Explorers Seaford Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff are ambitious for all children who attend. They pride themselves on taking the time they need to fully understand the needs of each child. This includes their family context, lived experiences, cultural heritage and what makes them unique. Staff nurture incredibly warm and engaging relationships with children as well as planning a meticulously sequenced curriculum that is tailored to children's individual needs. As a result, children demonstrate they are very settled, have high levels of curiosity and have excellent attitudes to learning as they apply themselves to a variety of thoughtfully planned activities.

Staff have a fully embedded understanding of curriculum priorities and provide children with an extensive range of enriching experiences to successfully build on their existing knowledge and skills. For example, staff recognise the importance of exposing children to high-quality experiences to enhance their communication and language skills. They plan activities that are linked to core books that they teach children and seek highly effective ways to weave themes from the stories within their play. Staff work with children to embed rich-language opportunities in all they do. This includes challenging children to recall stories, re-enact and test out ideas and meet and engage with people in the community, as well as regular visits to explore and find out about the natural world. Staff demonstrate highly effective teaching practice as they skilfully introduce new words and descriptive language that are connected to children's play and learning experiences.

The provision's commitment to special educational needs and/or disabilities and for children and families that need extra support is highly commendable. Senior leaders identify beneficial ways to use funding. This helps children gain positive outcomes in their learning and development. All staff show high levels of professional curiosity and work closely with families, external professionals and the local authority and access initiatives and projects. This helps to ensure that children get the very best start in life with highly effective interventions that support children to make the best progress they are personally capable of.

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

• There has been a change in senior leaders, and they demonstrate passion and dedication to ensure that they can offer excellent early years provision in their community. They show high levels of integrity as they seek out the views of others, so they can rigorously evaluate the quality of their provision. They continuously test what they provide to children through regular audits to assess and identify where they can build on their already successful work. Leaders use audits to identify even more ways to ensure that what they deliver is highly effective, so children receive the very best start in their formative years.
• Staff plan an exciting range of experiences to expose children to a broad and balanced curriculum that captures their curiosity and interest. For instance, children have opportunities to be physically active in the natural world, from tree climbing and rope swings to building on their physical skills, to lighting fires and learning how to stay safe. Staff plan visits to meet the local choir and orchestra to engage with people in their community for singing and exploring musical instruments. Additionally, professionals, including parents, spend time with the children in the pre-school to discuss their roles and how they help others. This includes police, firefighters, dentists and paramedics. These first-hand enriching opportunities provide a platform for children to talk about these experiences and help them to learn about life beyond the pre-school.
• Children behave very well. Staff empower children to learn effective social skills. As a result, children have excellent relationships and play harmoniously with their friends. Children use egg timers to wait their turn when sharing resources between their friends. They are kind and courteous to one another. For instance, children have an awareness of the needs of others as well as themselves. During snack time, they pass cream cheese round the table, so everyone gets to have a portion to accompany their vegetable crudites. Children listen well and demonstrate deep engagement as they negotiate with friends and share play ideas. Their relationships are incredibly strong with their friends and the adults who care for them.
• Children are extremely curious, and staff are highly receptive to this. For example, when children ask questions, staff really take the time to explore children's ideas with them. This includes engaging children in shared thinking practices to encourage them to problem solve and test out their ideas in play. This encourages children to be inspired and to keep trying. Staff have highly effective teaching approaches and ensure that what they want children to know, remember and do is delivered in a sequence. For instance, staff plan for children to practise using a variety of resources to build hand dexterity. This includes pipettes and syringes during water play. Staff confidently explain these activities improve children's muscle control and fine motor ability, so they have the skills they need for later handwriting.
• Leaders and staff deeply value the importance of working in partnership with parents. Parent representatives share views with the pre-school that they acknowledge and act upon. Parents comment their children make excellent progress that is attributed to the committed leaders and staff.