Creative Explorers Nursery - Crouch End

Inclusion: Expected standard

Overall, leaders create an inclusive culture by gathering detailed information when children start. This includes information about children's routines, development and family circumstances. This helps staff get to know children quickly. Staff work with parents and carers to shape support from the outset. Leaders identify children who may need extra help and seek advice from the local authority's early years and inclusion team. They work with external professionals, review support plans and meet with families to consider children's progress and any changes needed. Leaders have also worked with social workers and foster carers when children have been known to children's social care.

Staff access training to strengthen their understanding of supporting children's communication and language, sensory play and regulating their emotions. Leaders use additional funding, including early years pupil premium, to support children's experiences and language development. Parents value the practical guidance they receive to help their children at home.

However, inclusive practice is not yet implemented with full consistency. Staff know children's identified needs, but agreed approaches are not consistent in day-to-day interactions. For example, support for children developing early language and those working towards greater independence varies across routines and activities. As a result, barriers to children's learning and wellbeing are identified appropriately, but are not reduced as consistently in practice as leaders intend.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders have designed a broad curriculum that reflects children's ages, interests and the setting's priorities for communication, wellbeing and exploration. Babies and toddlers enjoy experiences linked to stories, seasons and the natural world. Weekly activities, such as music, cooking, yoga and nature-based learning, add breadth to children's experiences. Leaders review the curriculum regularly and draw on professional learning, including work with other early years approaches, to refine what they offer.

Staff use assessment information and knowledge of children's starting points to plan experiences. They support children's language by naming objects, repeating words and joining children's play. For example, staff introduce new vocabulary during planting activities and extend children's pretend play in the mud kitchen. Babies benefit from sensory experiences that encourage their curiosity and attention.

Leaders rightly prioritise children's physical, personal, social and emotional development. However, the implementation of teaching is not yet consistent. Staff do not consistently give children time to think and respond to questions. Teaching does not always help children to practise the specific skills linked to their next steps. For instance, opportunities to build babies' gross motor development and to extend toddlers' independent participation vary across the day. This means the intended curriculum is not yet translated into practice with enough consistency.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children make steady progress from their starting points and develop confidence in familiar routines and activities. Babies become increasingly curious explorers. They respond to songs, repeat sounds and words and engage with story times. Toddlers enjoy role play, sensory play and outdoor experiences that help them to build their vocabulary and confidence. Children are generally prepared appropriately for their next stage, including moves between rooms.

Children's achievement is not consistently secure due to some inconsistencies in teaching. Some children, including older toddlers, are not always given enough opportunity to practise their independence and communicate their thinking. As a result, while children's progress is evident, it is not consistently strengthened across all parts of the day.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Leaders promote a calm and caring environment. Staff build warm relationships with children and help them to feel secure. Parents and carers value the support they receive to promote their children's positive behaviour at home. This includes sharing strategies, such as using 'kind hands' and books that help children to understand empathy. Leaders also promote the importance of attendance. Staff follow up on children's absences promptly. They work with families where there are concerns about children not attending.

Children generally enjoy learning and engage positively with activities. They play alongside one another, join in songs and take part in shared routines, such as snack and mealtimes. Staff consider children's ages and stages when offering reassurance and guidance, especially for younger children.

However, routines and expectations are not yet embedded consistently enough. Some transitions take too long at several points in the day, including after snack and after outdoor play. Children sometimes wait without clear direction. At times, aspects of the daily routine do not take place because the transition to handwashing and lunch overruns. Staff's expectations for children's independence are also variable. Older toddlers are not always helped to manage belongings, tidy away or take part in routines in ways that match their stage of development.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Staff support children's welfare and wellbeing effectively. Key persons know children's routines and provide attentive care. Babies benefit from secure and responsive relationships. Staff soothe them through songs, gentle talk and familiar routines, including during nappy changing and sleep times. Sleep arrangements are organised carefully. Staff carry out regular checks to help keep children safe and comfortable.

Leaders give clear attention to children's health. Children brush their teeth after lunch, and staff promote healthy eating through discussions about foods that help children to grow and stay well. Mealtime arrangements are organised to take account of children's additional needs and dietary requirements. Staff consult parents and carers carefully when children start and when changes are made that affect children's care.

Staff also support children's emotional wellbeing. They help children to feel welcomed, involve families in events and provide guidance when children need help to manage feelings or behaviour. Children show that they feel secure with familiar adults.

At times, the organisation of routines does not support children's wellbeing consistently. Some daily transitions are too lengthy, which affects the flow of the day. This means children do not always move smoothly from one experience to the next.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders have established secure systems to meet statutory requirements and oversee the day-to-day running of the provision. They monitor staff's suitability, training and first-aid qualifications carefully, including through electronic tracking systems and a well-maintained single central record. Leaders provide regular supervision sessions, team meetings, weekly huddles and access to a wide range of professional development. Staff speak positively about the support they receive and the way leaders listen to their views.

Leaders understand the setting's strengths and are reflective about its priorities. They use learning walks, audits and discussion with staff to review practice. Leaders work closely with parents and carers, the local authority and other professionals to support children's care and development, particularly those who face barriers to their learning or wellbeing.

Leaders have rightly identified the need to strengthen consistency in daily practice. However, these priorities are not yet embedded securely enough across the provision. As a result, staff do not implement routines and curriculum intentions with enough consistency. This can be seen in prolonged transitions, uneven promotion of children's independence and variability in how well teaching helps children practise their next steps.