Langdale Primary School Nursery Review

Climbing, hiding and making maps give Langdale’s youngest children practical ways to learn. Little Learners welcomes children from age 2 within Langdale Primary School in Newcastle-under-Lyme, with nursery learning also extending to three- and four-year-olds. This is the beginning of school life, with play carrying much of the learning.

Ofsted judged the school’s early years provision Outstanding at the inspection on 9 and 10 July 2024. That judgement covers early years within the school; it is not a separate nursery rating. The nursery detail is concrete: younger children develop learning habits through play, while older nursery children gain greater control over language, movement and the marks they make.

Physical exploration gives the two-year-olds a starting point. In July 2024, their activities included climbing and sliding, alongside building and hiding. These are opportunities to practise movement and construction through play. Persistence matters too: adults and children showed patience and kept practising, giving learning a rhythm of trying again rather than simply completing an activity.

For three- and four-year-olds, those early habits develop into more deliberate communication and action. Map-making provides a useful example. Children represented people, animals and trees on a route towards a beach, bringing recognisable detail into their drawings. For a parent, that makes mark-making tangible: a child’s marks can carry an idea that another person can understand.

At the July 2024 inspection, stories and rhymes were daily activities for the youngest children. They give books and spoken language a recurring place in the day, alongside the physical play. Together, these examples show early years learning through movement, conversation, drawing and shared stories.

There is a school-wide curriculum caveat. In July 2024, subject monitoring did not consistently lead to the changes needed to extend learning further. The improvement required was better use of monitoring to adapt the curriculum and provide sufficient challenge. This was a school-wide concern, rather than a nursery-specific criticism.

Support for additional needs includes parents in decisions. Across the school, children with special educational needs and disabilities and their parents or carers participate in planning and reviewing progress. That gives families a role in shaping support rather than receiving updates alone.

Staffordshire’s graduated response guides the school’s SEND approach, and Staffordshire Connects is used to direct families towards support. The school aims to include children throughout school life and remove barriers to participation. Parents can contact the office to speak with the SENDCo and inclusion lead, providing a direct route into that discussion.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal local authority route. Reception allocation takes account of catchment and other criteria, while nursery entry does not use the catchment criterion. Treat the Reception application as a separate decision and process when planning your child’s next step.

Visits can be arranged by contacting the school on 01782 948000 or emailing office@langdale.staffs.sch.uk. For families considering Little Learners, a school visit offers a practical next step before choosing the provision. The school is on Langdale Road, in Clayton, Newcastle, ST5 3QE.