Churchfield Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive full of enthusiasm to start exploring. The excellent environment ignites their curiosity and motivates their eagerness to want to become independent learners. Staff skilfully inspire, nurture and guide children during activities, expertly extending and challenging their development. Children are keen to join the whole-group activities, where they engage fully and concentrate extremely well. For example, they listen intently to the story of the week and excitedly join in with familiar words and phrases.

Children have excellent opportunities to make links across their learning, enabling them to embed and consolidate new skills and language. For example, staff use resources to give context to the meaning of 'chilly'. Then young children use this as they play with ice and warm water, discovering how it feels and the impact they have on each other, later using the word again in their role play.

Parents no longer enter the nursery as they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they confirm the high-quality support they receive and the extensive information they share, to help promote their children's learning at home and nursery. Parents particularly mention the approachable, knowledgeable staff knowing their children extremely well.

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

• The managers' ambitious curriculum intent is implemented extremely well by staff and embedded securely. All interactions with children are of a high quality. The staff have an excellent awareness of how children learn and provide exciting activities, motivating children's thirst for knowledge. For example, after having a story about a bear hunt, they revisit this in their play. Older toddlers recall and use the vocabulary, and staff skilfully help them to extend their ideas, discuss emotions and learn about prepositions. Even babies have the appropriate vocabulary reinforced as they climb under, over and through an obstacle.
• Staff have an excellent understanding of how to sequence children's learning. They know the skills children need from being babies to prepare them extremely well for their next stages of learning and school. For example, older toddlers confidently hold up the correct number of fingers as they sing number songs. The younger children copy and soon understand the concept of one, two, three. Staff are excellent role models for thinking, listening and problem-solving. They use their meticulous observations to quickly pick up on where children may need additional help, ensuring they receive the expert support available.
• Children's behaviour is exemplary. They are given consistent boundaries, while having excellent choices, with a very strong emphasis on respecting all living things. Through new initiatives and training, staff provide expert support for children to learn to manage their emotions. For example, staff acknowledge children's feelings and ask how they can help. Children use visual aids to help them explain what they need and to help others to understand how they may be feeling. Staff show children high levels of respect, treat them with kindness and value their opinions.
• Children receive rich experiences. They have healthy meals, care for their teeth, and have opportunities to rest or be active indoors and outdoors. Staff recognise each child as an individual, and staff caring for babies seek extensive information on their care needs and routines, so babies feel extremely secure. When the time comes for them to move to the two-year-old room, this is carried out very sensitively, led by the children. This enables them to become extremely confident and ensures transitions are seamless.
• Members of the strong senior management team value and empower their enthusiastic staff. For example, having seen the amazing impact of their training to support children's emotional development, they have had them disseminate their expertise to the school teaching staff. There is now a whole-school approach, providing children with highly consistent support. Leaders are excellent role models. They monitor and evaluate the provision very successfully and have a clear vision of the high-quality planning and teaching they want to provide.
• Members of the senior management team focus strongly on staff well-being, recognising the positive impact this has on children. They understand the importance of early years education to build firm foundations for life-long learning. They very effectively engage with their community and understand families' needs to ensure every child has the same outstanding opportunities. For example, they put on behaviour management workshops and invite parents to share forest school activities with their children.