Leasowe Nursery Achieves Flagship School Status

Context?

Leasowe Nursery School and Family Centre is an extended school providing fully inclusive and integrated services for children and their families and is an is an outstanding and superbly inclusive school with 120 children on roll from birth to 4. The school federated with Castleway Primary School on the 1st of September 2020 and is now part of The Unity Federation. It is very clear from the review and in-depth discussions that staff at Leasowe have risen to the challenges of federation magnificently, to continue to ensure that the children receive the best possible opportunities and it is clear that even though change is accelerating, and they will be leaving the existing building in the summer it is still a vibrant, ever-changing, and superbly inclusive community in a happy, family-orientated environment where many exciting and innovative things happen.??

Dedicated Professionals?

Throughout the review what stood out in both formal discussions and informal conversations with staff is the pride they all feel in their school. Staff engage and work with their peers and the children and their families to meet their needs, often going above and beyond what is expected of them and in this regard they are exceptional. This is achieved through a true partnership with families and carers, and when needed external partners providing superb levels of advice, support, and care. Leasowe is a school community where everyone understands their role but where everyone is approachable and works together to achieve successful outcomes. Support of each other and teamwork are key to everything that happens, to ensure all aspects of wellbeing for children, families and themselves are met. They take pride in being superbly supportive and inclusive, although this comes naturally to them, ensuring that the school is an extremely welcoming, inclusive, and caring place. They should be justifiably proud of their success in this respect, where no-one is left out or behind.??

Child Focused?

Children are at the heart of an encouraging, challenging and enquiry-based environment where everyone recognises and celebrates differences, communicates the importance of learning, and believes that everyone can achieve. What is unequivocally evident when visiting Leasowe and supported by the evidence of this and previous IQM visits, is the commitment to helping all children succeed underpinned by extremely positive and trusting relationships with parents and the local community. Senior Leaders are instrumental in continuing to progress and develop this, ably supported by staff, ensuring the needs of all children are met. Everything is undertaken with and for their children and is of the highest quality, so that learning is focused on the individuals needs and abilities, giving them the foundations for future learning, and success in life.?

Collaborative Relationships?

Discussions with members of staff focussed on key aspects of the school allowing a highly positive and extremely inclusive picture to emerge. Said discussions also proved extremely useful in confirming that the school continues to meet the criteria of the IQM Inclusive School Award. The passion of the staff who see what they do as a vocation and not just a job shone through in both formal and informal settings and was clearly demonstrated in the way that they work with each other, with children, and families. They are a true community nursery school where outstanding collaboration is the reason why the school is so successful alongside superb teamwork from staff who naturally promote equality and diversity.??

Bright and Stimulating Environment?

A tour of the school afforded the opportunity to see the school in action, have informal conversations with staff and children in their well thought out learning environment, with bright airy spaces and excellent displays in evidence both on corridors and in learning areas. It is clear to see the pride that staff take in their learning environments both indoor and out and that they are continuing to develop and evolve despite the imminent move.?

Equipping Children to Succeed?

Leasowe Nursery School and Family Centre have undertaken a look in some detail at Curriculum Goals, Progression Maps to understand skills development, EYFS materials and the increasing awareness of the requirements of EYFS in relation to inclusion. The improved practice has been through the appointment of Class Teacher in F1 and the development of the new Senior Leadership Team and thorough assessment and planning. We were able to look at how they have created self-regulation practice using language and movement to develop listening and attention for children, parents, and practitioners and I was able to see how this had evolved and developed through the evidence of pictorial case studies and through discussion with the Lead Practitioner to look at the impact of Yoga and the intensive interaction of Attention Autism and a discussion about PECS.??

Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award?

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If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team, please feel free to telephone: 028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm) or email: [email protected] for further details.?