Brierley Field Children's Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled. They enjoy attending this clean, welcoming and homely nursery. Children build close bonds and sound relationships with their friends and the staff. This helps all children to feel safe and secure. Children like exploring and investigating the activities and good selection of clean toys on offer at the nursery. Babies take pleasure in catching bubbles, and younger children enjoy making pictures with pom-poms. Older children relish playing doctors with their friends.

Children learn to manage their feelings and regulate their behaviour, with effective support from staff. They listen intently to staff and follow instructions. Children are engaged in purposeful play and show they are developing good levels of attention. Staff support them to be independent. For instance, older children collect their plates of food and take them to the table. Younger children take their coats off and hang them on their pegs.

Children are developing their social skills and have good attitudes to learning. They are curious and imaginative. Children confidently tell the inspector about the fruits they have found and show her their 'secret eggs'. Older children enjoy describing what are good and bad foods to eat in order to keep their teeth healthy.

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

• Children make good progress in their learning. They benefit from a planned curriculum of activities and experiences indoors that is well considered and adapted to suit their individual needs and abilities. The curriculum builds on what children already know and can do, and considers their interests and what they need to learn next. However, the curriculum is less well developed for children who prefer to learn outdoors, as the outdoor area needs further development.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported very well. Leaders, managers and staff quickly assess and identify developmental concerns and have a good knowledge and understanding of the children and their needs. They work closely with parents and other professionals. This helps them to find the best ways to help individual children to catch up with their peers.
• Managers carry out staff supervision meetings. Staff state that they feel well supported to fulfil their roles and that their workloads are manageable. They receive training and coaching to support their continued development and professional qualifications. Staff say they are able to contribute to changes within the nursery. For example, they have recently developed a new way of planning for children's learning so that the needs of all children are met.
• Children enjoy listening to stories in small groups and individually. Staff understand the importance of helping children to build a love of reading. They ensure that children have ready access to a good range of books that support their interests. Children remember words and phrases from their favourite books. For example, children know the details of the food the caterpillar ate in 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.
• Daily risk assessments of the premises ensure that hazards are quickly identified and minimised. Children are offered nutritious meals and snacks. They eagerly talk about what vegetables are in the sausage casserole. They know that vegetables are healthy for their bones and help them to grow up into strong people. This helps children to develop their knowledge of healthy lifestyles.
• Overall, staff support children's emerging communication skills well. They introduce new vocabulary as children play. For example, children repeat new words such as 'cocoon' and 'sparkle'. Staff encourage children to discuss their ideas and share their thoughts. Staff ask questions to extend children's learning. However, on occasion, some staff do not give children enough time to think and respond in order to share their knowledge and understanding.
• Staff work effectively in partnership with parents on all aspects of children's learning and care, including what their child enjoys doing at the nursery and school transitions. Parents feel well informed about their children's progress and how to support them at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• implement plans to develop the outdoor area to enable children who prefer to learn outdoors to benefit from even more stimulating outdoor learning experiences
• build on staff's questioning techniques to enable children to have more time to think, respond and demonstrate what they know and understand.