BELZ Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders do not ensure that staff have adequate knowledge of safeguarding. Many staff do not know what to do if there is an allegation against a staff member. Some staff do not recognise signs and symptoms of abuse. This compromises the safety of children. In addition, staff are not suitably deployed during parts of the day to ensure there are qualified staff present in each room. Inexperienced staff do not challenge sporadic times of unwanted behaviour. As a result, there are periods during the day when children are not accessing good-quality learning experiences.

Despite this, children are warmly greeted by the headteacher, manager and staff. Children quickly settle into activities of their choice in the first hour of arrival. Staff praise children for their efforts, which helps to support children's confidence. The key-person system helps to establish children's starting points on arrival at nursery. This helps to assist in the planning for children. However, teaching is inconsistent between sessions. As a result, children are not always engaged or having meaningful learning experiences that are based on what they know now and what they need to know next. Children's individual interests, although established when children begin nursery, are not always considered, and teaching is often generic. As a result, some children are not adequately challenged in their learning.

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

• The leadership team understands the signs and symptoms of abuse. However, the safeguarding knowledge of staff who work directly with children is not effective. In particular, the morning staff have limited knowledge of the referral systems. This does not keep children safe from potential harm. In addition, there are times in the morning when rooms do not have any qualified staff present to support children's learning. As a result, it cannot be assured that children's learning needs are met.
• Leaders discuss the curriculum, which has separate teaching in the morning and the afternoon. They speak about how staff exchange information between the morning and afternoon sessions. This is to discuss children's needs or issues of the day. Leaders speak of their high expectations for every child. However, the curriculum is not planned sufficiently enough. The children's learning does not consider what individual children need to learn next. Teaching is not consistent between morning and afternoon staff. Children are not adequately challenged throughout the day. As a result, children may not reach their full potential.
• Children enjoy learning about healthy eating and are provided with healthy snacks in the morning and afternoon. Children with allergies are known and supported. However, there are occasions when children have access to snacks outside of set times and are not always supervised. As a result, there are times when children are walking around eating. This puts children at risk of choking on their food.
• Children are beginning to learn independence skills. They learn how to take their coats off on arrival and find their named peg. When going outside, they put their coats on, sometimes with adult support. However, children are not consistently taught to do things for themselves. As a result, children are not being fully prepared for school.
• Children are taught to follow routines in the nursery and understand them well. However, sometimes when groups of children wash their hands before mealtimes, the routine is not organised adequately or efficiently. As a result, large groups of children congregate by the long sink and wash their hands quickly. The effectiveness of how well children wash their hands cannot be assured. This prevents children from learning good hygiene routines.
• Children learn to become effective communicators. Teaching is in Hebrew in the morning and in English in the afternoon. Children seamlessly switch languages and generally respond with confidence to both teaching approaches.
• Children enjoy learning about mathematics through counting and comparing. Staff are skilful in using different methods to bring mathematics to life, which children respond to well. For example, children count the dots on a dice and compare them to numbers on a cube. They are making links in their learning.
• Children begin to develop early writing skills through threading to support their small finger muscles. This helps them to build the skills to hold a pencil. They move on to mark making and experimenting with writing tools. As children move into the older classes they begin to trace and then independently write letters as they begin to understand that print has meaning. This helps to prepare them for school.
• Parents say they are happy with the nursery and appreciate the support they receive from staff.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider must:

• ensure all staff receive safeguarding training to improve their knowledge of how to recognise signs of abuse and understand the referral processes to keep children safe from harm (by 9 April 2024)
• ensure that each room always has the required number of qualified staff, and staff are suitably deployed in the nursery (by 9 April 2024)
• ensure the curriculum is improved and teaching practice is consistent so that children have the opportunity to reach their full potential (by 9 April 2024)
• ensure children are adequately supervised at all times during mealtimes to ensure they are not at risk of choking on food. (by 9 April 2024)

The provider should:

• support staff in using every opportunity to promote children's independence
• strengthen bathroom routines to reduce infection and ensure children learn routines.