Cedar Grove Day Nursery

Inclusion: Needs attention

The curriculum, teaching and the environment for learning are not consistently effective in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or reducing barriers to children's learning. The quality of staff's teaching and interactions are variable. Staff often remain supervisory, rather than extending children's thinking or building their vocabulary. The curriculum is not sufficiently structured or adapted to ensure that next steps for all children are sharply focused on their individual progress. This limits the opportunities for children's learning, especially those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and they do not make sufficient progress across the curriculum.

Leaders can explain the weaknesses in provision and in the support for children who face barriers to their learning. They have not yet provided staff with the training needed to identify children's individual needs or to put appropriate strategies in place. The absence of a member of staff to act as a special educational needs coordinator hampers support further.

The team works in partnership with parents and carers. They provide regular updates about their child's progress and sharing ideas for home learning. Children who speak English as an additional language are supported by staff, who share their home languages. For instance, staff read to children and then repeat the language in English. This helps children to understand the meaning and gradually build their English vocabulary.

Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention

Improvements are needed to ensure that the curriculum is steadily implemented and that teaching effectively builds on what children know and can do. Staff do not follow children's planned next steps in learning through in practice. This means that children's learning is often incidental rather than intentionally sequenced. As a result, children do not consistently receive purposeful and meaningful experiences that help them deepen their learning. In addition, staff's understanding of child development is not yet secure. This means that activities do not always match children's individual needs or stages of development.

The nursery provides a safe and welcoming environment. Children are able to move freely, play and develop their physical skills. The indoor and outdoor areas offer appropriate opportunities for children to build their physical development, particularly their gross motor skills. While there are opportunities for learning in other areas, these are not yet consistently embedded across the provision.

Leaders have identified some of these weaknesses and are beginning to take action to improve the quality of education and teaching across the setting. However, children are not yet consistently benefiting from regular, well-planned and meaningful learning experiences across all areas of provision. Opportunities to develop early mathematics and early literacy are not securely embedded through play-based and adult-directed experiences, which limits the progress children make in these key areas.

Achievement: Needs attention

Children do not consistently achieve as well as they can due to improvements needed. While children develop at different rates, experiences and opportunities are not adapted to meet their individual needs. Variations in the learning environment and the availability of resources are not always sufficient to fully extend children's learning. For example, role-play areas, home corner experiences and access to age-appropriate books and resources, particularly for older children, do not maximise children's learning or support school readiness. Despite these weaknesses, children do make progress across areas of learning from their starting points.

Children are developing confidence and are increasingly willing to engage with others, including their peers. Many children demonstrate growing social and communication skills over time. Children have access to an environment that is being improved to better support their development and readiness for school. However, these improvements are not yet consistently reflected in their everyday experiences. As a result, children do not consistently benefit from learning opportunities that are closely matched to their individual needs, which slows the progress they make over time.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Needs attention

Improvements are needed to ensure that expectations for behaviour, attitudes and routines are consistently implemented to support children's engagement, independence and emotional development. Daily routines are not yet used effectively to maximise children's learning opportunities. Transitions between activities lack clarity and structure. As a result, some children, particularly those new to the setting, do not receive consistent support to understand what is happening or what is expected of them. Strategies such as visual timetables and clear, consistent prompts are not yet embedded. In addition, approaches to supporting children's emotional development are at an early stage and require further development to be effective.

Children are generally happy, settled and play collaboratively with one another. They enjoy interacting with their peers. Opportunities for younger and older children to mix support their positive social development. Positive relationships with staff contribute to children feeling secure within the environment. There is an established daily structure, and clear expectations for behaviour and attitudes have been identified. However, these are not yet fully embedded or consistently applied in practice. For example, group times include some discussion about feelings, but this remains at a surface level and does not meaningfully support children to develop their understanding of emotions or strategies to regulate their feelings. Leaders have started to develop approaches to behaviour and routines. However, these are at an early stage and it is too soon to see sustained impact on children's outcomes, to ensure consistency, clarity and effectiveness across the setting.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Staff encourage children to develop their independence. For example, they support them to manage their personal needs. However, this practice has not been strengthened to extend children's learning opportunities. For instance, during mealtimes, staff do not consistently extend conversations to promote children's understanding of healthy eating and making positive choices. Meals provided are nutritious and contribute effectively to children's health and wellbeing. Parents speak highly of the support they receive, particularly in relation to toilet training.

Leaders demonstrate an awareness of areas for development and recognise opportunities to further strengthen practice. For example, they plan to support staff to adopt more sensitive and consistent approaches to children's settling-in experiences, to help to ensure smoother transitions for all children.

The nursery provides a warm, welcoming and safe environment, where children feel secure, valued and confident to explore. Staff organise spaces to support children's play, learning and social opportunities, both indoors and outdoors. Children benefit from daily access to outdoor play, which positively supports their physical development and overall wellbeing. The playrooms are spacious, well lit and well ventilated, creating a comfortable and healthy environment. They are safely and thoughtfully arranged. This enables children to move around freely and engage in activities with confidence and independence.

Staff are kind, polite and responsive in their interactions. They build trusting relationships with children and their families, which helps to support secure attachments. As a result, children arrive happily and most settle quickly into the setting. The emotional environment is calm and nurturing, supporting children to feel safe and emotionally secure.

Leadership and governance: Needs attention

Leadership and governance require further development. Systems for improvement are not yet fully effective, as they do not consistently address the root causes of identified weaknesses. For example, leaders are still in the process of developing a clear and well-sequenced curriculum to ensure that children's learning builds progressively over time, rather than occurring incidentally. This includes providing further support and training for staff to adopt consistent teaching approaches that enable all children to make progress. In addition, leaders do not yet ensure that daily routines and transitions consistently promote children's independence and confidence in managing their own needs, limiting opportunities to support children's personal development. The setting is newly established. Leaders have clear ambitions and high expectations for all children and are committed to providing high-quality care and meaningful learning experiences. However, these aims are not yet securely embedded in practice.

Leaders have developed positive relationships with parents and carers. Parents report that they feel engaged and well supported, which contributes positively to children's wellbeing, care and early learning. Leaders demonstrate an understanding of their roles and responsibilities and have an appropriate awareness of the nursery's strengths, as well as the areas requiring further development.

Leaders show a commitment to improvement and have a clear vision for the future. They recognise the need to strengthen monitoring and professional development systems to secure consistently high-quality education and care, with a sharper focus on embedding consistent practice across the provision.