Chestnut Nursery Schools @the Diamond Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children clearly enjoy their time at this stimulating nursery. They demonstrate that they feel safe as they confidently settle to their favourite activities, supported by interested staff. Children, including those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress with their speaking and listening. They share their views and opinions with staff and visitors, knowing that they will be listened to. For instance, they are keen to describe how they are helping to set up a planting activity. Parents report that they feel that they, and their children, are well supported.

Children demonstrate excellent levels of behaviour. They play cooperatively with their friends. Children use strategies that staff teach them to help them to take turns, such as using a sand timer to judge when it it their turn to play with a favourite toy. When children are still learning how to play together, staff swiftly offer support that teaches children how to manage their disagreements.

Children learn how their food grows as they plant fruit and vegetables. They explore living things as they examine the bug hotels in the well-equipped garden. All children, including those with special education needs and/or disabilities make progress in their learning, as staff plan effectively for their needs.

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

• Leaders and managers focus clearly on supporting children's speaking and listening skills. During a musical activity, young children are encouraged to share their favourite nursery rhymes. Staff and children sing these together. Staff are diligent in ensuring that they sing slowly and clearly and make sure that children are taught the skills necessary to join in. Young children learn that their choices will be respected, and the joy of using their voices to sing as well as speak.
• Staff bring books and stories to life by creating sensory experiences that mirror the stories. For instance, when exploring a book about a bear hunt, they create a sensory activity that provides children the opportunity to act out the adventures in the book. Children are entranced as staff read the story. They laugh gleefully as they pretend to be on their own bear hunt. This helps children gain a love of books and develops their imaginative play.
• Staff naturally introduce mathematical language in their interactions with children. When planting seeds, staff encourage children to consider the quantity of soil that they will need to fill their plant pots. They count the seeds and compare the number of children to the available resources. Children develop mathematical skills that they will need for later learning.
• Staff gather useful information about children's home languages and cultures. They use this information to plan activities that celebrate the diversity in their setting. Key words that children hear in the languages used in their homes are gathered when children first start. These are used to help them settle and feel safe. Children learn that all their languages and cultures are valued, which prepares them for life in modern Britain.
• Leaders and managers are ambitious for the setting. For instance, they conduct regular observations of staff and have recently developed video observations to support staff to reflect on their own practice. They have devised strategies, such as key questions and prompts for learning, that link to planned activities. These help staff understand how to extend children's learning. Staff report feeling well supported and are keen to further develop their teaching skills.
• Staff plan to develop children's independence skills in preparation for school. They teach children to be independent in their self-care, such as putting on their coats and washing their hands. However, sometimes, staff choose to remove items, such as scissors, rather than teach children how to use them safely. They miss some opportunities to teach children skills that they will need at school.
• Although all children make good progress, staff, occasionally, miss opportunities to provide effective support for children's next steps in their learning. Consequently, opportunities to consistently extend children's learning are, sometimes, lost.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide further support for staff to help them recognise the importance of taking every opportunity to fully implement the nursery's curriculum intention to promote children's independence skills
• develop monitoring and evaluation further, so that leaders and managers precisely identify all areas for improvement and implement strategies that ensure that teaching is consistently of the highest quality.