Clive Vale Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and their families are warmly greeted at this happy and friendly setting. Children are met by familiar staff and are eager to play with their friends and explore the activities on offer. Children settle well. Staff promote children's independence. Children wash their own hands and set up for snack. Staff promote children's thinking skills well. For example, they support children to consider how they can make the train track bigger. This encourages children's problem-solving skills. Staff encourage children to keep themselves safe. For example, children know that they should wear warm clothes when playing outside in the cold. They remind each other to put on their coats. This helps promote children's self-care skills.

Staff ensure children have access to a wide range of opportunities to develop their learning. For example, older children spend a long time playing in the role-play café, choosing items from the menu and talking about how much they cost. Younger children count out their snacks. This supports children's mathematical knowledge effectively. Staff promote children's positive attitudes to learning. They encourage and praise children. When babies say words for the first time, staff delight in celebrating with them. This encourages their self-esteem. Children behave well. Younger children share their toys with their friends, encouraging them to play. Older children help tidy up. This develops their confidence well.

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

• Staff successfully target gaps in children's learning. They develop the learning environments to support key skills. Children enjoy listening to stories with staff, snuggling up on the sofas. Younger children spontaneously sing favourite rhymes. This encourages children's vocabulary and supports a love of reading.
• Babies benefit from being cared for by staff who are attentive and interested in them. They are cuddled and comforted by staff who know them well. Staff display family photos to help babies settle. Babies enjoy exploring their lunches with staff who are kind and caring in their approach. This helps babies to feel secure and content.
• Staff support children to communicate using signs and picture cards. However, some staff have a slightly less secure understanding of the precise needs of individual children than others. This particularly relates to children who speak English as an additional language. Some staff do not know all of the languages that children speak and hear at home. This does not support them to use this information when building on children's interests and extending their play. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported.
• Staff plan interesting and motivating activities that are tailored to meet children's needs. They are well trained to help children make good progress. Overall, planning is effective. However, some aspects of the daily routine are not fully effective. This is particularly the case around mealtimes, when staff are completing domestic tasks and children are not as engaged as they could be. This impacts on their behaviour at these times.
• Leaders and managers ensure effective partnerships with external agencies. They proactively seek advice from the local authority to support staff's knowledge and skills. They use funding effectively to develop the outside environment, investing in new play equipment to support children's physical skills.
• Communication with parents is good. Staff provide information to help parents support their children's learning at home. For example, staff support parents with their children's behaviour and toilet training. Parents appreciate staff's focus on their children's well-being. Partnerships with parents are effective. Children have made progress in their confidence, language and counting skills. Parents talk highly of the staff.
• Staff are well supported in their roles. They take on additional training to support families. For example, staff take on additional courses, such as in adult mental health, to enhance their knowledge and understanding. Staff appreciate the regular supervision and staff meeting opportunities they have. They appreciate leaders' and managers' focus on their well-being. They enjoy their jobs.
• Staff promote children's wider experiences. Children benefit from wildlife visits, where they learn about caring for animals and recycling. This supports children's understanding and knowledge of the wider world. Staff have plans for the future to continue to support children's understanding. For example, they have plans to further develop links with the local library to support children's literacy skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the arrangements to share precise details of the languages that children speak and hear at home with staff to enrich their interactions
• review and improve daily routines to minimise disruption to children's learning, particularly during lunch times.