Castle Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a warm and welcoming nursery for children. Leaders place an emphasis on supporting all children's well-being and ensuring they feel safe and ready to learn. For example, they have created a holiday board where children can bring in magnets from their trips away. This helps children to feel excited, rather than anxious, to return to nursery after a break away, as they look forward to sharing a memento of their trip.

Staff are enthusiastic in their interactions with children and plan exciting experiences to enhance their learning. For example, older children learn about the life cycle of butterflies by looking after caterpillars and show great excitement as they watch the butterflies being released from their net. Staff support children in the toddler room to develop a love of books and reading. Children share stories, and staff allow time for them to talk about what they can see. Babies enjoy a lot of sensory play and lovely attention from the staff who look after them. Staff take great care to settle in babies who are new to the setting and support their individual needs with genuine care and affection.

Children across the nursery form strong connections with their key person, which enhances their well-being and sense of security. Their behaviour is good and they respond positively to staff and follow instructions.

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

• Leaders are passionate about supporting children to experience the wider world and understand the community they live in. Staff take children to the farmers' market and the theatre. They offer many extra-curricular sessions with external teachers, such as dancing and music sessions. Older children experience weekly forest school sessions and staff get children involved in community events, such as the pancake race in town.
• Leaders provide strong support to staff and regularly monitor their practice. Staff comment on their positive well-being and demonstrate a commitment to continuously improving their knowledge and understanding of how children learn. Leaders organise a good network of support from their sister settings to ensure children are continuously well cared for.
• Staff implement respectful care routines that positively contribute to children's emotional well-being. For example, when changing nappies or wiping faces, staff get down to the children's level and talk to them about what they need to do and gain their permission.
• Staff know the children well and plan learning experiences that are based around their interests. Children's next steps in learning are identified, but they are not always effectively considered when staff think about the intent of the activities they plan. At times, the planned learning intention is too broad and focuses on too many new skills at one time. This means that children are not consistently provided with targeted support to really embed and practise the intended skills staff want them to learn.
• The management team places a priority on supporting older children to become ready for school. In the summer, staff introduce 'Joyful July', where children take part in a number of activities, such as bringing in a packed lunch, learning to open packets, changing clothes and learning about road and internet safety. This supports children to be confident and ready for their next stage in education.
• Overall, the quality of teaching is good and children are making progress in their learning. There are times, however, when activities are either too advanced or not challenging enough. For example, staff working with pre-school children engage them in complex conversations, which challenge the older children, but younger children do not understand and lose interest.
• Children enjoy plenty of opportunities to play outside and develop their physical skills. Children benefit from healthy meals and snacks that are interesting and varied. For instance, children enjoy poppadoms and chutney for snack and at lunch. They sometimes have a starter instead of a dessert.
• Children behave towards each other with kindness and enjoy playing together. Staff support children to become independent as they are encouraged to clean their own hands and faces and go to the bathroom on their own. Children are helpful as they help staff to clean the tables ready for the next activity.
• Leaders and staff collaborate with parents to create strong partnerships. Staff regularly give parents ideas about how to further their child's learning at home. Parents comment positively on the sense of community, the nurturing and caring staff and the thought and attention that goes into each child.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve activity planning so that staff focus more precisely on the intent for individual children's next steps in learning, to offer all children more targeted support
• provide further support for staff to develop their interactions with children, to help them recognise when to simplify their exchanges with younger children and when to provide more challenge for older and more able children.