Blenheim Early Years

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children demonstrate wonderfully warm and secure attachments with staff. Youngest children seek out trusted adults when they are upset, and they receive reassuring cuddles and soothing words. Well-planned settle visits support children to build trusting relationships and separate easily from parents and carers on arrival. Staff have a secure knowledge of their key children. They capture essential information about children when they join and use this to provide a tailored experience. This includes personalised sleep and feeding routines for the youngest children.

Staff know children well. They are clear about the unique needs of children and the support they require to make progress. Children are supported well to access the curriculum and engage in meaningful learning. Regular partnership working with parents and professionals strengthens the outcomes for children and ensures that no children get left behind. Children engage positively in their play and learning. They demonstrate good behaviour and listen well to adults. Staff praise children for managing tasks such as serving their snack and washing their hands. This helps children to remember the positive choices that adults encourage them to make. Children show kindness to their friends. They take turns to cross the stepping stones and wait patiently for their friends to finish.

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

• Leaders have a clear and ambitious curriculum that, overall, supports children to progress through the nursery and be prepared for the next stage of their education. For children who move to the school, the curriculum model offers familiarity and provides the foundations for future learning.
• Children benefit from the regular use of stories. Staff read often to children and use stories as a foundation for the curriculum. Children show a deep enjoyment of books as they engage in both one-to-one stories and group sessions. Staff encourage conversation and support children to discuss and describe what they see in pictures. Children are developing a broad vocabulary that they use confidently in their play.
• Children engage in a range of activities that help them to express their creativity. They enjoy making medals from collage materials and designing pictures and cards for their families. Children develop their fine motor skills as they handle scissors and use glue sticks. Staff encourage them to think about how to attach the strings to medals using the available materials. This supports problem-solving and making choices.
• During snack, children enjoy healthy foods, such as cucumber and corn. They serve themselves and pour their drinks with confidence. Children wash their cups and plates when they have finished. This supports their growing independence and ability to manage practical life skills.
• Children are physically active. They navigate the complex climbing structure with confidence and skill. Large blocks provide an opportunity for children to design and construct a large model together.
• Children learn about nature and develop their senses. They plant pumpkins and measure how much they have grown. Walks through the school grounds include visits to woodland and nature areas, where children explore living things and learn about how things grow. Children experience the feel of natural sand on their feet as they climb into large trays of sand.
• Children show high levels of well-being. They beam with pride as they show the inspector the medals they won at the Blenheim games event. Youngest children confidently leave their key person and happily explore the environment. Children are able to fully participate in the learning opportunities available to them.
• Leaders work with a range of partners to identify areas for development. The nursery is supported by the trust, and those with oversight and governance offer support and guidance. This means that continuous improvements and ways of working are quickly identified and actioned.
• Staff receive regular supervision. Mandatory training is routinely attended to ensure that staff know how to keep children safe. However, staff do not access training that specifically supports their own personal development and teaching skills. This means that sometimes the quality of staff teaching across the nursery is not consistent for all children.
• Parents feel well informed about the time children spend at the setting, They appreciate the excellent communication and updates they receive. They comment that children are happy and settled and enjoy their time at the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop the quality of their teaching through a targeted programme of training so that interactions are of the highest quality and support children to consistently build on what they already know and can do.