Codsall Community Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The setting is open plan and on one level. This enables staff and children to get to know each other well, building safe and secure relationships. Children of differing ages have opportunities to play and learn together. This strengthens their developing skills alongside their peers who are working at a different ability level. For example, those children who can articulate words well model how to communicate their ideas, thoughts and needs. This helps to improve others' communication skills.

Staff model positive behaviours, such as encouraging children to take turns as they play. They use good manners and politeness. Children benefit from staff who genuinely care about them. For example, there is a separate sleep room for babies away from the hustle and bustle of the main room where they contently drift off to sleep as staff softly stroke their face. When children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) need a cuddle, their key person holds them close, gently rubbing their back to soothe them. This promotes their ongoing happiness and well-being.

Children show good levels of independence for their age. For instance, babies begin to explore self-care routines as staff encourage them to clean their own face with a flannel. Older children select their own cutlery and serve their own food. They initiate further responsibilities for themselves, such as sweeping the floor after activities.

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

• The enthusiastic and knowledgeable manager demonstrates a clear intent for all children's learning to prepare them for school, including those with SEND. This is relayed to staff in various ways to strengthen the setting's values and promote a sequenced curriculum. For instance, regular meetings and supervisions provide staff with opportunities to discuss practice. The manager uses a rating scale to monitor staff's professional growth and identify how to best support them going forward.
• Staff have recently undertaken 'see me not my behaviour' and 'brilliant boys' training in response to the high number of boys who need support to manage their own behaviour. At times, children do not listen or respond positively to staff's instructions and requests, and although staff do explain their expectations, they do not consistently help children to follow them. Consequently, some children's actions negatively impact others around them.
• Children learn some good hygiene routines. For example, they wash their hands before eating and after using the toilet. However, at times, staff do not respond quickly enough to deal with children's runny noses, and they are not consistent in helping children to cover their mouths when coughing. This does not fully support children to keep themselves healthy.
• A sense of teamwork is evident across the setting; staff continuously ask each other if they are okay and assist when children's behaviour is becoming challenging. Staff feel valued by the manager, who makes reasonable adjustments to meet their various needs, promoting their health and well-being, resulting in high levels of job satisfaction.
• The manager engages effectively with other professionals within the community hub and beyond. For example, children learn about local services to promote their cultural capital, such as meeting the police and visiting the library. Improvement plans are in place to build connections with residents at an elderly care home to further promote a sense of self within the community.
• Staff support children's communication and language skills well. For example, they use single words such as 'pat' and 'dig' as they play alongside babies in the sandpit. They read stories to children and encourage conversations about the real caterpillars that children are caring for. Staff describe to children what a 'cocoon' is, comparing it to like being 'wrapped up warm in bed'. This promotes children's understanding.
• Partnership with parents and carers is good. There is a lending library where parents can borrow books to read with their children at home. Surveys and questionnaires are in place to gather parents' views about the setting. Parents appreciate the regular communication, including the plentiful opportunities to discuss their children's progress during parents' evenings.
• Staff share information about children's progress with school teachers to ensure that those children going to school transition smoothly. The manager has ideas about how to further strengthen partnerships, making this time a more positive experience for children. For example, to further build children's confidence in social situations, the manager has invited children from the feeder school to read to children at the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to manage children's behaviour in a consistent way, making best use of agreed strategies so that expectations are clear and followed by all
• support staff to promote children's good health and hygiene throughout the day when they have coughs and colds.