Outstanding Ofsted for Norcot Early Years Centre

Outstanding Ofsted Report for Norcot Early Years Centre

19/11/2014
Reading Borough Council Press Release
NORCOT Early Years Centre has passed a recent Ofsted inspection with flying colours, retaining their outstanding rating.
The Centre is a pre-school for 90 children and is housed in two buildings on Lyndhurst Road. It links closely with the local children’s centre cluster and has recently started offering places to two-year-olds eligible for free places.
The pre-school’s teaching and safeguarding – as well as the children’s behaviour and the involvement of parents and carers - were all judged to be outstanding. Inspectors found that “senior leaders never stand still in their pursuit of excellence” and that the “children’s personal, social and emotional development is well promoted through the rich curriculum.”

There was particular praise for the Centre’s work in raising standards and ensuring that all pupils learn well and progress. Ofsted found that a “large number of children” have very low levels of spoken language, poor attending and listening skills and social and communication difficulties when the join the nursery. In overcoming these challenges, inspectors commended the Centre for its “outstanding teaching, the exceptionally well-planned environment inside and outside, the very effective use of the centre’s wider surroundings, the highly engaging curriculum and outstanding relationships (that) all contribute to helping children make rapid and sustained progress.”
Other report highlights include:
• Leaders support staff exceptionally well, helping them continually develop their understanding of how children learn. This leads to outstanding practice
• Children love learning and really enjoy their time at the centre. They settle very quickly into the day-to-day routines, learn to behave very well and revel in the range of opportunities available to them
• Teaching is outstanding. Staff expertly check exactly what each child needs to learn next, so their learning progresses well. They use every chance to help children get better at speaking and listening
• Children achieve exceptionally well. Many start nursery with poor skills in speaking, listening and mathematics. By the time they leave they show that they can do these things as well or better than children of the same age
• Centre leaders have excellent systems for checking how well children are doing. This helps them to know what is working and what needs to be changed; for example, they have identified that at lunchtime children would benefit from having more quiet places to play and that staff supervision is not as highly effective as at other times of the day
Inspectors noted that leaders have a “very positive” relationship with the Local Authority and that the headteacher has built useful links with local schools. Ofsted felt that “this helps all staff to share good ideas to improve even further.”
Head of Centre, Diana Heath said:
“I am delighted that Norcot has once again maintained its outstanding status. I would like to thank staff, governors and parents who have worked hard to ensure they do the very best for all the children.”
Chair of Governors, Mr Adam Hewitt added:
“The Ofsted Outstanding award for Norcot Early Years Centre recognises the huge amount of effort all of the staff at the centre put into their work. They should be rightly proud of their achievement and the differences it makes to children’s lives. My fellow governors and I are delighted for them.”
Reading Borough Council’s Lead Member for Education, Cllr John Ennis said:
“Norcot Early Years Centre provides a consistently high level of pre-school education, and it is great to see the staff and pupils’ success recognised in this way.
“I know that the staff and governors are committed to raising standards. The Council is keen to support them – and other pre-school settings – to ensure that children get the best possible start to their education.
“I would like to congratulate pupils, parents, staff and governors on what they have achieved and what they continue to achieve.”
For Reading schools under Local Authority control, 80% are now rated good or outstanding, which is in line with the national average.

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ENDS