BEST Nursery and Extended Services (Langford)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The experienced manager and her staff team have worked hard to make improvements since the last inspection. Staff interact well with children and provide them with meaningful learning opportunities. The manager has worked hard to create a clear and purposeful curriculum, and staff understand what it is that they want children to learn and why. This has a positive impact on all children's learning and development.

Children enjoy attending the nursery and form good bonds with their key person and the wider staff team. Staff have adapted the learning environment so that children can follow their own interests and freely access the indoors and outdoors. This helps children to remain focused om the activities they complete. Staff gently guide and encourage children, and provide them with support and new information where relevant.

Staff know the children well and involve them in shaping the nursery provision, such as selecting new resources. They use what they know about children to help them to make connections between their experiences. For instance, staff place flower petals with other objects in the water tray, as well as arranging bunches of flowers in the creative area. They speak to children about the range of activities and encourage them to explore different areas. Through these well-planned and cohesive learning opportunities, children gain a deeper understanding of the topics they learn about.

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

• Improvements to the nursery since the last inspection have had a positive effect on staff and children. Staff feel more confident in their roles and enjoy the range of tailored training and support on offer. The manager encourages staff to share their new-found knowledge. The manager invites staff to try different ideas, and offers guidance and support when needed. Staff reflect together on what works well and what they could do differently to help to improve their practice further.
• The passionate special educational needs and disabilities coordinator has a clear understanding of what each child requires. She has completed a range of relevant training, and continues to develop her knowledge even further. She works with other professionals. This enables her to provide targeted support to those children who need it, in order to close any gaps in their learning and development.
• Parents are happy with the care that staff provide, and comment positively about the improvements they have seen since the last inspection. Staff encourage parents to help build on children's learning at home. Children make cardboard 'houses' at home and bring these to nursery. Staff use these to create a village street. This builds on children's understanding of the local community and further strengthens their ability to connect their learning experiences together.
• On the whole, staff support children to build on their language and communication skills, which is a strong focus of the curriculum on offer. Staff encourage children to predict what might happen next during the story that they look at while children eat their lunch. On occasion, some children are overly enthusiastic to speak and interrupt or take control of the discussion, without staff reminding them that they need to listen to what other people have to say. This leads to some children not being able to share their knowledge or ideas with those around them.
• Children's behaviour across the nursery is good. The manager shares ideas and strategies with staff and shows them how to implement these effectively. However, some staff are not yet as confident in using these strategies, such as when they need to support children to understand how others may be feeling. This means that children do not yet receive consistent support in understanding how to manage their own feelings and emotions, and the impact this has on others around them.
• Staff monitor and track children's progress effectively. The staff team has access to information about each child's targets, so that everyone can support the children who attend. Small-group time successfully supports children who are at similar stages in their development. Staff provide intensive interactions that are relevant to the children who they work with, enabling all children to focus and progress well.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support children to build their conversational skills so that they listen to and value the thoughts and ideas of others around them
• help staff to consistently support all children to communicate their feelings and emotions and recognise how their actions may make others feel.