Bertie's Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish in this excellent nursery. The manager and staff place children at the heart of everything that they do. Children play, explore, investigate and experiment in an environment that is meticulously planned to encourage their personal, social and emotional development. For example, children independently build a large track from wooden blocks. They release cars down a ramp to see how far they can go. They ensure that everyone has a turn and praise their friends' attempts. Children's behaviour is impeccable. They say 'thank you' and use phrases like 'Can I tell you what I am thinking?' rather than interrupting someone else talking.

Children are incredibly happy and settled. They benefit from warm and nurturing relationships with staff, who go above and beyond to ensure that they get to know them well. Bespoke settling-in sessions are carefully tailored to children's specific needs. Children thrive due to the personalised one-to-one support they receive from their key person. This helps children to feel safe and emotionally secure. Children display high levels of confidence. The manager and staff are highly ambitious for all children to develop a love of learning and achieve well. This is consistent across the nursery.

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

• The manager is truly inspirational. She uses supervision and mentoring systems with staff to focus on driving forwards the excellent standards of teaching practice across the nursery. Staff contribute to the decisions made about the setting. This helps them to feel empowered and part of a valuable team. Staff's passion and enthusiasm benefit children's personal experiences greatly.
• Staff have a superb understanding of every child. They take account of children's backgrounds and interests and use this knowledge to broaden their experiences. For example, children explore 'The Colour Monster' story in different languages so that bilingual children can share their home language with others. Children talk about what makes them sad and the people they love, and they say that they feel happy at nursery.
• The manager and staff share a clear vision and passion for what they want children to learn, focusing on children's well-being and involvement. Children actively contribute their ideas to shape the experiences that they receive in the nursery. For example, children reading 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' book suggest they make tiger masks and hold a tea party with their friends. They know that staff value their voice and opinions.
• Teaching across the nursery is excellent. Staff skilfully intervene during play to challenge children to make decisions about what they will do next. This inspires children to lead their own learning. For instance, when playing outdoors, children role play the book 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. They use their imagination and knowledge to respond quickly to the purposeful questions that staff ask them. Children are highly motivated learners. They remain engrossed in their play for prolonged periods of time.
• Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is exceptional. Staff liaise with parents and other professionals to target and support children's learning. Personalised plans and good use of funding contribute towards the rapid and substantial progress that children are making. They make particularly swift progress in their physical skills and language development.
• Staff build excellent relationships with families. Parents and carers report that 'staff go over and above' in everything that they do. Staff share information daily about children's learning and development. Families attend progress meetings, and children make well-being boxes and transition books to take home. This helps achieve the best outcomes for children. It helps them thrive due to the consistent approach to their care and education.
• Children make outstanding progress in the development of their communication and language skills. Staff review the environment frequently to ensure that children have access to communication-friendly spaces. For example, at a craft table, children talk about a bird sticker and explain that it is a 'red breasted robin'. This purposeful planning means that children have a wealth of opportunities to hear a wide breadth of vocabulary and use it in their conversations.