Al-Madina Nursery - Balsall Heath

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and eager to take part in activities. They have close relationships with staff, which helps them to feel safe. On arrival, children quickly recognise their names and trace over them in order to register their attendance. Children are extremely well behaved. At group time, they easily make an orderly circle and sit down. They show sustained levels of concentration as they sing the welcome song and consider the days of the week, the month and the weather. Children enjoy the phonics session and counting the children who are present. They are keen problem solvers and persevere at their chosen activities. For example, children enjoy identifying which keys unlock the padlocks as they match the number to the amount of spots.

Staff skilfully use the children's play to teach them how to halve the objects in the bowl and consider money as they play in the pretend café. Children delight in feeling the foam to make marks and write familiars letters of the alphabet. Girls, in particular, make the most of all the writing opportunities made available. For example, they spend a long time writing in notepads, on clipboards and drawing and colouring. Children thoroughly enjoy being outdoors as they play in the mud kitchen and consider the concept of objects that float and sink. They show great enthusiasm for learning as they consider how to make water move along the guttering into the buckets below.

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

• Good progress has been made to address the actions and recommendations raised at the last inspection. The manager and staff team have made effective use of the training and support from the local authority to help secure improvement. As a result, staff confidently and precisely use children's assessment information to plan activities and build on what children know. The quality of activities and teaching is greatly improved and children make good progress.
• This enthusiastic staff team speak positively about the manager, the leadership team and the support they receive. The manager conducts regular staff supervision meetings and makes observations of the teaching practice. She places a sharp focus on improving staff's knowledge of the areas of learning and how they can enhance their teaching even further. However, the manager has not identified with staff how they could better support boys' learning. For example, boys do not show the same level of enthusiasm as girls during some writing and number activities.
• The manager reports that, as a result of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, many of their children fell behind in their behaviour, making relationships, listening and attention and their ability to hold a pencil. Staff swiftly identified the areas where children needed most support and worked closely with parents to help close these gaps. As a result, children are making good progress.
• Parents state they are extremely happy with the service they receive. They are impressed by the progress their children make in their language skills, mathematical, and literacy development. They value the daily feedback they receive about their child's day and achievements. Parents report they are using the electronic assessment system in place more often. They use the information provided to keep up to date about their children's development and to support children's learning at home.
• Staff give children clear messages about living a healthy lifestyle. For example, children know which foods are healthy and unhealthy and the importance of limiting sugar. Children enjoy exploring and discovering the various activities outdoors. However, staff do not give enough consideration to how they can offer increased opportunities for children to negotiate space and climb.
• Children are extremely confident and happy and enjoy playing with their friends. Staff offer lots of reassurance and praise and are consistent in their approach to behaviour management. Children know about the setting's golden rules of behaviour and quickly respond to changes in the routine. Staff skilfully teach children to respect each other and children enjoy learning about people and communities beyond their own experiences.
• Staff place a clear priority on supporting children's communication and language development, including those who speak English as an additional language. Staff skilfully reinforce new words and concepts during their interactions and the routine includes plenty of opportunities for children to talk, listen, sing and enjoy stories. All children, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, are fully included during activities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus more precisely professional development opportunities for staff to help them to fully support boys' learning, especially in writing and mathematics
• monitor more rigorously the educational programmes to help identify areas for further development, with particular regard to providing increased opportunities for children to learn to negotiate space and climb.