Earl Shilton Children's Day Nursery

Inclusion: Strong standard

Leaders and staff promptly identify any children they are concerned are not making appropriate progress. They take decisive action to reduce the barriers that some children face in terms of their learning. They regularly review and monitor the progress that children make. Staff confidently identify children who may be more vulnerable than others. They demonstrate high ambition for children's success and what they may achieve.

Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is highly developed. All staff understand their role in providing support for children who need extra help. They work extremely effectively with parents and other professionals. This ensures that the provision for children who may have SEND is of a very high quality. Children who have SEND and are about to start school are very well prepared for the next stage in their learning.

Leaders ensure that highly effective strategies are in place to support children's development and close gaps. For example, all staff support children with SEND through the use of cue cards and specialised communication strategies. These have an extremely positive impact on children with SEND and encourage them to interact with others.

Leaders understand the importance of additional funding and recognise how this could be used to support children's development further.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders have a very accurate view of the quality of the curriculum and teaching. Support for children's communication and language is highly effective. Staff use targeted strategies to ensure that all children, particularly the most vulnerable, make fantastic progress. Staff use mealtimes as a valuable opportunity to teach children about nutrition and health. They explain the ingredients in the food children are served and where these come from. This helps children to gain a highly effective and broad understanding of different areas of learning across the curriculum.

Older children are developing a keen interest in writing and practise recording the scores for a throwing game. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported extremely well to develop their mathematical understanding. They count numbers to 10 on a number line, then recognise the same numbers on a clock. Teaching is of a very high quality across the curriculum.

Staff confidently understand how to support children's learning through their interactions. For example, staff teach children how to wash their brushes carefully while using watercolour paints in between using different colours. Children listen attentively and then show that they have understood by testing this out. This helps children to develop their artistic skills to produce beautiful watercolour paintings.

Achievement: Strong standard

All children make fantastic progress through the curriculum. This is particularly apparent in terms of children's communication and language development. Two-year-olds are able to recall conversations they had the previous week. They talk about the fire alarm drill that occurred and the staff who helped them to stay safe.

Children are very well prepared for the next stage in their learning and development. They are able to make connections with what they know and understand. When staff highlight a picture of the moon in a book, 2-year-olds comment that 'the moon comes out at nighttime'. This demonstrates young children's confident understanding of the world around them. During a painting activity, older children recall having their face painted when on holiday and say, 'it made me feel absolutely fabulous'. This shows that children have highly developed communication and language skills.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Leaders have created a very positive, calm and friendly nursery community in which all children and families feel welcomed and valued. The behaviour of children is managed sensitively, with staff providing clear explanations to children to support their learning and help them understand the expectations of the setting. Children are developing extremely positive attitudes to learning. They are able to show deep concentration on their chosen activities. For example, younger children sit patiently and listen to a story for an extended period of time. They listen carefully and are able to respond with answers to questions. This shows highly developed attention skills.

Staff are kind and caring with children. When children are feeling tired, staff cuddle them and make them feel comfortable and ready to sleep. Staff encourage children to think about the needs of others. They are superbly supported by staff to take part in a throwing game in which they have to take turns. Children behave extremely well and enjoy each other's successes. They recognise that some children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities may need extra help, and offer them their support.

Attendance is managed effectively so that children establish effective routines in preparation for the next stage in their learning.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Children's welfare is at the very heart of leaders' decision-making. Care practices are highly effective in meeting children's needs. Leaders and staff are acutely aware that some children are more vulnerable than others. They act in children's best interests at all times and prioritise children's safety, security and happiness.

Relationships between all staff and children are kind, warm and responsive. Babies cuddle into staff when they are playing, and staff sing joyfully to them as they change their nappies. Children are very well supported to understand their emotions and to explain how they are feeling. Staff take time to understand children's eating and sleeping routines at home. This means that staff are able to adapt the routines of the nursery to settle children in very successfully. This is particularly apparent when children transition to the next room of the nursery as they get older. Transition arrangements are managed extremely well.

Staff talk to children very effectively about health and nutrition. Highly nutritious food is cooked at the nursery every day for children to enjoy. As a result, children often try new foods and are developing adventurous tastes. Children are developing a very confident understanding of the food that their bodies need to keep them healthy and for brain development.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

Leaders understand the strengths of the setting and are confident on what they would like to work on next. This helps to ensure that the nursery continues to build on its many successes and improve further. Leaders are extremely passionate about making sure all children at the nursery receive the best possible early years experience. They have taken decisive and highly effective action to make sure that all children, particularly those who are disadvantaged, have special educational needs and/or disabilities or are known to children's social care, achieve the very best start in life.

Leaders rigorously monitor the quality of teaching. Staff are provided with effective feedback on their teaching, which helps them to develop further. This is linked to a detailed plan of individual training opportunities. For example, all staff have received coaching and training on supporting children's emotions. Leaders have monitored the impact of this and are able to evidence how this is helping children to regulate their emotions superbly well.

Parents are highly appreciative of the care and support of the extremely dedicated staff team. All staff comment on the fantastic leadership of the setting. They state that they feel extremely well supported and that they can go to leaders with any concerns they may have.