Fennies Horley

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and content at this nursery. They demonstrate a genuine love for learning. The thoughtfully planned environment staff provide supports children's sustained focus and curiosity. A sense of fun and excitement fills the nursery, as children immerse themselves in free play and exploration. Leaders articulate clear intentions to provide an ambitious and well-balanced curriculum. In turn, staff use their strong knowledge of each child to deliver meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences. This includes supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) effectively, particularly when developing their social skills. Consequently, all children make good progress from their starting points.

Leaders and staff recognise the importance of promoting children's emotional security. Staff are respectful of children and provide care giving routines sensitively. In addition, staff build strong and trusting bonds with children as well as their families. As a result, children are very well supported to build strong emotional attachments. Children who have recently started at the nursery are well supported to settle into nursery life. These considerations promote children's personal, social and emotional development well, enabling children to feel valued as they develop a positive sense of belonging.

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

• Since the last inspection, there is a new on-site leadership team. All leaders have worked hard to address weaknesses identified at their last inspection. They, alongside their staff team, are passionate and dedicated to continuous improvement and strive to provide the best outcomes for children and their families.
• Staff implement a curriculum that provides children with experiences across all areas of the early years foundation stage. Overall, staff implement the curriculum and target their teaching effectively. They know what skills they want children to learn and what they want to teach next. However, there are some inconsistencies in the delivery of the curriculum. Consequently, staff do not always plan as precisely as they could to help individual children continually build on what they know and can do. Despite this, all children make good progress in their learning overall.
• There are effective processes in place to support children with SEND. Leaders and staff are dedicated to providing every child with the very best opportunities. They understand the importance of working in close collaboration with parents as well as other professionals to ensure children with SEND receive the targeted support they need. Staff set appropriate and realistic targets to enable children with SEND to make their own individual progress.
• Children's communication and language skills are well considered. Staff use sign language and gesture alongside spoken words to support the youngest children as well as those who speak English as an additional language or need some extra support. Staff encourage younger children to express themselves in age-appropriate ways, such as using clear, repetitive modelling of words. Older children are encouraged to share their own thoughts and ideas or to recall previously learned words in context, such as 'herbivore'. This supports all children to become confident communicators.
• Regular staff supervision arrangements are in place. Staff report leaders are approachable and considerate of their well-being. However, these are not fully effective. For example, leaders do not precisely support staff to continually reflect and improve on their own practice. This does not fully support staff to continually improve their own personal effectiveness.
• Staff promote children's independence very well. They role model and provide many opportunities for children to practise these skills. For instance, children independently learn to carry out daily tasks for themselves, such as putting on their coats in preparation for outdoor play. At lunchtime, children learn to competently use cutlery. Older children serve their own lunches and clear their plates. All day, children make their own decisions about where and what they want to play with. This supports children to develop their confidence and a positive sense of responsibility, in preparation for their eventual move to school.
• Children behave well. Staff implement consistent rules and routines, helping children understand their high but appropriate expectations. For example, children know they tidy up and wash their hands before meals. Strong key-person relationships help children learn to recognise and manage their growing emotions. Staff support children to navigate minor conflicts well. They encourage cooperative play and help them become respectful, empathetic individuals.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently plan even more precisely to support children's individual learning, helping children to build on what they already know
• strengthen the monitoring of staff's practice further to fully enhance their own personal effectiveness.