Inspection Report - Mossley Nursery School

Mossley Nursery School

DE Ref No 311-6162

Inspection Report - November 2025

Mossley Nursery School community has a shared vision to develop ‘motivated, resilient and confident young learners’. This vision has been created through robust consultation with all stakeholders and is lived out fully by the knowledgeable and supportive staff, board of governors and wider school community. The revised core values ‘Learn, Grow and Belong’ underpin the vision and support the children to be curious, kind and respectful.
The processes for self-evaluation are high quality and the school development plan has appropriate and important key priorities. These include enhancing the provision for special educational needs (SEN); increasing the learning opportunities for the children following participation in the pre-school standardisation; and, developing further speech, language and processing skills to improve the children’s cognitive and social learning.
The cycle of planning, observation and assessment is highly effective and is based on robust and collaborative monitoring and evaluation processes. The staff use, very effectively, a digital application to provide a detailed overview of the children’s learning and progression which informs the child-led planning. The staff know the children very well and incorporate the children’s interests into the planning. As a result, the children engage in sustained play experiences and develop their language skills as they share their learning experiences with each other and the adults.
All of the children are very happy, curious learners who explore their learning environment with excitement. They are developing well their listening and processing skills, display high levels of self‑management and engage in long periods of sustained play.
The children enjoy collaborative problem‑solving, share ideas, and discuss what materials they will use when building ramps for the cars to make them go faster. When making obstacle courses, the children negotiate which resources to use to make the course challenging and fun. They use consistently a range of mathematical language relating to capacity, number, shape and positional language as they play. The children actively care for their environment through recycling and reusing materials. They also care for the wildlife in the nursery’s extensive outdoor area and ‘Wee Wood’ as they select various cereals and seeds to make food for the birds.
There is a consistent focus on early identification of additional needs. The staff gather comprehensive information from parents, observe children closely, and identify potential barriers to learning at an early stage. Through the staff’s ongoing communication with parents, they provide tailored strategies to support each child’s learning, implement Personal Learning Plans (PLPs), and refer promptly the children to external agencies, when required.
The staff are committed to an inclusive approach to meet the needs of all of the children. For example, they have received professional learning on a wide range of SEN strategies and interventions, such as bespoke speech and language support. This includes the use of Makaton and visuals which supports the children’s communication and helps them to manage their emotions.
The children’s emotional well-being is a priority. The staff use evidence-based strategies to support the children’s self-regulation, confidence, and resilience. These include visual timetables, calm plans, and emotional literacy tools such as ‘The Colour Monster’. The staff use positive reinforcement and language consistently to build the children’s self-esteem. They also help the children to recognise and name their feelings and encourage good choices when playing with other children.
The well-established staff team engage regularly in professional learning opportunities, both within the school and through external networks. There is a well embedded culture of professional collaboration, supported by relevant early years pedagogy and research which enhances professional development and effects improvement within the school. There is regular dissemination of practice within and beyond the school, through for example, an early years forum and contributing professionally to relevant early years publications. Staff well-being is also prioritised through planned well-being events and social activities which sustain a cohesive and motivated team.
Mossley Nursery School is celebrating 50 years of providing pre-school provision within the local community. Partnership with parents is highly valued and they are actively engaged through initiatives such as the Department of Education’s ‘Getting Ready to Learn’ programme. These opportunities enhance family engagement in reading, physical activity, and healthy lifestyles and the staff have produced bespoke learning cards and QR codes to consolidate learning at home. Feedback from parents is consistently positive, and their high levels of participation in activities is fostering a sense of community and enjoyment in learning. Community links, which include intergenerational visits with residents in a local residential home, provide rich learning opportunities, such as the residents playing with the children in the outdoor areas and sharing stories of their experiences at school. Charitable work is also undertaken in the nursery school, with annual fundraising events supporting causes that have personal meaning for the children and their families.
At the time of the inspection, the evidence provided by the school demonstrates that the arrangements for child protection align to the current statutory guidance.

Next steps

The children in Mossley nursery school are supported by the staff to be happy, kind, resilient and curious in a learning environment which is child-centred, inclusive and nurturing. The ethos of collaboration and self-evaluation is evident across all aspects of the provision. It is underpinned by the staff’s ongoing commitment to inclusion and continuous improvement so that all of the children can make progress in their learning.

ETI will continue to work with Mossley Nursery School as it addresses the area for action: to develop further the learning opportunities for the children following implementation of the standardisation programme. ETI will also work with the school to share the example of the highly effective cycle of planning, observation and assessment.