Fillongley Pre-School and Nursery ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy attending this nursery. Staff are attentive and care a lot about the children. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive targeted support. All children thrive and make good progress from their starting points. All staff have high expectations of the children. The manager has devised and implemented an ambitious curriculum, that challenges and interests children. Consequently, children are eager and motivated to learn. Children display positive behaviours. Younger children enjoy playing alongside one another. Older children have formed strong friendships, are respectful and listen well to one another. This contributes to children's positive attitudes to learning and high levels of self-esteem.

Children enjoy independently selecting what they would like to play with from a broad range of resources and activities. Toddlers enjoy playing in the home corner. They pretend to make food and feed their baby dolls. This supports their imaginative skills and understanding of the world. Pre-school children love learning about herbs. They use scissors to cut the herbs and work hard grinding them. As they do this, they learn and use new words, such as crushing, grinding and bashing. This builds on their vocabulary and helps them to develop their hand muscles.

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

• Leaders and managers have taken effective action to address weaknesses identified at the last inspection. They have now implemented an ambitious curriculum, which is embedded across the whole setting. Staff know children well. They use assessment effectively to inform their teaching. They focus on teaching the skills that all children need to prepare them for their next stages in learning.
• Leaders and managers have implemented a well-considered settling-in process, ensuring that children are happy, settled, and ready to learn when they arrive. Staff undertake home visits and gather detailed information from parents about what children know, can do, and are interested in. Staff use this information to plan interesting activities and create focused plans as to what they want children to achieve and learn next. This ensures children are ready to learn.
• The identification and support for children with SEND is a strength of this nursery. Staff swiftly implement focused targeted plans of support, which are effective in ensuring children with SEND make the best possible progress.
• Children learn about their local community. They go on trips to the local allotment, walks, and attend the village fete. They learn about different festivals, including Pride and Christmas. However, there is scope to enhance the curriculum even further to provide children with an even broader understanding of people outside their own community.
• Staff provide children with a language-rich environment. Children happily participate in conversations with staff and each other. Staff talk to children about what they are doing. They ask open questions and help children to recall past events to further build on their understanding. Staff use visual aids to support children with speech and language difficulties to participate and communicate effectively.
• Staff encourage children to develop good routines and habits, such as handwashing. Children are offered water, milk, and healthy snacks throughout their day. However, staff do not always teach and support children to fully understand the positive impact of consistently leading a healthy lifestyle.
• Parents speak very highly of the manager and staff team. They value the feedback they receive each day. They comment that they enjoy reviewing their children's progress summaries and learning journals. Parents report their children love attending the nursery.
• Staff receive good support from the manager through robust inductions and regular supervision meetings. The manager and staff recognise the importance of prioritising their professional development to enhance the quality of education and elevating the quality of teaching to the highest level. For example, recent training to support children's communication and language skills has equipped the team with a greater understanding of how to extend children's language and thinking skills even further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend children's knowledge and understanding further of how leading a healthy lifestyle positively contributes to their overall health
• provide even more opportunities for children to learn about communities beyond their own, to increase their knowledge of different people and cultures to the highest level.