Rowland Hill Nursery and Children’s Centre has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
Nurture, Motivate and Inspire
The aim of the Executive Headteacher at Rowland Hill Nursery and Children’s Centre is ‘to nurture, motivate and inspire children whilst challenging them in their learning’. The vision for the Nursery and Children’s Centre is to provide the highest quality nursery curriculum and be recognised as a model for inclusion within the Local Authority (LA) where multi-agency working to respond to the community needs is exemplary.
The school, a short distance from internationally renowned Tottenham Hotspur football ground, is in one of the most deprived wards in the UK: 49.3% of children in the ward live in poverty (Haringey average is 37.1%); the proportion of claimants is 25% higher than for London overall; 12.1% of White Hart Lane residents, are unemployed (Haringey 8.1%, London 7.3%); 46.4% of Year 6 children in the ward are obese.
This challenging context is reflected in the intake of 122 full-time equivalent places of this maintained nursery, where 51.3% of pupils have English as an Additional Language (EAL), 22 different languages are spoken, 28 pupils are in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium, 27% of pupils live in temporary accommodation, 20% of pupils have Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) including a high level of multiple complex needs, 25% are monitored for safeguarding and 12 pupils are placed through the Haringey Integrated Additional Services Panel. Approximately 28% of children access 30 free hours of entitlement, 44% access 15 free hours of care, with 28% accessing ‘Free for Two’ places and 12 children under the age of two are on the roll. In addition, 849 children are registered at the Children’s Centre, where the outreach team supports 179 of them.
High Aspirations
With high aspirations in everything that it does, the school has accumulated a string of national and local awards.
During this academic year, Ofsted rated the nursery practice as ‘Outstanding’ in all areas (September 2022). This was swiftly followed by the Inspection of under two’s provision (May 2023), with Ofsted again rating the provision as ‘Outstanding’, again in all areas with the thread of inclusion running through.
The current Headteacher, appointed in 2019, continued her predecessor’s legacy of a strong inclusion ethos. Less than a year into her headship and with the Covid-19 global pandemic striking, the Headteacher and her team set about providing home learning materials for the children and seizing the opportunity to update the school’s website. All statutory information together with innovative ways of communicating with parents is housed on a well-organised, dynamic, and interactive website. The newly acquired Tapestry assessment system, which enables parents to engage through the Learning Journals (LJs) on a regular basis, has succeeded in creating a trusting dialogue between home and school.
During every meeting on assessment day, all adults, including parents and Governors, articulated that taking measures to accommodate not only the needs of every child but also the family is what the school is about. This consistency in thought, belief and above all innovative curricular practices for all pupils from ‘Birth to Five’ and building positive and trusting relationships with families has resulted in Rowland Hill Nursery and Children’s Centre being a truly exciting place to learn.
Expertise and Knowledge
In recognition of the school’s expertise and knowledge, the Local Authority (LA) schools, neighbouring borough schools as well as schools nationally draw upon the school’s varied approach and skills developed by its staff. The latter also offer to their local schools and the wider community in the following ways:
• Following the school’s Ofsted rating, the LA invited the school’s Governors to consider the Headteacher assuming taking on Executive Headship and head another Nursery which was struggling to recruit a leader. Under her leadership, Woodland Nursery in Haringey also received ‘Outstanding’ from an Ofsted inspection in May 2023.
• Leading two of the three nursery schools in the authority, the school set up a ‘Training Consortium’ led by Rowland Hill staff, where the LA commissioned most of the Early Years and Special Educational Needs (SEN) training for practitioners in the authority.
• Presenting an innovative teaching practice developed by the school to develop language skills, ‘Tales Toolkit’, to Early Years practitioners and Headteachers nationally at Mercer’s Hall.
• Speech and Language UK, a Charity looking at speech and language working models, is using Rowland Hill to film excellent practice and share with practitioners nationally.
• The school’s training room is often used by the LA to run Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes for practitioners at other LA schools, share local and national updates, and meet their training needs.
• Rowland Hill hosts several open days where staff from other schools come to see good Early Years and inclusive practices whilst in session.
Peer-to-Peer Support
Rowland Hill provides peer-to-peer support through:
• SEND project with Private, Voluntary and Independent settings (PVIs) whereby the schools’ SENCo partners with these nurseries to strengthen their SEND provision and turn them into inclusive practices. Issues of problem-solving and team building are addressed by enabling practitioners from other settings to observe practice at Rowland Hill. Over the years, more than 70% of LA Early Years practices and PVIs have benefitted from Rowland Hill’s shared expertise.
• ‘Baby room’ project for under twos opened and quickly developed to provide excellent under twos practice. This led to it becoming a handpicked setting to train at for this age group. Certainly, Woodland Nursery (its sister school) is a case in point.
• Partnership working with the LA has also led the latter to base its Annual Early Year’s conference at Rowland Hill during an In-service Education and Training (INSET) day which 120 practitioners from Haringey schools will attend, with keynote speakers and workshops organised.
• The school is a base for the NPQEYL programme, representing the teaching school hub for Northeast London.
• National Certificate for Further Education Levels 1,2 and 3 on ‘Childcare and Early Years Workforce’, organised through Barnet and Southgate is offered at Rowland Hill. Several practitioners at the school have completed Level 3 as have over 20 parents from the school. The latter have been employed as School Meals Supervisory Assistants (SMSAs), Teaching Assistants (TAs) and key persons in the neighbouring schools.
• The Executive Headteacher and the Deputy Headteacher provide online and face-to-face sessions on using their ‘Tales Toolkit’ teaching tool for the LA schools. This strategy, where icons are used to construct stories and develop children’s language and imaginative skills has proved to be invaluable among a highly diverse population. Twenty schools are already using this approach, with ten more schools planned for the coming school year and 50% of the LA schools planned for the following year.
In addition, the Executive Headteacher sits on several LA boards, including the SEN and Early Years strategy groups where funding as well as policy issues are addressed. Being a member of the ‘High Need Block’, at the LA, has influenced decision making on SEN provision for 0-25 year old citizens in the borough.
Passion for Inclusion
The Executive Headteacher’s passion for inclusion in the Early Years and getting it right for the 0–5 year olds permeates throughout the school. Indeed, the DfE-funded research project ‘Pen Green’ at three nursery settings nationally during 2018-2019, which included Haringey’s Rowland Hill, describes a celebratory approach to SEND Assessment in Early Years.
Our Assessor concluded, “Thank you to the staff, pupils, parents, Governors and the LA representative who extended a warm welcome during the one-day IQM assessment. I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing about some inspirational inclusive practices and the resulting awards and accolades received. The passion with which the inclusion vision modelled by the Executive Headteacher and her team will undoubtedly continue to influence practitioners at all levels, locally, nationally and perhaps globally.”
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.
• Our inaugural National Inclusion Conference will take place on the 27th November, for further details click here.