Effectiveness of our Early Years provision.
How have we improved our Early Years?
During our last Ofsted inspection in 2017, our feedback highlighted what the then-new leadership already knew about the Early Years Foundation Stage at Greenacres. Since then, we have gone through a dramatic transformation!
What did Ofsted say in 2017?
- The quality of provision in the early years is not giving children a good start to their education.
- The proportion of children achieving a good level of development at the end of the Reception is below the national average.
- Teaching in Reception is not consistently strong enough to narrow the gaps in children’s learning and help them be fully ready for the curriculum in Year 1.
- Over time, leadership in the early years has not been effective. For example, in the Reception class staff do not always work well as a team.
- The quality of activities to develop children’s writing skills are not always meaningful and interesting enough in Nursery and Reception to help children become confident, skilled writers.
- Expectations of children are not always high enough.
- The curriculum for children at the school is adequate.
- Resources, furniture and displays of children’s learning are variable in quality and not always used well for teaching.
What did the Leadership team also know?
- EYs staff had been inconsistent
- Resources were old and not accessible for children
- Environment wasn’t engaging
- Displays weren’t effective
- Teaching was inconsistent
- Lack of parental engagement
- Poor attendance
- Outdoor had indoor resources and lacked engagement
What have we done to improve this?
- KS1 lead moved to become the new EYs lead after the departure of the past leader.
- We created an EYs philosophy as a team and review it yearly – what do we want for our children/staff?
- We have a weekly planning meeting – all staff, plan for outdoor that we share and discuss key children.
- We introduced tapestry to improve assessment, parent access, all staff can use it.
- Moderate baseline & use of tapestry.
- Reviewed our topic overviews – book & question focus.
- Buy new furniture/resources to create an engaging environment – now moving to natural open-ended resources.
- Review outdoor – each member of staff has an area to develop/maintain. Outdoor budget.
- EYs lead to oversee PMT for EYs TAs.
- All staff visit outstanding settings.
- EYs lead to attend EYs meeting and liaise with EYs staff in the trust.
- Training – RWI, ABC, Maths, EAL, Elklan, WellComm, SALT, moderation.
- Termly assessment update & GAP analysis used to develop classroom provision.
- Introduce skill development provision planning – indoor & outdoor.
- Learning journey displays – natural.
- Develop children’s interests.
- Learning journey topic display – natural.
- EYs staff meeting.
- Half termly parent workshops.
- Stay and play sessions.
- Parents questionnaires & speech bubbles.
- Weekly newsletter to keep parents informed.
- Outdoor risk assessment is in place.
- Improve adult intervention during CP – skill planning, questioning, modelling,
- Increase level of challenge in reception.
- Improve transition into Y1 - Power maths, CPLE, RWI TG/KO work with SC.
- Trips & experiences – floor book.
- Interventions are in place and reassessed regularly.
How can we improve further?
- Develop links with local playgroups and children’s centres.
- Improve communication with parents further though embedding the use of the ‘Remind’ app.
- Refurbish out outdoor area to make it look more inviting.
- Introduce ‘star challenge’ into EY where the children complete given activities through continuous provision.
- Ensure children’s next steps are clearly evidenced.