St Paul's Nursery School

Overview

St Paul’s Nursery School continues to be a good school, characterised by a “strong ethos of care and kindness” where staff quickly form positive relationships with children. Leaders are ambitious for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, ensuring they are well supported to develop confidence and self-respect. The school provides a calm, safe environment where children learn to treat each other with respect and develop positive learning behaviours.

Strengths

• Staff demonstrate a “strong ethos of care and kindness,” helping children develop a “strong sense of identity and self-respect.”
• The specially resourced provision for children with SEND offers a “highly personalised and targeted curriculum” that is “appropriate and responsive to their needs.”
• There is a “clear focus on developing children’s love of reading,” with staff using stories and rhymes to enthuse children and support emotional regulation.
• Leaders provide a “broad range of experiences and opportunities,” including educational visits that help children link learning to real-life examples.
• Staff feel “well supported and fully involved,” with leaders actively responding to feedback to support workload and well-being.

Areas to improve

• Some aspects of the early years curriculum are “not defined clearly enough,” meaning children do not always build knowledge in “small sequential steps.”
• There is “variation in the precision and quality of how staff interact with children,” which sometimes limits opportunities to develop vocabulary and understanding.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.