Chiswick House Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are enthusiastic, kind and caring. Their nurturing approach supports young children to flourish and promotes children's emotional security. Staff warmly greet children on arrival, and parents share key information with them to support the day ahead. Staff know the children in their care well. Children confidently approach them when they need reassurance and comfort, which is regularly offered. This shows that children feel emotionally safe and secure.

Children's behaviour is very good. Staff use everyday opportunities to model and praise children's behaviours. For example, staff support younger children to learn about sharing and turn-taking while they are absorbed in a sensory play activity. This helps children develop their understanding of others and social skills.

All children demonstrate a positive attitude to learning. Staff have high expectations for every child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They have developed a curriculum based on children's interests and what they need to learn next. Staff complete regular assessments on children's learning and development. This enables them to identify any emerging gaps and provide targeted support when needed. Children make good progress from their starting points and demonstrate the skills they need for the future.

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

• Staff provide children with many opportunities to develop their physical skills. Children happily run around the outdoor play space. They delight in creating a pretend vehicle with crates, alongside staff and their friends. Staff foster opportunities to build on children's confidence in taking safe risks. They demonstrate this as they sensitively give children encouragement to balance across equipment.
• Staff have a clear curriculum in place, and overall, plan a broad range of exciting activities that generally engage children well and follow children's interests. For instance, they plan activities based on children's interest in water play. Children develop their concentration as they spend a great length of time exploring spray bottles filled with water. However, at times, the focus of group activities can be broad and not clearly linked to the areas of the curriculum that leaders intend the children to learn next.
• Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. Children follow the routines of the nursery well. For example, older children confidently take turns to serve their lunch. Children demonstrate high levels of respect for others.
• Support for children with SEND and those learning English as an additional language is good. Staff have implemented a range of strategies to support learning, such as communication activities that are shared with parents. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals involved in children's care. This ensures that children swiftly receive support to help close any gaps in their learning.
• Children show perseverance and resilience as they negotiate difficult tasks. For instance, they develop their fine motor skills as they use tweezers to move sensory objects from one bowl to another. Staff encourage children with words of praise. Children show pride in accomplishing what they have set out to do. This helps to build confidence and high self-esteem.
• Leaders support staff well. They have regular individual meetings with staff to review their work. The provider ensures that staff have opportunities to develop their skills and practice. They attend a range of training courses. For instance, staff have attended a course on developing children's communication skills, which has led to better outcomes in this area. Leaders observe staff's practice and provide feedback on the areas requiring further development. However, leaders do not monitor how effectively their coaching is being implemented, which means there are some inconsistencies in staff practice.
• Leaders and staff work remarkably well with parents and these partnerships help children to settle quickly. Staff share children's ongoing progress with parents through an online application and detailed daily verbal feedback. They exchange ideas with parents to support children to continue their learning at home. Parents appreciate the community feel of the nursery, enhanced by organised events, including the recent parents' meetings.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further strengthen the planning of group activities to link more closely with the curriculum intent
• monitor the staff's implementation of policies and procedures to ensure that practice is consistent and supports children to achieve the best possible outcomes.