Broomfield Road Day Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this setting and behave exceptionally well. Staff are fully engaged and committed to supporting children in their learning, and they take an active role in keeping children highly engaged, focused and challenged. Children and staff have strong attachments. Children transition seamlessly, through well-planned settling-in sessions where parents are fully included. Further transitions to new rooms are highly organised and flawless. Staff from each room are familiar with all children. They speak to them using their names and know personal snippets about them such as where they have been on holiday. All staff have exceptional knowledge of children's learning styles and what their next steps in learning are. Children are provided with well-thought out activities that spark their interests and challenge deep level learning.

Children in the pre-school room are prepared exceptionally well for school with an emphasis on developing high levels of independence and problem-solving. They are provided with an abundance of innovative opportunities to practise these skills.

Parental partnerships are strong, with an abundance of opportunities to help parents to support their children's further learning at home. For example, staff provide parents with a library where they can borrow books and resources linked to a variety of development needs including potty training and weaning. Parents talk about staff in extremely positive ways, using words such as 'amazing' and 'wonderful'.

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

• Leaders are inspirational in their vision for children's learning and development through the bespoke curriculum that is embedded for each age range through age-appropriate activities.
• Staff demonstrate deep understanding of children's assessments and what they would like children to learn next. They demonstrate that they know which children they would like to focus on during a given activity and can talk about their learning intentions. Staff provide an abundance of exciting activities, and there are strong literacy links to other areas of learning. For example, in the outside construction area, children are provided with large clipboards and paper to plan their designs.
• Staff introduce new vocabulary and concepts, providing clear explanations as to what these words mean. For example, in the pre-school room, children are reminded of the word 'hydrated' and then introduced to a new word 'diameter' when looking at the circles they cut from a cucumber.
• Staff are exceptionally well equipped to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They are given specific training and are involved in meetings with parents and other agencies. Staff ensure that they make adaptations to planning and resources to enable them to be accessible to all.
• Children who are exceeding in some areas of learning are also supported exceptionally well. For example, during a mathematics activity, children were introduced to concepts such as the diameter and circumference of circles and how four quarters make a whole circle when put back together.
• Parents feel confident during the settling-in period and talk about children being keen to attend and arriving happy and eager to learn.
• Children foster high levels of independence from an early age. The youngest children are encouraged to feed themselves independently and learn how to hold a spoon, and the oldest children serve themselves and others at lunch, use a knife and fork and pour their own drinks from a jug.
• Leaders have a clear and comprehensive plan to support staff's ongoing professional development and to ensure that they have a shared pedagogy that is deeply embedded. As a result, outcomes for children are excellent.