Building Blocks Nurseries

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff provide a nurturing environment where all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, can develop confidence, resilience and self-belief. To help close gaps in children's learning, leaders and staff work directly with parents to put the right support in place so all children can progress.

A clear step-by-step process for understanding and supporting each child's development is established. This is used to address children's needs, and leaders provide ongoing support to staff to enhance their understanding of its use and the difference it makes. While practitioners recognise the importance of identifying and responding to barriers to children's learning and/or wellbeing, the consistency of this work is still developing.

Leaders review evidence about children's progress to make informed decisions on the use of additional funding, ensuring that support is purposeful. Leaders respond to recommendations from external agencies and follow these in practice to support children's targets.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders provide a clear overview of the curriculum, explaining how it is planned, sequenced and adapted to meet the needs of children within each room through the key person and the team of staff. Next steps for each child are known by staff and updated regularly.

Staff understand the curriculum intent, and practitioners have a secure understanding of child development. An understanding of how interactions can drive teaching and learning is taking shape among practitioners, although this remains an area for continued development.

Staff model language effectively through their interactions with children. For example, staff describe the toy dinosaurs with the pre-school children and talk about how they are different from each other. Mathematical learning is embedded through daily routines. Toddlers talk about who has 'more' or 'less' soap when washing their hands. These opportunities help children develop confidence in using mathematical language.

Leaders have a structural plan for the outdoor area, which has started with the development of the outdoor area for babies. This is having a positive impact on babies' physical strength and learning how to move around objects. The outdoor learning for toddlers and pre-school children, however, does not sufficiently meet their developmental levels and extend children's physical abilities.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children make encouraging progress across the areas of learning. They respond well to planned activities, showing curiosity and persistence. Their communication and language skills are being applied confidently in routines and familiar play situations, as they ask staff for help in what they are doing or point to an object they would like to hold.

Children's individual starting points and specific needs on arrival are recognised, and they make progress against their next steps, allowing their achievements to be celebrated. Children move between rooms with growing confidence, showing they can manage familiar routines and continue building on what they know and can do.

Children are learning to value and celebrate differences, understanding that everyone is unique and important. They show growing empathy and kindness towards others, for example by including friends who may have different needs in their play, waiting patiently for others to join in and offering help when someone is finding a task difficult. These everyday interactions help them build positive relationships and develop important social and emotional skills.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Children demonstrate respect and care for others, showing the impact of the setting's approach to social and emotional development. Practitioners use positive encouragement to help children develop their social skills. For example, staff guide children to take turns and use kind words, praising them when they share and negotiate. However, consistency across the setting is still developing, with some children not always receiving the support they need to manage their behaviour.

Children of all ages feel secure in the setting and are seen moving from one room to the next with confidence as the routines are consistent and well established. For example, during morning circle time, each child is greeted individually by name and all staff sit with the children, joining in with the welcome song.

Leaders demonstrate well how they value the importance of attendance and how attending regularly benefits each child's developmental progress. Leaders have clear procedures in place with all parents for informing them of a child's absence.

Children are developing positive attitudes to learning and the skills to maintain attention on tasks. Practitioners support children to develop independence and self-care skills effectively, such as encouraging children to self-register when they arrive.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders place children's welfare and wellbeing at the centre of their work, ensuring that policies and procedures are rigorously reviewed and refined. This supports sustained practice across all rooms. For example, the shared approach by all practitioners to snack time helps children develop independence in a familiar and predictable way.

Practitioners consistently ensure that every child feels safe, valued and supported. For example, if children become upset at separation, a familiar member of staff kneels at their level, offers reassurance and engages them in play until they feel more settled. Children demonstrate positive attachments to staff during group activities. Staff respond sensitively to individual needs, including any challenges a child may face, therefore reinforcing a child's sense of belonging.

Parents have expressed full confidence in their child's key person, noting that they understand their child's routines, preferences and needs. Staff work closely with them to support their child, such as helping with weaning or toileting and managing the use of screen time.

Children actively make healthy choices and decisions for themselves, building positive habits for the future, and this is clearly embedded in the routines across all rooms. During activities such as dance, they talk about why movement is important for keeping their bodies and hearts healthy.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders work together to uphold a clear shared vision across the setting, ensuring that staff understand and embed this in their daily practice. Through guidance, discussion and support, staff have developed their confidence and skills in ensuring that interventions are increasingly effective in supporting children's learning, development and wellbeing.

Leaders monitor all children's outcomes, taking action to address areas for improvement, and work with external agencies to inform individual strategies where needed. Practitioners are developing their understanding of the wider support available for children with additional needs, which will strengthen the effectiveness of provision.

Leaders provide effective supervision sessions, which provide opportunities for staff to reflect on their practice and adapt to meet children's needs. Staff report that leaders actively support their work-life balance, valuing flexibility and fostering open discussions.

Staff are supported through regular professional development, which maintains practice and contributes to improvements. Leaders provide training opportunities for staff, which helps to improve practice and ensure that children receive appropriate support within the setting.

Leaders foster positive relationships with all parents, maintaining open channels of communication. Parents engage in their children's learning and development through activities such as home learning packs and a book-lending library, which encourages learning beyond the setting. The transition to feeder schools is developing well as the skills for children's next stage of learning are addressed through ongoing communication with teachers and becoming embedded in the curriculum offered.