Dottie Tots Nursery School

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff are passionate about providing an inclusive provision for all children. They understand the unique needs of their community and the families that attend the setting. Leaders recognise and respond to changes they can make to the daily routines to help promote children's regular attendance. For instance, staff use their good relationships with parents to agree start times to the day. Consequently, children arrive settled and ready for the day at the setting.

Where staff identify that children need extra support in their care or learning, they quickly work closely with parents to offer the tailored support that children need. Staff work closely with their local authority and other professionals, where appropriate, to ensure that there is a joined-up approach to children's care. Leaders offer suitable support from staff, who take lead roles in reviewing, planning and adapting the curriculum to ensure that all children can benefit.

When children are in receipt of additional funding, leaders use this to target areas of children's development that support their progress. For instance, staff plan a curriculum that focuses on healthy eating. They provide a variety of foods, which supports children to try new foods, to build on their experiences. Staff then share these experiences with parents, to help them to mirror choices that continue children's understanding of healthy and nutritional food choices at home.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders and staff have a good understanding of what they want children to achieve. They plan and adapt the curriculum to the differing ages and abilities of children well. Leaders and staff take the time to review the curriculum, to ensure that priorities for learning meet the needs of children who attend. Staff place a strong emphasis on helping children to develop their physical abilities, communication, social interaction, independence and engagement. All staff know and understand these priorities across the setting.

Staff use their knowledge to plan purposeful activities around children's everyday experiences to support and embed foundations for future learning well. From the outset, staff regularly observe children, check their progress and plan for what they want children to achieve next. They understand the ages of children and the progress that is appropriate to their age and stage of development. This helps them plan and tailor learning for children, based on their unique needs.

Teaching during activities is purposeful and enables children to achieve well across all areas of the curriculum. However, on occasion, staff do not make the most of incidental teaching opportunities to extend children's learning beyond what they already know, which limits the depth of their understanding.

Achievement: Expected standard

All children, including those in receipt of additional funding and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, benefit from a curriculum that helps them to make progress from their starting points. Children develop communication and language skills that help to prepare them well for later learning. For instance, children enjoy having staff read their favourite stories to them, and remain engaged and interested from beginning to end because they are able to concentrate and follow the narrative of the story. Children take time to think through questions posed by staff before confidently sharing their ideas of what might happen next. Younger children enjoy singing their favourite nursery rhymes and are able to explore and recognise rhyming sounds. Children respond when staff model mathematical concepts, such as counting how many buns are left in the baker's shop. This helps children to learn early counting and subtraction in purposeful ways. However, weaknesses in leaders' provision of staff development impacts on the quality of curriculum and teaching, preventing children from making even better progress.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Overall, leaders and staff support children to build positive attitudes to learning. Right from the start, they establish routines for children to attend the setting on a regular basis. Leaders and staff help parents to understand the benefits of timely and regular attendance. This helps children to have the opportunities to meet and play with peers and develop the good social skills they need, in readiness for their next stage in learning, including school.

Children develop secure social skills. Staff are positive role models and teach children the setting's ethos of kindness, respect and courtesy. There are opportunities for children to learn the importance of rules and why these are in place. This helps to broaden children's understanding of expectations. For instance, as children sit for story time, they learn the importance of concentrating and listening. This helps to gain children's attention and actively includes them in stories, alongside their friends.

Children play together well. The seek friends out for 'bug hunts' and join in with song times, for example. Where some children need additional support with sharing and turn-taking, staff support this well. Children learn positive attitudes to choices they make, and the value of these.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders and staff demonstrate a deep understanding of the importance of nurturing emotional bonds with children, including the very youngest children. Babies thrive on the cuddles and reassurance offered by staff, particularly during moments when they need comfort or are settling to sleep. Staff are consistently warm, responsive and attentive, establishing a caring key-person approach that is thoughtfully tailored to each child's individual needs. This approach is highly effective in promoting children's wellbeing.

Children benefit from a wide range of opportunities for active physical play. Older children, for example, confidently manoeuvre ride-on cars outdoors, strengthening their coordination and control. Staff skilfully support babies' emerging large-muscle skills by encouraging them to stand and play for short periods. Children refine their hand-eye coordination through rich sensory experiences, such as scooping and transferring porridge oats. Staff recognise the value of these meaningful learning opportunities and provide ample time and creative activities to enable children to practise and master their physical skills exceptionally well.

Children develop secure routines that promote their physical health and overall wellbeing very successfully. Staff embed positive hygiene practices, such as teaching older children the importance of washing their hands before meals. Staff supervise children closely during mealtimes and ensure that the food provided is appropriate for each stage of development, including supporting younger children who are weaning. These well-established routines contribute highly effectively to children's safety and welfare and help children quickly begin to make their own healthy choices and decisions.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders generally understand the strengths and areas of development in the setting. They evaluate and implement changes that have a positive impact for children. There have been recent changes to the day-to-day leadership of the setting. Furthermore, some of the staff team members are new to the setting. Leaders have placed an area of focus on helping staff embed their understanding of the curriculum. They weave changes to the focus for priorities for learning for the differing ages of children through daily routines successfully.

Staff benefit from regular supervision sessions from leaders to help them talk about and manage their workload. Staff say that leaders support their wellbeing, to help them to feel valued and supported in their roles at the setting. Leaders use regular meetings with staff to talk about workload and take action to address ideas for better working practices. For instance, recent changes to systems used to check and monitor children's learning and development are having a positive impact on reducing workload.

Leaders' regular meetings with staff offer open discussions for them to identify and work towards their professional development, to help broaden their knowledge and skills. However, there is still more scope for leaders to target the professional development of staff to help them to reflect on their practice, identify areas for development and enhance teaching to enable children to achieve at higher levels.