Jarrow primary school given stamp of approval for quality of Early Years provision

Following a recent inspection, the school, which is on Harold Street, was awarded the Early Years Quality Mark after an assessment of teaching and learning for children in nursery and Year R.

The award is internationally recognised as a high quality benchmark for “providing evidence of high-quality education in the provision, practice and performance of English and Mathematics”.

Early Years Foundation Stage Lead at the school, Kayleigh McLaren, said: “We are so proud of the team and the children and the report really validates our strengths as well as identifying areas for improvement.

"We applied for the award in April as we feel Early Years provision is a real strength of the school and it’s great to have this clarified in the report. The Quality Mark will help us to continue to improve and keep standards high.”

The evidence based inspection focuses on 10 key areas covering assessment, high expectations for development, partnerships with families and external support networks, staff training and development of learning environments and resources.

Inspectors also carry out interviews with parents and the school leadership team.

Mrs McClaren said: “The report highlighted a lot of key strengths but I’m particularly pleased with the findings on assessment which inspectors said ‘met each individual child’s needs’.

"The inspectors were also really impressed with the teaching of reading and development of language which has had a massive impact on children transitioning into Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2) who get off to a flying start.

"Developing literacy at a young age is really important.”

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Mrs McClaren was also pleased the report recognised the high quality indoor and outdoor learning environments which inspectors described as “stimulating and language rich”.

In summing up the strength of the school’s Early Years provision, inspector Dr Andrew Swatland said: “St Bede’s meets all ten elements of the Early Years Quality Mark.

"Children enter the Early Years’ provision with skills below those typical for their age, with limited vocabulary and poor sentence construction. Impactful teaching and a well-organised and stimulating learning environment ensure children make good progress by the time they leave Reception.