Castle Tots

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show that they are extremely happy, safe and secure. They enjoy their time at the nursery and are given high levels of encouragement and support from the dedicated staff team. The manager and staff have high expectations for children's learning and development. They plan a rich array of fun and challenging activities. Children are consistently engaged in purposeful play, and show high levels of curiosity. They behave extremely well. Children show a clear understanding of expectations, and staff offer continuous praise and encouragement.

Babies enjoy a range of tactile experiences through messy play. They investigate eagerly as they explore sand, foam and play dough. Older children have fun exploring a wide range of outdoor learning resources. They learn to stay safe while taking managed risks. For example, they develop their physical skills as they learn to manoeuvre bicycles, build large structures, and use small trowels to dig in the mud kitchen.

Staff sustain children's interest through positive interactions. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language are well supported. Staff provide parents with lots of information to help continue children's learning at home. They have adapted well to the challenges faced due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, to ensure that all children are supported and continue to make good progress.

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

• Staff are positive role models. Children behave extremely well. From a young age, they interact with their peers with kindness and tolerance. Staff provide a very calm, reassuring approach and are highly skilled at helping children understand and manage their emotions exceptionally well.
• Staff provide good support for children's communication and language development. Throughout the nursery, staff share stories and sing songs and rhymes to children. They include props imaginatively to re-enact stories and encourage children to join in. However, when staff ask children questions, they do not always give children enough time to process and respond to the question, before asking the next question.
• Staff focus heavily on ensuring that children's social and emotional development is embedded. They encourage children to talk about their emotions and feelings. For example, they discuss how various colours relate to emotions, such as 'happy', 'sad' and 'upset'. Children explore what these emotions might look like and what they could do to help them feel 'green' for happy.
• Independence skills are nurtured at this setting. Children access the indoor and free-flow outdoor areas with confidence. However, staff do not consistently make the most of opportunities during everyday activities to help develop children's independence skills further, for example during mealtimes.
• Children show delight in playing outdoors. They explore nature as they search for living things using magnifying glasses, and water the vegetables they are growing. Children enjoy going on nature walks to the nearby woods and learn how to stay safe as they build dens in the woodland.
• Staff's warm and supportive relationships with children are a strength of the setting. Younger and less confident children benefit from the strong bonds they build with staff and their key worker. Despite the challenges faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new children and those transitioning to the next room settle in with ease.
• Staff plan many activities that support children to learn about healthy eating. Children learn how to grow and care for vegetables in the outdoor space, and explore real fruit and vegetables in the home corner, increasing their understanding of healthy eating and the natural environment. The nursery is taking part in the Healthy Early Years London Award. Children benefit from freshly cooked meals which are provided by the school chef.
• The manager is determined to drive continuous improvement and provide children with a warm, caring and nurturing environment, with a well-planned curriculum that meets children's needs. Children display exemplary behaviour and make significant progress in their learning.
• Parent partnerships are a strength at this nursery. Parents report being extremely happy with the service the nursery provides. They get daily updates on their child's learning and development through the online system and regular parents' evenings. Staff place a high priority on supporting the ways learning is extended at home. This is implemented in a variety of ways, including home-learning activities and the lending library.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• use every opportunity to promote independence skills for children
• develop staff's knowledge of speaking and listening strategies to enable them to better support children's vocabulary.