Battenhall Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy at this warm and friendly nursery. They put their arms out to welcome cuddles from staff as they separate from their parents with ease, showing that they feel safe to leave them. They settle quickly in their room and are keen to get involved in their play and learning from the outset.

Staff plan and provide a broad range of activities and experiences that support children to gain new knowledge and skills. Babies enthusiastically wave and clap their hands during song time. Two- and three-year-old children develop their problem-solving skills as they test out which lids fit onto different-sized wooden containers. They explore matching different-sized objects to the correct holes on the lids. Staff support their early mathematical and language skills by modelling words related to size, and children repeat whether it is 'too big' or 'too small'. Pre-school children join in with acting out stories that are related to topics that they have been learning about. They confidently recall facts they have learned, such as crocodiles being able to survive for two months without food.

Staff demonstrate consistently high expectations for all children and encourage them to carry out tasks for themselves independently. Even the youngest children show confidence in walking down steps to access the garden, while holding a staff member's hand and a rail to ensure their safety.

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

• Managers are extremely passionate about providing children with high-quality learning experiences. They are reflective in engaging staff to develop and implement a unique curriculum that supports all children's learning. That said, recent changes to the nursery curriculum are still in their infancy. Therefore, the curriculum is not yet fully developed to give children a rich and varied range of experiences to extend their learning even further.
• Staff get to know all children extremely well. They continuously observe children to understand their levels of development. Staff are prompt to identify any delays in children's learning. The special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator provides swift intervention by creating individual support plans for any children with gaps in their development. They work with external agencies to help children to gain any extra support that they may need. This means that all children are supported to make the progress that they are capable of.
• Children's communication and language skills are consistently promoted by staff. Children frequently join in singing songs and rhymes. Staff regularly read books with innovation to children throughout the day. This captures children's attention and they become deeply immersed in stories. Children share their excitement as they finish sentences in stories that they are familiar with, demonstrating their early love for reading.
• Younger babies are shown by staff how to tidy up. Staff hold their hands and take them to put away toys when they have finished playing, so that they learn how to look after resources from an early age. Staff explain to older children what it is that they have done well, such as listening carefully or looking at illustrations. Staff positively recognise and reward children's good behaviour, which helps all children to understand what is expected of them.
• Staff frequently model language to describe different emotions and provide opportunities for children to talk about their feelings. Older children tell staff how they are feeling about their upcoming transitions to school. They clearly explain why they are feeling 'excited' or 'nervous' about it, and staff offer reassurance to those who need it. Consequently, children learn how to manage and explain their own feelings.
• Parents speak extremely highly of the nursery and their experience. They praise staff for their warmth and dedication, and recognise the progress that their children have made in their learning and development. Parents welcome the information that they receive about their child's learning through an online app.
• Staff consistently comment on the high levels of support that they receive to fulfil their roles. Managers provide regular opportunities to meet individually with staff to provide supervision, which helps to promote the interests of children. That said, the monitoring of staff's teaching and practice does not yet fully identify and address areas for development. For example, on occasions, staff are unaware of when they cause minor disruption to children's learning, which prevents them from fully benefiting from the possible teaching experiences.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on the existing curriculum to provide children with an even richer variety of activities and experiences
• look more closely at staff's teaching and practice to help them to recognise how to minimise minor disruptions to children's learning so that children fully benefit from enhanced teaching experiences.