Bede Burn Kindergarten

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children benefit from a wonderful start to their early education in this welcoming and nurturing nursery. They become fully immersed in their play, showing high levels of concentration and enjoyment. This creates a lovely atmosphere, which is calm and purposeful. Babies giggle with delight as they explore the different sounds they can make with their voices and with musical instruments. Toddlers are fascinated as they create their own spiders' webs and watch what happens when they drop things into them. In the pre-school learning garden, children design their own obstacle course. They count and use a stopwatch to find out who is the quickest. Throughout all of these learning opportunities, the interactions between staff and children are of an extremely high standard. Staff support children to learn new things, to extend their vocabularies and to practise different skills. This enables children to make excellent progress from their starting points. Parents report that they are absolutely delighted by the contribution the nursery makes to their children's learning and development.

Children are treated with the utmost kindness and respect. When they arrive in the morning, they receive a warm welcome from staff. Those who are a little reluctant to separate from their parents settle quickly under the watchful guidance of their key person. Children quickly become familiar with the daily routines in each of the rooms. These are designed to help children to develop their independence. Settling-in arrangements are tailored to meet individual children's needs. Careful thought is put into children's transitions to different rooms and to moving on to school. For example, when children are due to move from the baby to the toddler room, staff introduce different sleep and mealtime arrangements in preparation. Toddler room staff recognise the personal, social and emotional skills children may need help with in order to thrive in the busier pre-school room. Children who will be starting school this year get valuable practice using trays and collecting their lunch from a serving hatch. These arrangements, alongside a wealth of other carefully considered measures, support children's self-esteem and confidence.

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

• Leaders and managers are passionate about providing the highest quality of care and learning for all children. They lead a dedicated staff team skilfully. Managers are excellent role models, supporting less experienced colleagues to develop their knowledge and practice to an even higher level. Staff access a wide variety of professional development opportunities, tailored to their individual needs and aspirations. They report that they feel valued and recognise that their contributions to the development of the nursery are welcomed.
• The nursery curriculum is ambitious. It is built on an extremely secure understanding of child development. This recognises that children learn best through play and exploration, with activities that are tailored to their interests, needs and stages of development. The curriculum vision is shared with parents so that they fully understand what their children will learn and how they can support this at home.
• All staff know the children in their care incredibly well. This helps them to identify precisely what they think children need to learn next, and how best to provide opportunities for this learning. They use children's interests and preferred learning styles to plan for each individual child's needs. For example, they know which children prefer to learn outside, and they make sure that the right resources are made available to engage and support them. Staff explain, with clarity, exactly what they intend each child to gain from the different activities and experiences they provide.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make excellent progress. Staff are highly vigilant in identifying children who may require additional help. They create 'roads to achievement' outlining the strategies to be used to support their learning. Parents are fully involved in this process so that there is a shared understanding of the approaches being used. Leaders have also formed strong partnerships with other professionals, so their expertise is called on when appropriate. Additional funding is used effectively to support individual children's needs.
• Children's behaviour is exemplary. Staff place a great deal of emphasis on helping children to learn how to play alongside their peers. There is plenty of praise and encouragement when children demonstrate good teamwork or when they are kind and helpful. They learn about the world around them and about British values, such as respect for others. Children's opinions are valued, and staff support them to make sensible choices.
• Children's good health and safety are promoted effectively. The food provided is healthy and nutritious. Children are reminded to stay hydrated. Hand washing is part of the routine in all rooms, often accompanied by a song so children remember what to do. Children are supervised vigilantly at all times, including when sleeping. Leaders regularly share information with parents about matters such as oral health, choking hazards and toilet training.
• Staff take every opportunity to enhance children's learning experiences. They regularly review and make changes to the learning environment, both indoors and outside, to make sure it remains stimulating and relevant. They have recently introduced a forest school programme. Books, rhymes and songs also play an important part in the provision. Children in all rooms enjoy snuggling up and sharing a story with staff. Staff use this time superbly to develop children's communication and language skills.