Cottam Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children feel happy and secure in this warm and exciting environment. They are welcomed with smiles by skilled staff who know them and their families very well. Staff help new children to settle into nursery. As a result, children create secure relationships with key adults, which helps to support happiness and well-being. Children engage well with the learning environment that staff have skilfully created. They learn new skills as they play happily. Children enjoy coming to the nursery.

Children show that they love playing in the safe space of the garden. The older children chatter as they share pedal bikes. This promotes their physical development and helps them to develop their communication and language skills. Younger children play outside harmoniously alongside their older friends. Caring staff support new friendships by encouraging children to play together.

Children have a positive attitude to learning. They behave well because of staff's gentle support and role modelling of positive behaviours. They follow routines such as lining up together to come inside. Older children remember the nursery's rules about how to behave and younger children are patiently guided to learn the new routines. Their personal and social skills are being very well supported through frequent use of praise. This helps children's confidence and well-being to flourish.

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

• Leaders and staff work hard to develop very good parent partnerships. Staff share information via an online communication system, weekly newsletters and parents' evenings. Parents are kept updated about their child's progress and how they can support their learning at home. Parents' comments regarding the care and education their children receive are overwhelmingly positive.
• Children benefit from frequent visitors to the setting. They join in football and yoga, which supports their developing physical skills. Staff teach the curriculum to help children learn about the world around them. Children learn through first-hand experiences as they care for the baby lambs and hunt for minibeasts.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are particularly well supported by highly skilled staff who use Makaton sign language. This helps children to communicate. Children are helped to make choices using visual cards. This supports them to manage feelings and behaviour. Children make very good progress in communication from their starting points.
• Children are encouraged to be more independent. For example, older children pour their own water and carefully butter crackers using a knife as they prepare their own snack. Younger children are taught how to wash and dry their hands. These newly acquired skills help children on their journey to the next stage of their education.
• Staff have high expectations of how children should behave. They gently guide younger children to learn to follow instructions, such as sitting together to listen to a story. Children are beginning to learn about the boundaries for behaviour.
• The manager recognises the impact of COVID-19 on the development of the children's language and communication skills. There are endless opportunities to develop children's language in the learning environment, including a new reading shed outdoors. Children's vocabulary is increased through interactive stories with knowledgeable adults. This helps them to learn new words, such as 'hatch' and 'chrysalis'.
• The manager has developed a progressive curriculum that builds on children's knowledge, understanding and skills as they progress through the nursery. This is reflected well in the learning environment. For example, younger children carefully dip small sticks into paint and make colourful patterns; older children learn to pedal bikes with skill and coordination. Children develop their physical skills, both indoors and outdoors.
• The curriculum for children's literacy and mathematics is broad. This does not always precisely identify the knowledge and skills that children need to gain at the various stages of development, such as learning about letter sounds. Early reading skills are not well sequenced all of the time and do not always build on what the children need to know for the next stage of their education.
• The provider supports the staff's ongoing professional development at all levels. This includes a thorough induction for new staff, regular supervision and opportunities for purposeful professional development. Staff are trained to identify children with delayed language skills. This means that children are identified early and families are offered help from other agencies. Children make good progress with communication and language from their starting points.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• embed the curriculum consistently across the provision to help children to make the best progress possible in literacy and mathematics.