Baldwyns Park Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children happily arrive at the nursery and separate from their families with ease. They quickly settle into the routine of the day and become engrossed in their play. Children develop very good relationships with staff and feel safe and secure in this nurturing nursery. This is because staff take their time getting to know the children and have good attachments with them.

Children behave exceptionally well. They learn the expected behavioural boundaries and staff consistently support and praise children who are learning to share and take turns. Children are self-assured, busy and display high levels of self-esteem. They show high levels of curiosity and remain consistently engaged. For instance, once they finish an activity, they eagerly move on to the next one to explore and learn.

Children have good imagination and bring their past and present experiences into their play. For instance, they have an in-depth conversation about food with staff and successfully manipulate the cooking tongs while pretending to have a barbecue.

Children benefit from a well-designed curriculum to support their communication and language development. They maintain good concentration and engagement as they discuss the days of the week and the weather. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress from their starting points in learning.

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

• Staff are excellent role models and use their knowledge of behaviour management well to help children learn how to behave. They use a gentle approach to manage the children's behaviour. They teach children the importance of sharing and turn taking through effective strategies, such as explanations and use of the sand timer. In addition, staff offer regular praise during activities to boost children's self-esteem. Children are exceptionally well prepared emotionally and socially as they move on to the next stage in their learning, including starting school.
• Staff have a very good knowledge of children's abilities and next steps in their learning. The manager and staff use robust monitoring of assessment, both for individual children and groups. This helps to ensure that children receive the relevant help and support they need, and no child is left behind. However, on occasion, staff do not use their detailed knowledge about each child to plan highly challenging activities to help them build on previously acquired knowledge. For instance, staff planning tends to focus more on the children's interests, rather than building on what they already know.
• The manager and staff have a clear understanding of what they want children to learn and why. They implement a strong curriculum to develop children's communication and language skills. Staff are skilled in modelling language. They use open-ended questions and narratives to help extend children's speaking and thinking skills. Children talk confidently and use a good range of vocabulary.
• Partnership with parents is strong. Staff regularly share information about children's care and learning with parents to help keep them informed. However, the manager and staff have not considered how they can extend this partnership to other early years provisions that children attend, to help provide continuity and consistency in learning.
• Staff teach children to become independent and responsible learners. For example, they encourage children to take their coats off, hang them on their allocated pegs and put them on by themselves. Staff are available to support children if needed. Most children are able to use the toilet and wash their hands independently. Staff teach children how to use cutlery competently and scrape leftovers from their plates into a bin after eating. Children demonstrate high levels of independence as they tidy away resources.
• Supervision arrangements to monitor staff practice are effective. Staff benefit from good training opportunities and mentoring to help them extend and develop their skills. The manager and staff work closely together to evaluate and identify where they can improve to help ensure better outcomes for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to use their excellent knowledge of each child's capabilities to devise a highly ambitious curriculum that challenges children's learning, and further deepens their understanding of what they already know
• develop partnerships with other early years settings that children attend to help provide continuity and consistency in children's care and learning.