Abacus Nursery Parkside

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide an extremely welcoming and nurturing environment for all children. They enthusiastically welcome children when they first arrive and help them to settle. Staff support children to find their labelled coat pegs, and children independently hang up their coats. Staff build positive relationships with children from when they first start. Children have a strong sense of belonging within the nursery, they show that they feel safe and emotionally secure.

Staff successfully implement a curriculum to meet children's individual learning needs and interests. It is ambitious for all children to help ensure positive outcomes, particularly those children who may not have the same experiences as others. For example, the nursery offers tennis coaching, Spanish lessons, dance and music sessions. Leaders plan many extra-curriculum opportunities to help to enhance children's learning.

Staff plan daily outings to local parks to help to promote children's sense of self within the local community. Children benefit from lots of fresh air and physical exercise. Staff are good role models and they promote children's positive behaviour. For example, they encourage children to hold hands and follow instructions. Consequently, children listen to, and follow instructions and they behave very well. Staff are deployed effectively so that children are kept safe during outings.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Children benefit greatly from exciting and interesting opportunities to help them to focus on their learning. For example, very young children are fascinated by the smell and texture of lemons and fresh herbs. Older children keenly explore soil, leaves and conkers. This helps deepen children's learning, curiosity and understanding about the world around them. Staff skilfully plan experiences based on the curriculum intent.
• Staff place a strong emphasis on developing all children's love of books, and to help to support their communication, language and early literacy skills. For example, very young children snuggle up with staff and look at books together. During circle time, older children listen intently to autumn stories read by staff. They recall their favourite parts, and keenly point to trees and leaves outdoors. Children are eager to learn and confident communicators.
• Children's physical skills and abilities are supported well through a well-designed and sequenced curriculum. For example, staff encourage the youngest children to crawl, toddle and confidently climb small indoor apparatus. Toddlers squeeze and manipulate dough to strengthen small muscles, and staff support pre-school children to practise their physical abilities during tennis sessions.
• Overall, staff embed routines of the day well. For example, staff explain to children what is happening next, and children follow the routines for self-care when they wash their hands before mealtimes. However, mealtime routines in some rooms are not as well planned by staff. They are not consistently managed to help older children to understand expectations and engage fully in their learning.
• Engagement with parents and external professionals is effective. For example, leaders know to seek specialist and targeted support for children who have gaps in their learning. They organise parent events, such as to celebrate festivals and cultures, to help to value family backgrounds and what makes children unique.
• Parents say that they notice children's good progress, particularly social skills and communication and language development. Parents appreciate the planned daily outings, and acknowledge that staff support children's strong sense of community very well.
• Staff successfully plan many opportunities to meet all children's individual needs, and they know what they want children to learn next. Although staff know children well and communicate this well, overall, to parents, some information shared is not of a high quality. For example, although arrangements for the progress check at age two requirements, information shared is less informative and does not build further on what staff share verbally with parents about their children.
• Leaders have a clear and very ambitious vision for providing high-quality, inclusive care and education for all children. They focus on improving staff's knowledge and skills, to help to enhance their teaching skills and the quality of education. For example, following recent training staff say that this has helped them to support children to regulate their behaviour, and to recognise their feelings and emotions. This helps staff to have high expectations for all children's behaviour and conduct.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation of mealtime routines to help older children to understand what is expected of them and engage well with the experience
• support staff who work with younger children to provide more detailed information to parents, particularly when completing the progress check for children aged between two and three years old.