Beaufort Park Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and babies form strong and positive bonds with their key person. They demonstrate that they feel safe in the warm and friendly environment. Babies hold out their arms to familiar adults, and receive comfort and reassurance. Older children play cooperatively with their peers. This sense of safety helps children to get the most from the learning opportunities that staff provide.

Leaders design an ambitious and broad curriculum that is based on children's interests and what they need to learn next for their future success. Staff enrich children's experiences. For example, they take them on regular visits within the local community. Children enjoy visits to the nearby museum and the library. Staff use these trips to help to support children's awareness of the world around them. Children show an interest in transport and choose to visit the local train station for their next adventure. Staff extend children's learning. For example, they use a junk modelling activity to talk about different modes of transport.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. They are good role models, and are calm and consistent in their approach. Children show care and concern for living things. They feed and care for the animals that reside at the nursery. Children learn to be kind and considerate.

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

• Staff gather a range of information about children before they start attending. They work closely with parents and other professionals, when needed, to support all children's good progress and development. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• New staff receive a robust induction. This helps them to become familiar with their roles and responsibilities. Staff access online training, and leaders ensure that they complete mandatory training. However, leaders do not yet fully support staff to expand their individual skills to raise the quality of education to the highest level. This leads to some minor inconsistencies in the quality of teaching and interactions that children receive from less-confident staff.
• Most staff provide good support for children's communication and language. They sit alongside children to read stories and sing songs. Staff use visual aids to enable children to understand what is happening. They support children who speak English as an additional language by using phrases in children's home languages, when appropriate. This helps children to become confident talkers.
• Staff support children to develop the skills they need for the future. They encourage children to be as independent as possible and to learn to do things for themselves. This is evident as children independently wash their hands for lunch. Older children serve their food and scrape their dishes after eating.
• Staff promote children's good health well. They provide children with healthy and nutritious meals. Staff ensure that children have plenty of opportunities to move freely indoors and outdoors. Babies are supported to crawl and pull themselves up to standing. Older children run, climb and balance. Children strengthen their small muscles, for example, when they explore water, sand, play dough, and other malleable materials.
• Overall, children behave well and are curious and motivated learners. They are clear about the routines throughout the day. However, at times, when children finish their activities, they start to wander around with not much to do. Staff do not fully support children during these times, and this leads to children's learning not being maximised.
• Staff support children to enhance their mathematical language and knowledge. For example, they encourage children to talk about the shapes they make out of dough. Staff introduce positional language as they describe how the car moves 'up', 'down' and 'across' the paper. Older children learn to recognise and write numerals, and practise counting during their play.
• Overall, parents are complimentary about the nursery and comment on their children being happy to attend. Staff speak with parents at the start and end of each day. They also use an online platform to share information with parents regarding their children's development. This helps to ensure the continuity of children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide further coaching, mentoring and support for less-confident staff to raise the quality of interactions and teaching to consistently highest levels
• support children more effectively while they are in between activities to ensure that they remain engaged in their play and learning.