Chester Hopscotch

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children of all ages are extremely secure, happy and eager to learn. They flourish in this nurturing and stimulating nursery. Children's enthusiasm for exploration and investigation is infectious. For example, toddlers enjoy a scavenger hunt in the garden as they excitedly look for dragonflies, worms and other insects using magnifying glasses. Pre-school children debate how paper is made. They conduct their own research and attempt to create their own paper. Children are wonderfully inquisitive as they explore their environments with impressive confidence.

Children's individuality is warmly celebrated by the fully inclusive approach of the staff team. For example, staff have taught children key words and phrases in sign language and have sensitively explained how some children are unable to communicate with the spoken word. This means that children are able to communicate with their friends and develop firm relationships. Children learn how they are unique, 'but together they are a masterpiece'. This creates a wonderful sense of belonging and helps to ensure that children have exceptionally elevated levels of self-esteem and self-assurance.

Children's behaviour is exemplary. They relish the responsibility of helping to tidy up and assisting staff. Children show empathy for one another and play harmoniously together. Young children show an impressive understanding of how to share and wait their turn. Children practice breathing activities as they smell flowers and engage in yoga. This has an enormous impact on their ability to regulate their emotions and has a positive influence on their behaviour and readiness to learn.

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

• The nursery's curriculum is highly ambitious and coherent. It effortlessly reflects children's individual needs and interests. Staff are skilled at differentiating activities and ensuring that children are appropriately challenged. All staff have a robust understanding of the overarching curriculum intent and how this is achieved through carefully planned activities and experiences. A bespoke school readiness curriculum ensures that children develop essential skills for future learning.
• Children are deeply engaged in their chosen activities and sustain high levels of concentration. They continuously make links in their learning, building on what they already know and what they remember. For example, children set up a dinosaur tray for their friends to explore. They intuitively move to the book area to fetch familiar stories about dinosaurs to include in their play.
• Staff working with babies are particularly sensitive, kind and nurturing. They have created special 'family boxes' with an array of personal photographs to help children transition and settle into nursery life. Furthermore, they encourage parents to record their voices so that they can play these to children should they become upset or unsettled. This results in children whose emotional needs are well met and who are extremely settled and ready for learning.
• Communication and language have been a relentless focus for staff since the COVID-19 pandemic. Swift identification and dedicated support mean that any gaps in learning have closed rapidly. Staff introduce a wide range of vocabulary during activities and model language consistently. Children who speak English as an additional language are superbly supported through visual timetables and a dedicated library. Parents visit the nursery to read stories to the children in their home languages. This broadens children's awareness of others and the wider world around them.
• Children have marvellous opportunities to learn about their place in society. They engage in activities with the local residential home where they learn respect and how to be kind to others. Clothes swapping initiatives and fundraising activities help children to understand about those less fortunate themselves. Leaders have ambitious plans in place to develop a community allotment with the children. Their vision to provide free produce to local residents in response to the cost of living crisis is inspirational.
• Partnerships with parents are robust and highly successful. Dedicated parent workshops on a wide range of subjects ensure collaborative working that impacts tremendously on outcomes for children. For example, a workshop on developing children's independence skills has resulted in children displaying impressive ability to manage their self-care skills. Parents are consulted at every opportunity. They are delighted with the exemplary care that their children receive.