Apple Tree Nursery

Inclusion: Strong standard

The setting has a highly inclusive approach that ensures all children are able to participate fully in the curriculum and wider experiences. Practitioners know children and their families extremely well and are particularly skilled at identifying emerging needs and potential barriers to learning and development. They carefully tailor the environment and their teaching to meet children's individual needs, enabling children to participate meaningfully alongside their peers. Practitioners work effectively with a wide range of external professionals, including teachers of the deaf, speech and language therapists, visual impairment teams and physiotherapists. They use specialist advice effectively and consistently to inform their practice and ensure that children's individual support is well coordinated.

Leaders maintain high expectations for all children and closely monitor the effectiveness of the strategies and interventions in place, making adjustments when children's needs change. They also carefully track the use of the early years pupil premium funding and evaluate its impact to ensure that additional funding is used purposefully to improve outcomes for children. Children's individual needs and circumstances are understood and respected. As a result, potential barriers are identified and addressed quickly, and children receive targeted support that enables them to access the curriculum, develop confidence, independence, and make strong progress from their individual starting points.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders have established a suitable and ambitious curriculum that reflects the 7 areas of learning within the early years foundation stage (EYFS) and identifies what they intend children to learn. The curriculum and its overarching intentions are clearly displayed within each room, providing practitioners with a framework to support their planning and teaching. Practitioners use their knowledge of individual children to provide experiences that build on what children already know and can do. They interact positively with children, introduce appropriate vocabulary and use everyday routines and play as opportunities to extend learning.

Children benefit from a range of experiences that support their communication and language, physical, personal, social and emotional development and their learning across the wider curriculum. Leaders recognise that several practitioners are relatively new to the setting and are therefore still developing their understanding of how the curriculum intent translates into consistently effective practice.

Leaders have accurately identified that some practitioners need further support to understand how the setting's curriculum intentions should be implemented in practice and how children's knowledge and skills should be built progressively over time. Leaders are providing targeted support to develop this understanding. While this work remains ongoing, practitioners demonstrate an appropriate understanding of children's learning needs and provide suitable experiences. As a result, children engage positively in learning and develop appropriate knowledge and skills across the EYFS.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children make appropriate progress from their individual starting points and develop the knowledge and skills they need for their future learning. Children develop their communication and language as they learn and use new vocabulary during play and everyday routines. They develop mathematical knowledge as they count, compare quantities and practise sequencing numbers. Children revisit this learning in different contexts, helping them to remember and apply what they know.

Children develop their physical and creative skills through activities such as construction, painting, sensory play and outdoor experiences. They increasingly make choices, manage resources and use their ideas during imaginative play. Children learn to persevere when they encounter difficulties and become increasingly confident in trying new skills.

Children also develop practical independence and increasingly manage familiar routines for themselves. They build on what they already know and can do and use their developing knowledge during play and everyday experiences. As a result, children develop the communication, mathematical understanding, confidence, creativity and independence that provide appropriate foundations for their next stage of learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Children demonstrate consistently positive behaviour and highly positive attitudes towards their learning. Practitioners have clear and consistent expectations and understand children's individual emotional and developmental needs. Supporting children to recognise and communicate their emotions is particularly well embedded. Children learn to recognise, name and manage their emotions through well-established approaches, including familiar books and stories about feelings. This introduces children to emotional language from an early age and gives them a consistent way to communicate how they feel. Practitioners reinforce this through daily activities and conversations, while leaders revisit key messages to strengthen children's understanding. Where children require additional emotional support, tailored one-to-one and small-group experiences provide further opportunities to develop their emotional awareness and self-regulation. Routines are firmly established, contributing to smooth transitions and helping children to understand what happens next. Practitioners provide opportunities for children to become more independent as their skills develop.

Leaders place a strong emphasis on attendance. They have a robust process for monitoring and responding to absence, which is clearly understood by staff at all levels. Attendance is recorded through an electronic app, and leaders regularly review the data to identify patterns, emerging concerns or barriers to attendance, and take appropriate action. As a result, children benefit from continuity in their learning and well-established routines. This highly consistent approach supports children to become confident, resilient and increasingly independent, while developing the emotional awareness and self-regulation skills that provide strong foundations for future learning.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Children's welfare and wellbeing are given appropriate priority. Staff demonstrate a secure understanding of the setting's policies and procedures and implement these consistently in practice. Safer-sleep procedures are well embedded. Babies are positioned safely for sleep, practitioners undertake regular visual checks, and sleep trackers displayed in the room support consistent monitoring and recording. Hygiene routines are similarly well established.

Children learn to manage aspects of their personal care independently, including wiping their own noses, and accessible handwashing stations enable them to develop good hygiene habits from an early age. Practitioners promote healthy lifestyles through regular conversations about nutritious food and encourage children to make healthy choices.

Children also have access to a book library, supporting their enjoyment of reading beyond the setting. Leaders work effectively with parents to promote children's wellbeing at home. Parent events and guidance provide families with useful information on issues such as appropriate screen time, and support consistent messages between home and the setting.

Children develop warm, secure relationships with practitioners and confidently seek support when needed. This is equally evident for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, who have established secure attachments with their key persons. Overall, children generally feel secure and valued and develop appropriate independence in managing their health and personal care, alongside positive healthy habits.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders have a clear understanding of the setting's strengths and areas requiring further development. They demonstrate an open and reflective approach to improvement and have identified where practice has not been sufficiently consistent.

Leaders have put appropriate plans in place to address identified weaknesses, including strengthening the supervision of children and the management of allergies. They are proactive in checking that agreed changes are implemented effectively and use observations of practice to monitor improvements and provide further guidance where required. This helps to ensure that changes become embedded into practitioners' everyday practice and have the intended impact on children.

Leaders recognise that some staff, including those with leadership responsibilities within individual rooms, are relatively new to their roles. Appropriate support has been put in place to help these practitioners develop their confidence, knowledge and understanding of leadership expectations. Leaders maintain oversight of practice while this knowledge develops.

They also recognise where further development is required, including strengthening practitioners' understanding and implementation of the setting's curriculum. Staff receive appropriate supervision, guidance and opportunities for professional development.

Leaders work constructively with parents and external professionals to support children's individual needs. Overall, leaders demonstrate the capacity to identify weaknesses, implement appropriate actions and monitor their effectiveness, supporting continued improvements to the quality and consistency of children's experiences.