Absolute Angels Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy in the bright, vibrant nursery. They show that they feel safe as they hold staff's hands on walks in their local area. Staff have high expectations of all children, including those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). All children behave well both in nursery and while on outings. Children are quick to follow staff's instructions and understand the routines that they must follow to keep themselves safe.

Children have positive attitudes to their learning and readily join planned activities or happily lead their own play. Children benefit from one-to-one and small group interactions. Staff know children well and plan activities to support their individual needs. For example, staff notice that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected children's social development. They plan interesting outings in the local community to help children to develop their social skills.

There is a strong focus on children with SEND and their needs are especially well supported. For example, staff plan regular outings to a sensory centre. Children with SEND show delight as they swing in a hanging chair and observe the colour-changing lights above them. This helps children to develop their senses as they learn about the world around them.

Staff help children to understand difference and similarity and how they are unique. Children learn about different family backgrounds and diverse heritage. For instance, they celebrate Lithuanian Independence Day and learn about the country's customs from their friends. This helps children to become prepared for life in modern Britain.

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

• Leaders plan a broad and ambitious curriculum based on what children already know and can do and what staff have identified that they need to learn next. They learn mathematical concepts, such as 'more' and 'less', as they fill and empty containers with sand and water. High-quality interactions with staff mean that children make good progress from their different starting points.
• Leaders have effective systems in place to monitor and assess children's progress. This enables staff to identify gaps in children's learning and development swiftly. Alongside the strong links with external agencies, such as the local authority, this means that staff can quickly access support for children's individual needs. This helps to ensure that they do not fall behind. Additional funding is spent to benefit individual children. For example, staff purchase resources to support children's understanding of different types of families.
• Relationships with parents are effective. They value the efforts that staff make to support their children's individual needs and to plan exciting experiences for them. Parents visit for an Easter party. Children are fascinated by the life-sized Easter bunnies who come to visit them and lead them in a hunt for Easter eggs. Parents feel involved in their children's learning.
• Staff read stories to children and sing joyfully throughout the day. They change the words to songs which makes children laugh and encourages their memory skills as they try to join in. However, staff do not always model correct speech. This means that children's own speaking skills are not always promoted to the highest level.
• Staff support children to become increasingly independent. They encourage babies to take their first steps and scoop them up with glee and praise when they succeed. Staff encourage older children to challenge themselves to balance, climb and slide when they visit a soft-play centre. This promotes their physical health and well-being and helps them to learn to take appropriate risks. Children are developing skills which they will need in readiness for their eventual move on to school.
• Leaders are committed to the success of the nursery and to the provision for all children who attend. However, leaders do not always work together to ensure the efficient and smooth running of the nursery. For example, responsibility for ensuring that staff receive paediatric first-aid training is not well organised, leading to inconsistencies in the availability of appropriately qualified staff. As a result, where there have been no first-aid trained staff available, the nursery has needed to close at short notice. This results in children missing learning opportunities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• streamline leaders' management responsibilities to develop the smooth running of the nursery, so that children do not miss out on learning opportunities unnecessarily
• develop children's language skills even further by ensuring that staff consistently model correct speech.