Inspection Number: 1112692
| Name of setting: | The Grange Prep School |
| Setting number: | 511503 |
| Address: | The Grange Prep School |
| Buckwood Grange | |
| Uckfield | |
| East Sussex | |
| Postcode: | TN22 3PU |
| Person responsible for the day-to-day management of the setting: | Lorna Evans |
| Position: | Head of Pre-Prep |
| Name of Inspector: | Corinda M Carnelley |
| RgNI's Registration number: | 26187 |
| Date(s) of inspection: | 22/06/98 |
| Inspection number: | 1112692 |
The inspection took place as part of a national programme of inspection of the educational provision for four year olds. It was commissioned by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), a department of central government.
The purpose of the inspection is to identify strengths and weaknesses so that providers can improve the quality of educational provision and help children to achieve the Desirable Outcomes for children's learning on entering compulsory education, (ie by the age of five). It is also to ensure parents and the public that nursery education funded by the state is of an acceptable quality. The inspection report must be made available to all parents.
If the setting has been inspected previously, an action plan will have been drawn up to tackle issues identified. This inspection, therefore, must also assess what progress has been made in the implementation of this plan.
The Grange is a private school set in extensive grounds on the edge of a small country town in East Sussex. It serves children from three years six months to 11 years. There are 34 children in the Pre-Prep Department, four of whom are funded four-year-olds. There are no children with special educational needs and none in the Pre-prep for whom English is an additional language. The Pre-Prep is open for five days per week for 36 weeks per year. There is one full-time member of staff and two part-time, one of whom is a specialist French teacher. The school was established in 1978 and the Pre-prep in 1995.
The strengths and weaknesses of the educational provision provided
The Grange Prep School provides a happy, friendly and caring environment. There is a balanced programme of worthwhile activities to enable most children to achieve appropriately in the desirable outcomes in all six areas of learning by the time they are five years old. The programmes for all areas of learning, apart from physical development, are good, with no significant weaknesses. Although the programme for physical development has some minor weaknesses, it is satisfactory overall.In order to improve the quality and standards of the educational provision, the setting should:
Link planning to the desirable outcomes and show that it is informed by assessment. The planning needs not only to list the activity and mode of delivery, but state what the children are intended to learn from it.The provider must draw up an action plan within 40 working days of receipt of this report showing how the key issues or points for development detailed above will be addressed. The action plan must be made available to all parents, and to the Local Education Authority if required. An evaluation of the action taken will form part of the next inspection.
| Personal and social development | Promotes the desirable outcomes |
| Language and literacy | Promotes the desirable outcomes |
| Mathematics | Promotes the desirable outcomes |
| Knowledge and understanding of the world | Promotes the desirable outcomes |
| Physical development | Promotes the desirable outcomes: has minor weaknesses |
| Creative development | Promotes the desirable outcomes |
Taken overall, the quality and standards of the educational provision are acceptable in promoting the desirable outcomes for children's learning. The action plan should show how the provider will address the key issues or points for development within 12 months of the inspection.
It is recommended that the next inspection occurs within two to four years.
The strengths and weaknesses of personal and social development
Children's personal and social development is a strength of the setting. The programme for this area of learning is outstanding, with no noted weaknesses. The children behave in appropriate ways, they have confidence and self-respect and are aware of right and wrong. The children were quite at ease with a visitor in the classroom. At lunch time they were able to sustain a lengthy conversation about future careers, pets and what their parents did. The children relate well to the staff and to one another; they remind each other of future events and jobs that they need to do at school. During assembly, they all participated in the discussion and listened well. They work well in groups and are willing to take turns and share fairly. The children treat property and their environment with care and concern, as shown when they hang up their coats in the cloakroom with a minimum of fuss, and change their school shoes for trainers at playtime, "So we don't spoil our school shoes which are expensive." They work well both together and independently, and show care for one another; for example, much concern was shown when one of the children bumped his arm at lunchtime. Opportunities are planned to help the children respond to a range of feelings, particularly using the animals (fish, rabbits) around the school. The children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fostered appropriately.The strengths and weaknesses of language and literacy
Overall, the programme for language and literacy promotes the desirable outcomes, although one minor weakness was noted; there is no evidence that children have planned opportunities to make up their own stories and to take part in role-play. The dressing up clothes are used mainly as a wet weather activity. There are many opportunities for development of the children's speaking and listening skills and all of the children are able to sustain conversation for several minutes. They talk about their experiences and listen attentively to other people's points of view. During discussion times (assembly, lunch time, sharing time, bring and show time), children participate confidently, not only sharing their own ideas but listening to other children's contributions. Most of the children are fluent readers; the school uses a commercial reading scheme, and they read to one another regularly as well as during a paired reading session with older children. There is a book corner in the classroom which is excellently resourced; the children have access to a wide variety of reading material, both fiction and non-fiction. The children write their own labels on their drawings for display, and recognise letters of the alphabet by shape and sound,"Munching Mike is for Monday. It's for mummy too." In writing activities, children draw a picture, then tell the teacher the caption. It is written underneath the picture and the children copy the words. They move on to filling in a close procedure and eventually write their own captions. Children's work is neat, and they are obviously confident in their given tasks.The strengths and weaknesses of mathematics
Overall, the mathematics programme is good. However, there is no evidence that children create mathematical patterns, and there is only a brief mention in the planning of sorting and sequencing activities using everyday objects. Children make everyday use of mathematical language as they move around the classroom; there was a discussion about the depth of a paddling pool with the words "deep" and "shallow" used spontaneously by the children. They also talked about whether a frog's tongue was "longer" or "shorter" than their own. Children are obviously familiar with counting games, and number rhymes and, during the inspection, they enjoyed the counting songs in their French lesson, singing and counting in both French and English with great enthusiasm. There are minor weaknesses in the amount of practical mathematical activities that are on offer to the children; much of the work done is written in their mathematics books. However, there is some evidence in the planning record of manipulation of money for practical mathematics activities. All the children were able to recognise and to use numbers to 20 confidently, both written and spoken. They used unifix blocks as and when required to help them to carry out mathematical calculations in their books, and to draw the required number of objects.The strengths and weaknesses of knowledge and understanding of the world
A wide range of activities is provided to help the children's knowledge and understanding of the world. The programme in this area promotes the desirable outcomes with no significant weaknesses. One of the key strengths of the programmes is that children are able to talk confidently about their families and about past and present events in their lives. During assembly time, all the children contributed to a discussion about a christening, and about going to church in general. They are able to talk about where they live, and their environment. There was a display about the growing of broad beans in the classroom and the children were able to relate what they did, who knocked over the water, whose bean grew the tallest, and what the parts of the plant were called. The children had recorded what they had seen in drawings of the beans.The strengths and weaknesses of physical development
The programme for physical development overall, has minor weakness. One of the strengths of the programme is swimming lessons. All of the children are taken to a local pool on a weekly basis and there is a broad programme followed resulting in every child learning to swim. Children move confidently both inside and outside; space within the classroom is limited but children move around very sensibly. They are aware of why they change for P.E. "because we might get our school clothes mucky" and were very intent during the warm up session before the lesson. During playtimes there is a large grassed area, a large playground, and a large climbing frame/house/bridge/helper skelter construction which was widely used. There are also two small tricycles available at playtime, which are shared. Some of the children brought some writing work outside and sat at a table using pencils and crayons. However, the children do not receive enough opportunities to use small equipment with increasing skill. Children also need more opportunities to handle appropriate tools, objects, construction and malleable safely and with increasing control. The planning of physical development is extensive, detailed and progressive, but it only lists actions, not outcomes. It is not always clear from the planning what the children are expected to achieve.The strengths and weaknesses of creative development
Overall the programme for creative development is satisfactory. Good opportunities are planned for the children to explore and respond to sound and music. A collage in the dining room shows their responses to 'Peter & the Wolf' and plans show work based on 'Sleeping Beauty'. The topic on "My Body" covered the senses and children were able to respond to a variety of touch and taste sensations. The children use a range of materials for painting, drawing, making collages and models. The planning for art discusses colour mixing, collage, and bubble painting; giving the children good opportunities to explore colour, texture and shape in two and three dimensions. A display of bean drawings shows that the children are able to execute detailed observational drawings and a wall display of printing using apples, potatoes, and carrots shows an exploration of colour and texture. One of the strengths of the creative development programme is the wide variety of artwork and the children talk constructively about different colours and colours that they enjoy. They comment on their own displays and are obviously very visually aware. However, too many of the planned activities involve the children in working to make an adult interpretation of a picture or response to music. Planning does not place sufficient emphasis on providing activities to enable the children to express their own ideas freely in their drawing and painting. Children need more opportunities to use a widening range of materials, suitable tools, musical instruments and other resources to express ideas and to communicate feelings.The strengths and weaknesses of the overall planning of the educational programme
The educational programmes is planned over a two year cycle to cover a range of topics which include all of the desirable outcomes for children's learning although they are not arranged as such in the plans; planning is separated under headings such as "number", "art" and "P.E." Weekly and daily plans are written including detail of activities, some methods, and groupings. Planning is thorough and detailed, giving priority to personal and social development, language and literacy, and mathematics, although they are not listed as such, and an appropriate range of activities is provided. There are good short and long term plans, particularly in the areas of language and literacy. The planning for personal and social development is clearly stated in the school documentation, and a certain standard of behaviour is very much part of the ethos of the school, but it is not detailed in planning. Written plans enable the staff to organise their work well, and are generally effective in promoting the desirable outcomes for learning. However, they only identify the activity and do not always make the link to the desirable outcomes or to the intended teaching method.The strengths and weaknesses of teaching and assessment
The quality of teaching and assessment is good overall. The staff are committed, enthusiastic, and work well together without a break from 8.45 am until 3.45 pm. They have very clear expectations of the children's behaviour and give a strong emphasis to personal and social development. This has a positive effect on relationships and behaviour. A minor weakness is that staff do not all have secure knowledge and understanding of the desirable outcomes for all six areas of learning.The strengths and weaknesses of equality of access and opportunity
In the Pre-prep girls and boys have full access to the full range of provision. The staff monitor the children's participation in activities to ensure that they all have chances to experience all aspects of the educational provision. The staff give appropriate support to meet individual children's needs, organising their planning and teaching to enable them to work sensitively with individuals particularly in the areas of language and literacy and mathematics. There is a commitment to providing appropriately for children with special educational needs with a comprehensive policy and procedure clearly linked to the Code of Practice. Currently there are no funded four year olds with a statement of special educational needs or who are learning English as an additional language.The strengths and weaknesses of the learning resources and accommodation
There is a good range of resources which the staff use effectively to promote the children's learning in all six desirable outcome areas. The children choose their own resources at certain times during the school day. There are sufficient and appropriate resources for all children in the Pre-prep. The accommodation both indoors and outdoors is suitable and used effectively to provide a broad, balanced programme for the children's learning. The indoor accommodation consists of two small, linked classrooms, with the cloakroom in a separate building. Outside there is a large grassed area, a large playground, and a climbing area with bark chipping surface. Children have access to small mobility toys on the playground, and there are other toys (hoops, balls, skipping ropes) available. There is also a small, grassed garden are adjacent to the classroom with sand and water play facilities.The strengths and weaknesses of the partnership with parents and carers
Relationships with parents and carers are good. They are given an extensive sheaf of information, which includes details of the educational programme, when their child enters the Pre-prep. They receive termly details giving projected topics and the children receive two assessments per term, the results of which are included in the termly report to parents and carers. Parents and carers are invited to comment on the termly reports, and any lack of comment is always followed up by the Headteacher. Parents and carers visit the Pre-prep both mornings and afternoons and obviously feel welcome. They discuss the children's progress informally with staff when they visit and there are two formal parents' evenings each year. Although parents and carers do share observations of their children's learning at home with the staff and are invited to make comments in their child's reading record book, they do not contribute to the written records at present. The Pre-prep's commitment to working in partnership with parents contributes positively to the children's attainments in the desirable outcomes for learning.Implementation of action plan
There were five key issues for action identified in the last inspection. These involved updating planning to show a balance of the six areas of the desirable outcomes; exploration of role play opportunities; opportunities for practical solving of mathematical problems, expansion of the physical activities; and more activities to enable children to understand how to take turns and to share.