Berry Lane Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children happily arrive at this welcoming nursery. They are keen to find their name card and place it on the board. Children show that they feel safe and secure as they eagerly explore the diverse range of activities. Flexible settling-in arrangements meet the individual needs of each child and their family. Staff provide reassurance and comfort when needed. Leaders obtain detailed information about what children know and can do prior to them attending. Staff use this well to implement an ambitious sequenced curriculum from the outset to extend each child's learning. For instance, they encourage children to work out what number comes after five and help them to understand quantities as they support them to use their fingers to demonstrate the correct amount. Children enthusiastically recall knowledge in response to staff's questions. This supports children's speaking skills. Staff introduce new vocabulary, such as 'blurb' and explain the meaning, before reading to children with great intonation.

Staff are positive role models. The use good manners when speaking to each other and children. This motivates children to do the same. Staff are consistently alert of children's achievements. Their purposeful praise helps to develop children's characters and boost their self-esteem. Children develop good critical thinking skills. They work out that they need to stack more cylinder blocks to create a taller structure, allowing them to thread more wooden rings onto it. Children benefit from visits from professionals in the community, such as police officers and crossing patrol officers. They learn about occupations, including those that challenge stereotypes.

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

• Leaders and the staff team have a clear intent to the curriculum they offer. This focuses on supporting children to be confident individuals and embedding key life skills that help to prepare children for their next stage in learning. Staff implement a rich range of activities that reflect children's interests and introduce them to key events throughout the year, such as Saint George's Day. Children show high levels of engagement in their chosen activities where staff interactions help to build on what they know and can do. However, the current routine interrupts children's flow of thoughts and ideas. Staff gather all children together for whole group time several times during the day. The teaching during these sessions does not consistently meet all children's needs, leading to reduced engagement. Despite this, all children make good progress.
• Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to provide personalised support plans and implement individual strategies to help children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make the best possible progress. They successfully use strategies, such as photo cards and visual timetables to aid children's understanding and communication. Any additional funding the nursery receives is precisely targeted to support children's individual needs.
• Children cultivate good hygiene habits and an understanding of healthy lifestyles. They independently manage their personal care and follow a good hygiene routine. Staff support children's awareness of the negative impact of eating too many foods containing a high level of sugar. Children learn tooth-brushing techniques using model sets of teeth.
• Children behave well. They show friendly relationships towards others, for instance, children eagerly show and help their friends to use a pipette to suck up and squirt water. Staff support children to understand the nursery's golden rules. They skilfully identify and use pertinent moments to encourage children to think about how they and others are feeling. Staff support children to understand the meaning of complex emotions, such as lonely.
• Partnerships with parents is good. There is a constant two-way flow of communication. Staff take time each and every day to speak to parents and share photos of the experience's children enjoy on a private social media page. Therefore, parents feel fully included in their child's development, progress and achievements. Children are invited to borrow interactive book packs from the nursery to share with their family at home. This helps to support children's love of books. Parents comment how they 'appreciate the warm nurturing environment' that staff create. However, they are not as successful in developing working partnership with other settings that children attend. This means that children who attend other settings lack consistency in their learning.
• Leaders are committed to the nursery's continuous development. Staff regularly observe each other's practice enabling them to reflect on the quality of their interactions with children. They receive practical supervision from leaders, supporting them in identifying training needs to continue to build on their knowledge and skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the daily routine, with regard to group times to sustain children's engagement in their play
• develop partnerships with other settings that children attend to promote continuity in children's learning and development.