Educastle Nursery LTD

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff welcome children warmly into the nurturing and engaging nursery. Children arrive with smiles on their faces. They confidently separate from their parents and carers, ready to start their day at the nursery. Staff know their key children well and form good bonds with them. They use information shared by parents to meet children's individual needs. Leaders and staff have designed a curriculum that supports all children to make good progress from their starting points in development. They work closely with parents and other professionals to develop strategies to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff use additional funding effectively. For example, staff provide sensory resources and individual support for children.

Staff plan and implement a good range of motivating play experiences, to help children to extend their learning. For instance, children enjoy exploring with natural resources and use paints to make early marks. Staff skilfully guide their learning and provide lots of praise. This helps children to feel confident about what they can do. Children are helpful and happy to follow instructions. For example, they line up ready to go into the outdoor play area. Staff model positive behaviour to help children to learn to share and take turns. All children use good manners and behave well.

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

• Staff prioritise young children's speech and language skills effectively, to help them to increase their vocabulary and become confident talkers. They talk to children and model language in a way that encourages them to repeat and learn new words. For example, staff plan a variety of activities, such as looking at picture books and singing songs together. This helps younger children to increase their understanding and make links between objects and words.
• Leaders and staff embed a culture of diversity and inclusion in the nursery. For instance, they plan events to teach children about different cultures and religions. This helps to broaden children's understanding of similarities and differences. Staff are positive role models and set clear guidance and boundaries about what they expect of children. They support all children to show kindness and respect to one another during their play and routines.
• Children learn to lead a healthy and active lifestyle. They enjoy daily fresh air and the nutritious and healthy snacks staff provide for them. Staff encourage all children to practise their physical skills effectively. For example, children develop their balance and coordination as they use the slide and learn to ride bicycles. They learn good hygiene practices, such as knowing to wash their hands after playing in the garden or before meals. This helps children to build their self-care skills effectively.
• Overall, staff plan good activities to help children to develop their knowledge of early mathematics. For example, they sing songs with numbers to children and encourage them to count. However, at times, staff do not consistently implement mathematical vocabulary with children during daily interactions and routines. This does not help children to hear language around numbers, shapes and measures to further this area of learning.
• Children enjoy a range of planned and child-initiated activities, such as mud, sand and water play. For example, staff engage and extend children's imaginations as they encourage children to make birthday cakes out of sand and mud and develop a car wash for their cars. Staff ask children meaningful questions throughout their play to help them to be creative and talk about their creations. Children gain good skills in readiness for school.
• Children are confident and independent during their play. They learn to manage personal hygiene routines, such as washing their hands before meals. However, staff do not consistently consider further ways to develop children's personal care skills. For example, they do not encourage children to use tissues to wipe their own noses and dry their own hands after washing them.
• Parents speak highly of staff and state that their children make good progress, especially with their language and social skills. They describe staff as kind and caring and explain that communication is highly effective. Staff include parents in their children's learning and regularly update them on their progress. They share children's next steps in learning with parents and provide ideas to continue learning in their own home.
• Leaders are reflective and committed to delivering high standards. They follow safer recruitment procedures and ensure that all staff are suitable to work with children. All staff receive ongoing supervision sessions and have access to further training. Leaders monitor staff's practice and seek the views from parents and local authority advisers to help them to evaluate and make further improvements.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance teaching and interactions further, to support children's understanding of shapes, measures and numbers more effectively
• consider how to enable children to develop a broader range of personal care skills.