Downpatrick Nursery School

Overview

Downpatrick Nursery School is described as having a “clear, well-understood and child-centred vision” that is successfully realised through a comprehensive curriculum and skilled staff interactions. The report highlights a “positive and supportive ethos” where children are “happy, secure, confident and independent,” with parents and staff providing wholly positive feedback on the provision.

Strengths

• Staff interact “skilfully” with children in a “thoughtfully designed learning environment” to foster curiosity and creativity.
• “Highly effective approaches” are used to promote language development, supported by a speech and language therapist and the “Sandcastle of Language” programme.
• Comprehensive planning is informed by “detailed observations,” enabling staff to tailor learning experiences to each individual child.
• Strong relationships with parents are prioritised, with regular opportunities for participation such as ‘Stay and Play’ sessions.
• Children show “pride and a sense of accomplishment” when achieving learning milestones and demonstrate excellent behaviour.

Areas to improve

• Review and update behaviour and special educational needs policies to ensure they reflect current practice.
• Reduce and refine targets in the one-year action plan to enable better monitoring and evaluation of improvement work.

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for child protection align to the current statutory guidance.”