Finchampstead Day Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Attentive and dedicated staff provide children with sensitive and consistent care. This helps to create a supportive environment where children feel safe, secure and content. Routines flow seamlessly with the children's needs, which helps to ensure their physical and emotional well-being is supported very well. Babies happily explore their surroundings, which shows trust in the nurturing and responsive staff. Older children show high levels of self-assurance, as they introduce themselves to new visitors and happily chat about their experiences at nursery.

The atmosphere at the nursery is joyful, filled with laughter and smiles. Staff respond to children's evolving interests and plan engaging activities that spark enthusiasm and invite participation. Babies wiggle with delight to the staff's singing. Toddlers eagerly make marks on clipboards and proudly show others. Older children focus intently while making shadow images on the walls with their hands. Across all ages, children are curious and eager learners.

Strong relationships between staff and children reflect a culture of compassion and mutual care. Children display impressive social skills, taking their friends by the hand to join them in their play. Staff consistently model positive behaviours. They clearly communicate high expectations, helping children to understand boundaries and distinguish right from wrong. Courtesy is embedded in the nursery. This is evident when children politely say 'excuse me please' before speaking to staff.

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

• Experienced leaders complete regular supervisions and observations to identify staff's strengths and areas for development. They prioritise staff's well-being and create a positive and supportive work environment. Staff feel valued and are empowered to contribute to ongoing improvements. For instance, leaders supported staff in redesigning the indoor learning environment to provide children with more space to construct larger scale models. These remain in place throughout the day, allowing children to revisit, adapt and refine their creations. This approach helps to nurture children's critical thinking skills.
• A key strength of the nursery is its strong focus on developing and enriching children's vocabulary. Staff skilfully model new language during children's play and daily routines. For example, they repeat simple words with babies during handwashing, such as 'rub, rub', and pre-school children learn words such as 'boulder' as they shape play dough landscapes. In addition, staff enthusiastically read a range of books to children, who pick up certain phrases. For instance, toddlers independently explore stories, correctly naming pictures and echoing familiar phrases they hear, such as 'shall we find out?' before turning the page. This reflects children's growing language skills and engagement with storytelling.
• Leaders have designed a well-sequenced and ambitious curriculum that aims to meet the needs of all children. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of children's learning and development needs and work closely as a team to observe and assess what each child needs to learn next. Regular staff meetings provide opportunities to share ideas for interesting activities to support children's progress. However, some staff's knowledge of aspects of the curriculum intent is not always clear or precise enough for each child to consistently develop the knowledge and skills they want children to achieve from all experiences.
• Children's personal, social and emotional development is given the utmost importance. Staff place a strong and consistent focus on this area, which helps to give children a secure foundation for the future. For example, from an early age children's self-care skills are actively promoted. Well-established routines benefit children greatly to become increasingly independent. Without prompting, babies readily collect their water beakers when they hear it is time to go outside. Older children persevere at putting on aprons when preparing to use paint. Staff also support children to identify and manage their emotions through story props. This helps them to express how they feel and develop emotional awareness.
• Leaders recognise the importance of teaching children about a wide range of cultures and beliefs. While aspects of the learning environment reflect some children's home experiences, this is not yet fully embedded across the provision. Staff plan some activities linked to cultural festivals to broaden children's awareness. However, the play environment does not fully offer children positive images or resources of the diverse world around them. As a result, children receive less opportunities to explore and meaningfully compare their own ways of life with those of others.
• Parents feel highly involved in their children's early education. They welcome and value staff's guidance to support their children's learning at home and greatly appreciate how well they know their children. This collaborative approach supports children's continuity in development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's knowledge of the curriculum intent to precisely identify the skills and knowledge each child needs to gain from the planned experiences
• build on play opportunities for children to engage more with positive images and resources that reflect the diverse world and other cultures.