Broomhall Under 3s Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children eagerly enter the nursery after finding their pegs and hanging up their coats. They receive a warm greeting from the passionate, friendly and nurturing staff team. Children form strong attachments with staff. This helps children to feel safe, settle quickly and play happily. Staff continually praise children's achievements, much to children's delight. This increases children's confidence, self-esteem and helps them to develop a positive approach to learning new things.

Staff help children to develop important social skills through their excellent role modelling. Children build early friendships as they eat their healthy snack in small groups and dig alongside one another in the large outdoor sandpit, kindly sharing resources. Staff positively help children to understand boundaries. Children demonstrate excellent behaviour, especially given their young age. Staff respect and celebrate the cultural diversity of the families who attend, helping everyone to feel valued and respected.

Staff help children to develop their early independence. For example, they encourage children to manage age-appropriate tasks during daily routines, such as putting on their coats to play outside. Staff provide a wide range of fun and engaging activities for children aged two years and over, in particular. All children progress well and develop fundamental skills that prepare them for moving downstairs to the nursery school when they are three years old.

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

• Staff take full account of, and build on, children's knowledge and experiences on entry and diligently monitor their progress. They take swift action to help children presenting with a developmental delay on entry, or thereafter, to catch up. This includes aspects of children's development affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Staff use a wide range of strategies to support children with a speech delay or where communication barriers exist. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. Staff ensure that funded early education has a very positive impact on outcomes for children.
• Babies and toddlers make good progress and are happy and settled. However, staff do not plan activities and the environment in the baby room and outdoors to the highest level. This means that provision is not always stimulating and varied enough for this age group's particular stage of learning and interests.
• Overall, staff's qualifications and further training is reflected in their good-quality interactions as they model play and extend children's learning. For example, they show toddlers how cause and effect toys work and talk about the autumnal items children find.
• Staff sing songs spontaneously and read stories engagingly, which helps to support children's early communication. They mirror babies' attempts to communicate and help toddlers to link words to actions. Staff introduce descriptive words as children investigate tactile media, such as pumpkins and dough.
• The management team's organisation of staff and routines is not always highly effective. For example, when young toddlers mix with older children, staff do not fully consider their individual needs and support required. In addition, the baby room leader is unable to fulfil her role to the highest level as she works across the different nursery rooms due to how the key-person system is arranged.
• Children develop good physical skills. For example, babies build strength in their legs with support from staff and toddlers practise their climbing skills. Children confidently whizz around on wheeled toys and use utensils in the sand.
• Children learn about the world around them in many wonderful ways. For example, they delight in looking for insects in their allotment area and experience springtime events, such as observing chicks hatching out of eggs in the incubator.
• Staff work in close consultation with parents to emotionally support new children. They also plan children's move on to nursery school exceptionally well, to support their continued sense of security.
• Staff share regular progress summaries and plan parents' evenings and events, such as World Book Day and the half termly Saturday specials. They also share activity ideas, songs and stories via newsletters and social media. This helps staff and parents to support children's learning together.
• The provider has failed to notify Ofsted of the appointment of a new director, which is a breach of statutory requirements. However, the provider makes sure that all directors are subject to the same recruitment and vetting procedures as the nursery's staff, to determine their suitability. There is no significant impact on children as the directors do not work directly with children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• plan and adapt the environment and activities more effectively to support the individual learning needs and interests of children aged under two years
• strengthen the key-person system and daily routines, to provide greater continuity in care and learning for children aged under two years.