which the teachers will discuss in more detail the children’s progress.

2.3 Although there are samples of the children’s art work on display in the playrooms, more needs to be done to create an attractive and stimulating learning environment; for example, the playrooms lack sufficient areas of interest to arouse the children’s curiosity and some of the noticeboards are not used to display the children’s work.

2.4 The nursery has in place most of the procedures for pastoral care and child protection which are in line with guidance given by the Department of Education. The school has not provided the parents with adequate information on the pastoral care policy or on the procedures which they have in place for dealing with child protection issues.

2.5 The work of the nursery is not planned clearly in a way which helps the staff to ensure that all aspects of the children’s development are promoted systematically. The written planning is very limited in scope; it provides inadequate guidance on the learning which the staff intend to promote, and on how the play and other activities will progress over the year. The existing planning for progression within the areas of play does not relate clearly to the experiences of the children, nor has it been developed in a collaborative way by the staff. Daily logs, containing written evaluations of events of note, are well maintained and will be useful as a guide for future planning.

1 2.6 In the mornings, the organisation of the session provides an appropriately extended period of free play during which there are opportunities for the children to choose from a range of indoor activities. The nursery assistants make good use of the mid-morning informal snack to involve the children in preparing and setting out the food and drinks; this activity is engendering a sense of responsibility in the children. The lunch arrangements are also used well to promote learning; for example, some of the children help the nursery assistants to lay the tables, set out the place names and match the number of cups and chairs to the places settings. Some of the daily routines including, for example, the lining-up of the children before and after outdoor play, result in prolonged periods of waiting.

2.7 During the play sessions, many of the children co-operate well and share the equipment readily; there are good instances of perseverance and concentrated play including, for example, the role play in the “hospital” and in the “hairdressing salon”. During the inspection, the interaction between some of the staff and the children was effective and stimulated the children’s thinking and language development. The quality of the interaction, however, is inconsistent and the staff do not always develop sufficiently the opportunities for learning. In particular, the teachers’ involvement in the play is often superficial and concerned overly with the organisation of materials.

2.8 During the two sessions of outdoor play observed during the inspection, the play area was overcrowded with both classes using the area simultaneously. The children choose freely between playing on the climbing frame, in the play house or on the wheeled toys. The wheeled toys were very much in demand and dominated the play; their use involved some very boisterous and dangerous play. The adults did not interact adequately with the children to promote safe play and reduce the significant number of accidents.

2.9 The wide range of creative activities provided encourages the children to explore and experiment with different materials and tools; for example, in both the playrooms, the theme of Valentine’s Day was the focus for cutting, sticking, painting and drawing using a suitable variety of interesting materials.

2.10 The children’s language development varies widely; some of the children can express their ideas fluently; others do not yet talk confidently or clearly. The majority of the children listen attentively to story telling and they respond eagerly to questioning about the story they have heard. Each playroom has a book area; during the inspection, there was little evidence of the children being attracted to this area or asking the adults to read to them. The children are encouraged to take a library book home each weekend. Materials are provided to encourage the children to experiment with drawing, marking and writing. The staff need to promote further the children’s interest in books and experimental writing through incorporating more stimulating opportunities within the various areas of play.

2.11 There was some incidental learning in mathematics and there were instances when the staff made good use of opportunities to promote mathematical language and thinking; for example, a member of staff using small, table-top toys encouraged the children to talk about “heavy” and “light”, and discussed why balloons need weights to stop them from floating away.

2 2.12 The children’s interest in the living environment is fostered by the growing of bulbs and also through observing the regular visitors to the bird food ie bird cakes hung on a fence and on branches of a tree. The children’s interest in birds was extended through the making of bird cakes and noting how these attract hungry birds. There is insufficient emphasis on the promotion of exploration and enquiry, supported by interest areas and books. Large constructional materials are underused.

2.13 Written records of the children’s progress are kept; there is, however, inconsistency in the depth of detail recorded. The children’s achievements are not assessed systematically; the informal observations made by the staff need to be developed further to provide an appropriate system for monitoring, evaluating and recording the children’s progress.

2.14 Insufficient attention is given to identifying and meeting the particular needs of some of the children. If the staff have a concern about an individual child, the parents are informed; there are, however, inadequate arrangements for planning and providing appropriate support for such children and their progress is not monitored effectively.

2.15 There have been substantial changes in staffing over recent years and the time is now opportune for the staff to develop as a team under the direction of the principal. Each afternoon, the staff discuss informally the activities and the children’s reaction to them; more sustained direction is needed from the principal, however, to ensure that the staff collaborate over the planning, develop a consistent approach to working with the children, and review together the nursery’s policies and practice.

2.16 The school has a good range and supply of resources which are used well. The potential of the outdoor areas is not exploited effectively to extend the children’s learning opportunities and limited use is made of the good space available.

2.17 The strengths of the nursery include:

 the commitment of the staff and their relationship with the children;

 the wide range of indoor play activities, and the opportunities for creative play;

 the examples of sustained and co-operative play;

 the hard-working and skilful nursery assistants;

 the welcome for parents at the start and end of the sessions;

 the parents’ and the governors’ support for the school.

2.18 The inspection has identified areas which require action. In addressing the most important areas, the nursery needs to:

 improve the planning in order to identify specific learning outcomes which are matched effectively to the needs of the children;

 monitor and evaluate more effectively the curriculum, and the children’s responses, to ensure progression;

3  improve the quality of the adults’ interaction in order to support and challenge the children effectively, and reflect more appropriate expectations of what the children can achieve;

 develop consistent strategies to promote settled behaviour, particularly during outdoor play.

2.19 The nursery has strengths which can be built upon. There are also shortcomings in key areas of the educational provision which need to be addressed promptly in order to ensure that the children’s needs are met.

4 ã CROWN COPYRIGHT 2002

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Copies of this report may be obtained from the Inspection Services Branch, Department of Education, Rathgael House, 43 Balloo Road, Bangor, Co Down BT19 7PR. A copy is also available on the DE website: www.deni.gov.uk