Christ Church CofE Primary School Nursery Review

A storybook journey to the moon, complete with sandwiches made by the children, captures the character of nursery learning at Christ Church CofE Primary School. Books become practical activities and imaginative adventures. This is the school's own nursery provision, at Kielder Terrace in North Shields, within a Church of England primary school.

Ofsted judged the school's early years provision Good at the inspection on 23 and 24 November 2022. That judgement covers early years within the school; it is not a separate nursery inspection. The nursery's distinctive feature is learning shaped around children's interests, with stories and practical experiences giving them something to explore and talk about.

Children's needs and interests guide the nursery curriculum. Named topics include All Creatures Great and Small and Here, There and Everywhere, giving families concrete starting points for conversations about learning. These themes sit alongside personalised experiences rather than replacing attention to the individual child.

The nursery's Whatever Next activity shows how this works. After sharing the story, children made sandwiches independently, packed their picnic and acted out a moon journey in a rocket. Preparing food brought a practical task into the story; the imaginative journey gave children a way to participate in it. Independence and storytelling met in one activity.

In November 2022, the early years curriculum supported progress across seven learning areas, with communication and language receiving deliberate attention. Singing, rhymes and listening to stories were concrete parts of that work. For parents, this means language learning was woven into familiar activities children could join in with, rather than treated only as a separate exercise. The early years learning space was also assessed positively that month.

Settling into nursery routines was a strength identified in the November 2022 inspection: children became familiar with the pattern quickly and began learning promptly. That matters because adjusting to a new setting is part of the child's experience, alongside the activities themselves.

For families considering support for special educational needs and/or disabilities, the school's SEND local offer explains services and how to access them. The Christ Church SEND Information Report and Accessibility Plan provide further starting points for understanding the school's arrangements. These are school resources, so families should distinguish them from an individual support plan for their child.

Concerns can be raised with staff by telephone. The school identifies a designated safeguarding lead, a deputy and additional trained safeguarding leads, giving parents a defined team structure for raising child protection worries.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions process by the applicable deadline. Treat choosing the nursery and applying for Reception as two separate decisions.

Preparation for starting school includes a Starting School Book to share with children, introducing the school and some teachers. Starting School Bitesize and Starting School with Cbeebies are also linked as family resources. Sharing these materials gives parents a concrete way to begin talking about the change.

The school can be contacted on 0191 257 0323. Its School Term Dates page directs families to North Tyneside school holiday dates and the Christ Church Calendar, useful reference points when organising family plans.