Buckingham Primary Nursery

Inclusion: Strong standard

Right from the start, leaders and staff make assessments that quickly identify any delay in children's development. This helps to ensure that staff have a thorough understanding of children's individual needs from the moment they start at the setting. Consequently, all children feel secure, included and able to progress from their individual starting points. Leaders and staff work closely with families to ensure that emerging concerns are identified swiftly. Children's progress and support are monitored by leaders and staff frequently. This ensures that routines and strategies can be altered to suit a child's emerging needs. Leaders ensure decisions about additional funding, including for disadvantaged children, are focused on what individual children need. For example, visual aids and sensory resources have been purchased to support children's language skills, confidence and emotional wellbeing.

Leaders and staff have access to training to further extend their knowledge and expertise to best support children with gaps in their learning and development. They proactively seek specialist support for children when it is needed. Staff work very closely with specialist early years professionals, which enables them to adapt the provision precisely to meet children's individual needs so that they are included in all aspects of life in the nursery.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Inspirational and knowledgeable leaders have developed a well-organised and high-quality curriculum, which is tailored to meet each child's learning needs. This includes children who face barriers to their learning. Staff place a high priority on planning and implementing exciting and motivating experiences that successfully embed core skills, including children's personal, social and emotional understanding. They monitor children's progress effectively using assessment to identify their next steps.

Staff know the children remarkably well and are skilled in knowing how to challenge and extend children's learning even further. For example, as children explore natural objects on a tray, they are delighted to find a ladybird on a leaf. Staff encourage children to describe it as it crawls on their hands. Children enthusiastically answer questions and contribute to discussions. They thrive on rich experiences that help them to learn about the world around them. Communication and language is a strong feature of the curriculum. Babies are encouraged to respond to the calm, familiar voices of staff, using gestures and babbling sounds. Staff successfully talk to children as they play, showing interest and extending their language. For example, as children make play dough hedgehogs, they talk about the 'prickly spines' and introduce mathematical language. Staff frequently share story books and sing rhymes with children to further support their language development.

Achievement: Strong standard

Children make rapid progress across all areas of the curriculum. Experienced staff skilfully plan learning that meets individual needs. All children, including those who face barriers to their learning, become immersed in their play and show high levels of engagement. This ensures that children leave the nursery confident, articulate and well prepared for the next stage of their education.

Children access a wide range of learning opportunities. For example, they explore numbers and shapes and consider how fast cars can move down a slope. Staff throughout the nursery regularly incorporate counting sequences as children play. They sing counting songs with gusto and demonstrate how they can count to 10 on their fingers. Children understand that what they have to say is valued by staff. As a result, children are confident and articulate when speaking in a variety of situations. For example, staff encourage children to discuss their ideas and share their thoughts as they listen to stories and look at books.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Children demonstrate exemplary behaviour throughout the nursery. This is because staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. Children who need extra help benefit from skilled staff, who support them to manage their emotions and develop their social skills and behaviour. Children eagerly play together, share toys and speak kindly to each other. Staff model positive language and celebrate children's achievements. Children are happy, settled and keen to attend, which reflects their strong emotional security and positive relationships with staff.

Leaders and staff maintain highly successful partnerships with parents to ensure they meet children's needs consistently. Parents value the strong relationships with staff, together with the personalised support each child receives. Older children learn to talk about disagreements and play together without the need for adult intervention. They have a clear understanding of the rules and boundaries. Babies and toddlers have daily opportunities to play together and form close emotional bonds with staff. As a result, children feel secure within the familiar and well-established routines of the nursery.

Leaders and staff collaborate effectively with parents to promote children's attendance. They communicate the value of consistent attendance on children's learning and progress. This has a positive impact and helps prepare them for when they start school.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders and staff consistently ensure that every child feels safe, secure and valued at the nursery. Supportive settling-in procedures, including home visits, successfully help leaders and staff to build strong partnerships with parents and carers. A well-established key-person system supports children to form secure attachments in addition to promoting their wellbeing and independence.

Children confidently follow consistent daily routines. During mealtimes and as children prepare to go outside, staff gently make expectations clear. These routines add significantly to children's feelings of security and confidence. All children demonstrate increasing independence, selecting resources and activities for themselves and completing requested tasks. Staff engage extremely successfully with parents to help children understand and benefit from healthy eating habits. Leaders ensure children's allergies and dietary preferences are managed well by all staff. Staff understand the importance of careful feeding routines and weaning to ensure babies' individual needs are met. Staff enable children to understand their feelings and emotions, such as by using emotional support dolls and 'cosy nooks'. Children particularly enjoy frequent opportunities for physical and outdoor play. They thoroughly enjoy using ride-on toys, learning to navigate space safely, climbing and practising their balance.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

A change in the leadership team has had a positive impact on the management of the nursery. The team has a secure understanding of the setting's strengths and a clear vision for future improvements. For example, leaders have introduced a new speech and language programme, which has already had a positive impact on children's language development. Leaders have high aspirations for all staff. They work diligently with the staff team, enabling them to reflect on their own practice and share new knowledge and skills. Staff receive an abundance of professional development opportunities, which supports staff to implement excellent practice. For instance, staff use updated skills to enhance opportunities for outside play. Leaders ensure that staff have tailored supervision that effectively provides them with regular coaching and mentoring. Staff feel extremely well supported and valued.

Staff observe and assess children's progress extremely well. They show a comprehensive knowledge of children's individual learning and development needs. The support for all children, including those with special educational needs or disabilities, is highly effective. The staff are very proactive in identifying children who need additional help. Collaborating with families and professionals, they aim for all children to have the same opportunities. Parents share extremely positive views regarding the care and education their children receive.