Abercromby Nursery School has achieved the Inclusive School Award.
Magical Place
Abercromby Nursery is a truly magical place for children to start their educational journey. They love it. The nursery is a school of choice for many parents, some of whom travel significant distances. All families are welcome. The nursery school has a fantastic reputation in the local and global community. Our Assessor was told it was discussed and recommended by families on the other side of the world. The school was awarded an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted grading last March, an accolade that is very much deserved.
“Teamwork makes the dream work.” This statement is the heading for a photo of the Abercromby staff in the Headteacher’s office. This encapsulates her approach to leading and inspiring the small and highly successful team of committed and motivated colleagues. The school has two classes, Oak Tree, for 3–5 year-olds and Willow Tree, for 2-3 year-olds. Each class has a teacher, nursery officer and SEND one-to-one officers. This year to increase capacity, the school took on two apprentices who support in class and provide invaluable additional one-to-one support for some children. The bonds which staff make with the children are truly amazing. The enthusiasm of the staff is overwhelming. The result is a calm, happy, safe space for every child to flourish and grow. Children make rapid progress.
Welcome All Children
The school fulfils its aim to welcome all children and has a number of children who haven’t thrived in other settings. At Abercromby, they blossom and become real success stories which the staff are so proud to share. When the April cohort starts the school will be at capacity. 70% of the children in Oaktree class are English as an Additional Language (EAL), ranging from new to the country to completely bilingual. In the Willow Tree class, 53% are EAL. One of the experienced members of staff and both apprentices speak Arabic which is the main additional language in the school with Somali coming next. When needed the school will buy in the support of an interpreter to support parents with Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) applications for example.
Office staff are the parents’ first port of call and assist parents throughout their time at Abercromby, starting with admissions; claiming funding, arranging home visits and supporting families through the settling-in process. At the end of their time at Abercromby, they will support applications for primary schools. In between, the school will support families in any way they can. They have helped families with applications for housing, adding the school’s views on the impact that inadequate housing could and is having on the child’s education and will use local knowledge to signpost families to services to access support or find provision for health care or schools for siblings.
Attendance
Attendance is followed up robustly at Abercromby as part of their diligent approach to safeguarding. The office will make welfare calls and send texts to follow up non-attenders. They will use their links with local schools to see if siblings are present and if it gets to the end of the day, they will alert the Headteacher so that a member of staff can make a home visit. An absence and holiday book is used to spot patterns and check that children have returned to nursery following holidays. They know where all of their families are all of the time. Office staff do a gate duty once a week which further helps them build relationships with families. The office staff are included in whole staff training; safeguarding, health and safety and sign-along training.
The office manager attends a conference with colleagues 3 times a year to network with staff from other schools. The wellbeing of all staff is given high priority; there is a display in the staffroom and the senior team discusses this as part of their regular meetings.
Noticed and Cared For
Abercromby goes above and beyond to ensure every child is noticed and cared for every day. Their individual needs are identified and a bespoke approach to supporting these is devised. A new SEND resource base is used to support a number of children with high needs. The relationships these children have with their key workers are magical to witness.
What really struck our Assessor was how every sign of communication, all body language, however small is noticed by staff and used to inform their interactions with the child. Every progress step, however small is picked up, celebrated and shared. Staff celebrate the smallest things, as small as a few moments of eye contact. The little things are big at Abercromby.
Visuals are used to support communication. Even these are adapted if necessary; one child had photos of their beaker, not a generic one, and a photo of them with their snack. A teacher summed this approach up perfectly. “We follow the child’s need; we observe them all the time and will adapt our approach immediately if we need to.” The children quickly learn how to support their own needs; this might be taking their key worker by the hand and walking them to the door if they need a break from the class. All situations at Abercromby are responded to by children and staff in a calm way, without fuss or drama.
A key worker explained how they know the sound the child they work with makes prior to a behaviour outburst so they can respond immediately. On the day of our Assessor’s visit, a child who is non-verbal and struggles to communicate their needs said the name of the school dog to the Headteacher in the outside learning area. She described this as a miraculous moment and immediately went and fetched the dog for the child. This brought so much pleasure to the child.
Staff actively teach the children to develop a growth mindset. For example, a child may say “I can’t do it!”, but staff will respond that they may not be able to do it yet, but with practice and perseverance, they will. Behaviour and social skills are taught and modelled. A teacher said, “You could have said, ‘I had that first’ then he will understand,” which helped a child communicate how they felt when a toy was taken by another child.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
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 telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.
Want more information on the IQM Award? Click here to request your free IQM information pack.