Darnall Community Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this warm and welcoming nursery. Home visits are completed for all children. Children are also invited to the 'Ready, steady, go' group with their parents and carers prior to starting at the nursery. This provides staff with an insightful view of children's previous experiences and knowledge, as well as helps to build positive relationships with each child and their family. Children's emotional well-being and good health is key area staff actively promote. Funding has been obtained so that children benefit from a range of free meals while they attend the nursery. In the gardening area, children learn to grow a vast array of vegetables and fruits, which they happily try when harvested.

When starting nursery, most children have skills and knowledge which is below expected levels. Due to positive staff interactions, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make the progress which they are capable of. Dedicated and experienced staff know each child exceptionally well, which enables them to provide every child with a rich set of purposeful play experiences. These experiences provoke children's natural curiosity as learners. For example, children learn about how plants, flowers and vegetables grow from seeds in the designated gardening area. When growing sunflowers, staff extend children's learning by introducing tape measures, so that they can measure how tall the sunflowers have grown. Staff also send home connect packs with children, which contain all the resources and instructions needed to grow a sunflower at home. This enables children's exploration and learning to be continued at home.

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

• The nursery is run by a dedicated management team who closely review and monitor staff practice. The committee are hands on and work with management, overseeing the running of the provision. Management and staff are very reflective, which results in practice continually evolving so that high standards are maintained. Management happily share their strong practice by allowing staff form other early years settings to visit their nursery.
• Children with SEND are cared for in a dedicated area, with experienced and trained staff. Intensive support is offered to these children to meet their specific needs. Close working relationships are developed with other professionals and targeted support plans implemented, to ensure gaps in children's learning are supported to close.
• The extremely well organised outdoor environment provides a wide range of opportunities for children to develop their skills. Smaller secure areas are set up to allow children to plant and grow vegetables, or go pond dipping. Another area is used as a nurture area to help children to gain confidence, develop social skills and learn how to manage their own emotions and behaviours. Through the encouraging approach of staff, children develop positive attitudes to learning.
• Staff enthusiastically respond to children's interests and use these opportunities to build on children's communication and thinking skills. For example, when children excitedly show a staff member a small piece of fence is missing, the staff member asks for the children's thoughts on what could have done this. Children excitedly discuss how it could have been a squirrel or ants, with the staff member praising their good ideas.
• Regular routines enable children to learn about expectations. The nurturing, respectful approach of staff supports children to learn to be respectful, to become independent and behave well.
• Staff place great emphasis on supporting all children to develop their confidence and social and communication skills. For children with SEND and those who speak English as an additional language, staff skilfully repeat simple words, use visual aids and identify words associated with objects. Dedicated and well-planned interactive activities are also used to support children's growing listening, attention and understanding skills. Staff understand how these skills lay a secure foundation on which children's future learning and development is built upon.
• Daily story-time sessions in the nursery and bedtime reading packs sent home with parents help to promote children's interest in books, while further aiding their communication skills.
• All children show confidence and emotional security in the care of staff. The consistent exchange of information between staff, parents and other professionals ensures children's needs are met. It also ensures their safety and enables staff to continually enhance children's learning. This comprehensive approach results in children developing skills which are more broadly in line with expectations by the time they leave to go to school.