Brockham Green Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children build exceptional bonds with staff and flourish in their care. They thrive in a language-rich environment, where staff encourage them to make exceptional progress from their starting points. Children's interests, needs and abilities are extremely well understood by the staff, who know what they need to achieve next. Children's learning is seamlessly woven through everything they do by the knowledgeable staff. For example, staff ensure that the environment contains the key activities that individual children need to make them feel comfortable when they first arrive. Some children like to settle with staff for a story, others like to build models or be creative with play dough. Staff purposely position themselves at these activities to interact with the children. This helps them find out how children are feeling, their interests for the day and identify how best to engage them in their learning.

Children love stories and staff use favourite stories to extend children's attention span, their love of books and as a tool to build on experiences. For example, children take familiar stories out to forest school to read. Children enjoy searching for images of the characters throughout the trees and bushes. Staff enthusiastically join in, asking questions about the pictures, the environment they are in and the nature around them. Children learn about the names of trees and plants and who might live in and under them, such as owls and snakes. They confidently share that 'prickly' plants are called brambles and holly. Children eagerly share why they should not touch any mushrooms or berries they see, as they may be poisonous and make them ill.

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

• Children display exemplary behaviour and treat each other with kindness. They learn to manage their feelings, and use of the emotion stones helps them share these with staff. Staff use these stones to help children talk about what is making them feel happy or sad, to support their emotional well-being.
• Children are confident to tackle new activities, use their critical thinking skills and show great perseverance to complete tasks for themselves. For example, younger children show their elation as they complete the challenging task of putting their coat on totally unaided. Older children share details of how many pieces of recycling, and the shapes, such as a cylinder, they have used to create their motorbikes. They confidently discuss whether glue or tape will work best with staff, who encourage them to experiment and see.
• Staff are highly motivated and have high expectations for children. They commit to regular training and share what they learn with each other. They strive to ensure that they continually pitch their high-quality of teaching at the highest level to engage children and support their learning.
• Staff make full use of every opportunity that presents itself to extend and challenge children in their learning. They use conversations to encourage children to recall previous experiences, at home and at nursery, and build on their vocabulary, their mathematical and problem-solving skills.
• Staff are committed to promoting a safe environment, where children's learning and well-being flourish. All staff continually share their knowledge of each child's needs, interests and targets with each other. This enables them to all focus on helping every child to achieve to their full potential from their initial starting points.
• Partnership with parents is a strength. Staff share children's learning with parents and encourage parents to share this with other childcare providers they may use. Parents and carers spoken to state how wonderful the nursery has been for their children. They share how during COVID-19, staff have posted videos of the nursery and forest school to help them see what their children have been doing. The online systems used help them to see observations on their children, notes from the staff and to share what achievements their children have made at home.
• Staff are swift at identifying emerging needs and discussing these with parents. They work with other professionals to seek the additional specialist support children may need. While these applications are in progress, staff implement activities and ideas they are aware of from training or previous interventions to enable children to get the best support.
• Management and staff are aware of their responsibilities and are meeting all of the requirements. They maintain comprehensive records, including those that link to complaints, safeguarding concerns and children's learning and development. Robust recruitment and suitability processes are implemented to help ensure children are safeguarded.