St Hilda's CofE Primary School Nursery Review

Stories, songs and carefully chosen words give St Hilda's nursery its clearest character. This is the nursery provision within St Hilda's CofE Primary School in Oldham, where the school's age range starts at three. Language learning gives children a foundation for their next stage: hearing words, returning to them and using them in different activities.

Ofsted judged the school's early years provision Good at the inspection on 16 and 17 April 2024. That judgement covers early years within the school.

Listening and language are central to the early years learning described in April 2024. Children hear poems and rhymes alongside songs and stories, giving them different ways to encounter language. A story supplies meaning and context; a rhyme gives children another way to hear and remember words.

Vocabulary teaching has a deliberate sequence. Adults select words to introduce, then return to them across different learning situations. Children therefore encounter a word more than once, rather than meeting it only within a single activity. This is the clearest picture of the learning here: spoken language practised through listening and repetition, with preparation for the next stage built into that work.

Additional needs are identified early. In April 2024, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities were having their needs recognised as they entered early years. Staff collaborated with families and outside agencies so that these children could take part in the curriculum. For parents, the useful point is the link between identifying a need and arranging support for learning.

The school has an Early Years Lead and a SENDCo within its safeguarding team. These roles give early education and additional needs a place in the school's support structure. Early years staff undertake paediatric first-aid training on a three-year cycle, connecting the nursery team with care for young children.

Safeguarding concerns can be taken to designated safeguarding leads. The school's procedures allow information to be shared with other agencies over a child's welfare. Parents are normally involved in discussing those concerns first, with an exception where that discussion could work against the child's welfare. That qualification matters: family communication sits alongside the responsibility to protect the child.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions process.

Learning preparation is a separate matter. The vocabulary work described in April 2024 prepares children for beginning phonics in Reception. Familiarity with language supports that next step; it should not be confused with an entitlement to admission.

The school is on Tilbury Street, Oldham, OL1 2HJ. For nursery enquiries, the school's telephone number is 0161 6243592.

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