CCN Acol Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff place a clear emphasis on building strong relationships with families and children from the start at this nursery. The plan settling-in sessions which demonstrate a commitment to understanding children and help to ease their transitions. Staff recognise the importance of children feeling emotionally secure as a foundation for their successful play and learning. The well-established key-person system helps all children to form strong and secure attachments with the caring staff. This approach promotes children's emotional well-being and enables staff to plan individual learning opportunities.

Staff place an emphasis on children's language development. They provide children with a sense of being valued, safe and supported as they grow and learn. They build positive relationships with parents and carers and provide detailed information about the curriculum and children's learning. For example, parents receive regular newsletters about children's learning across the nursery. This guide details the intended learning outcomes for each room and how parents can support their children's learning at home.

Staff ensure that all children have ample opportunities to play outdoors and to be physically active. They encourage children's physical activity. Babies learn to develop their physical skills, such as when they climb soft blocks and negotiate small steps. Older children navigate space as they ride bicycles around the garden area and join in music and movement sessions in the garden. Children develop their gross motor and balancing skills well.

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

• Leaders are enthusiastic and clear about what they want children to learn and why. The ambitious curriculum is well thought out and supports children across all the areas of learning. Leaders and managers evaluate the quality of education to consider where improvements can be made.
• Staff create individualised learning plans based on each child's unique interests and needs. They repeat activities over time within children's spontaneous play and choices to reinforce concepts and support their learning. Children make good progress. The curriculum is well planned to provide children with numerous opportunities to develop their creativity and learn new skills.
• Children of all ages enjoy participating in song, rhyme and story sessions with staff. Staff engage in conversations and are attentive to what children tell them. They encourage children to share their experiences with their families and recall past experiences. However, although staff ask children questions, they do not consistently allow children time to think about what has been asked and respond before asking them something else.
• Staff support children to develop mathematical concepts, such as by encouraging them to count and find shapes to compare their size. For example, children eagerly discuss how their fruit is now 'half' when they cut it and count how many pieces they have for the fruit salad.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff work closely with parents to meet children's individual needs. Parents feel well informed about their child's learning and receive ideas of how they can support their child's learning at home. For example, staff send regular reports home to show the progress children make. Parents are happy with the consistent staff team, commenting this helps children with settling and transitioning between rooms around the nursery.
• Staff feel they are well supported by leaders. They value the regular supervision they receive and feel their voices are heard. Staff benefit from lots of training opportunities. For example, regular inset day training helps staff to refresh their knowledge, as well as gaining more knowledge and skills to enhance their teaching further. Leaders support staff to gain childcare qualifications to develop their career. This ensures that staff continually improve their teaching to help improve outcomes for children.
• Staff teach children about healthy choices and lifestyles, including the nutritional benefits of food. Children develop strong self-help skills and independence. For example, babies feed themselves and older children serve themselves.
• Overall, staff are deployed well. Children engage in adult-led activities and activities of their own choosing. However, on occasion, particularly during activities in the garden, many staff focus on small groups of children rather than looking to see where their interactions would make the most impact. This means that, at these times, they do not consistently meet children's learning needs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to enhance the curriculum for communication and language even further, such as by giving children more time to form their thoughts and ideas when asking questions
• review staffing arrangements to ensure that children always benefit from consistently high-quality practice.