Fir Trees Nursery

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff create a welcoming and inclusive environment. Staff respect children's individual circumstances and understand that children develop at different rates. They adapt and adjust the environment and activities to ensure all children can access the same learning.

Leaders and staff identify and respond to children's individual needs. They consider how to reduce barriers to learning and/or well-being. Staff understand the importance of supporting disadvantaged children and work closely with families. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities typically receive appropriate support that has a positive impact on their development. Leaders also provide appropriate support for children who are known, or have previously been known, to children's social care.

Leaders find out key words in children's home language. Staff use this information to help understand what children want or need, but do not consistently consider ways that they can use this to support children's language skills.

Leaders and staff have created an inclusive environment where children are respected, and their individual characteristics are considered. They work with families and external partners to ensure all children can access the same learning and experiences.

Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention

Staff do not always use children's next steps to plan effective ways to support their learning. Leaders and staff accurately identify what each child needs to learn next. However, staff do not consistently offer opportunities to achieve the next steps that have been planned for children. Consequently, children do not develop all the skills they need for their future learning. For example, staff do not always extend children's language skills effectively because they do not focus specifically on children's stage of development in communication and language. Staff know the curriculum intentions, but do not yet consistently translate this into effective teaching. Leaders and staff recognise that children develop at different rates. However, they do not take action to sequence learning in practice so that it is specifically targeted at building upon each child's individual knowledge and skills.

Leaders have appropriate ambitions for the curriculum and generally provide children with a range of experiences and resources to support their learning. They know children well and gather useful information about their starting points. Leaders are resourceful in creating and offering learning opportunities, such as repurposing resources to enrich children's experiences. For example, they use soil in the mud kitchen and logs from cut trees to create a bug garden.

Staff follow children's interests and make reasonable adjustments for children who face barriers to their learning so all children can access the same opportunities.

Achievement: Needs attention

Children do not always make the progress that they are capable of. This is due to weaknesses in the delivery of the curriculum. They do not consistently develop the knowledge and skills they need across all areas of learning.

Children do not consistently have the chance to practice their individual next steps and build upon their current skills. They do not demonstrate that they have acquired the skills and knowledge needed across all areas of learning to ensure that they are well prepared for their next stage of learning. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make suitable progress.

Children develop important social skills. They collaborate with others, build positive relationships with staff and peers, and grow in confidence throughout these interactions. Children have access to a broad range of resources and experiences, which help them to develop a variety of skills.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Children typically behave in line with the expectations of the setting. They show positive attitudes towards learning. They enthusiastically engage in the experiences offered to them.

Children form warm, trusting relationships with staff who treat them with respect and kindness. Children beam with pride as staff frequently praise them, which promotes positive behaviour. As a result, they are comfortable sharing their experiences or any concerns with staff. Children generally reflect the respectful behaviours modelled to them. This helps them build positive relationships with their peers as they develop their play collaboratively. For example, children listen to each other's ideas and discuss the different roles they will play. They then laugh and squeal with excitement as they chase each other around the garden in a friendly game.

Leaders take active steps to promote the importance of regular attendance and punctuality. In particular, they provide targeted support for children who face barriers to attendance, such as making adaptations to the routines based on individual circumstances.

Children know the routines of the day, and typically follow these, often anticipating what is coming next. This provides a predictable structure and supports children to feel secure. They typically understand and follow the behavioural expectations.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Needs attention

There are weaknesses in supervision and staff responses to incidents. These weaknesses sometimes have a negative impact on children's welfare and wellbeing. Children are not always supervised closely enough during some activities. This means that they can access resources or make choices that are not safe or healthy without staff noticing quickly enough. For example, children eat play dough and use scissors without effective adult oversight. Children are not consistently taught the skills they need to understand why these choices are unsafe and how to make safer choices. When incidents do occur, staff do not always provide purposeful support to help children understand or learn from the experience. This means that children miss out on important opportunities to develop their understanding of how to keep themselves safe and healthy.

Leaders have clear expectations and intentions for supporting every child's welfare and wellbeing, and staff know the policies and procedures. However, these are not yet consistently reflected in practice. Leaders recognise that consistent supervision and practice across the staff team is a key priority for improvement.

Leaders and staff provide an inclusive environment where all children are warmly welcomed, valued and respected. Children develop secure attachments with staff and enjoy the opportunities they are provided with. Staff encourage children to develop their social skills throughout snack and mealtimes. They sometimes provide children with opportunities to develop their independence, though this is inconsistent.

Leadership and governance: Needs attention

Leaders do not swiftly identify and address weaknesses in practice. They have not ensured that curriculum intentions, policies and procedures are consistently understood and implemented by all staff. As a result, there are inconsistencies in teaching, supervision and support for children. This affects their learning, progress and welfare. Leaders have not identified these areas as key priorities for improvement through their own evaluation. Leaders have developed positive partnerships with parents and relevant external partners.

Leaders have ambitious intentions for the setting and have appropriate ideas about how the curriculum should support children. They have a broad awareness of strengths and areas for development. They make effective use of available resources. The nominated individual provides support and challenge to help leaders develop their vision and strategy.

Staff feel well supported and that their workload is manageable. Leaders promote the importance of staff's professional learning and wellbeing. They work with staff to identify broad professional targets for them to work towards and provide professional learning opportunities to meet their goals.