Ford Road Children's Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Highly skilled staff prioritise the happiness and well-being of all the children in all areas of their development by listening carefully to children's thoughts and opinions. Children of all ages have dedicated, imaginative spaces where they can reflect on how they feel and process their feelings. Children are treated with the utmost respect and care at all times. Staff help children to regulate their emotions in a very supportive way, showing respect and care for their feelings.

Children arrive at the nursery with a very keen enthusiasm to learn. They are supported and taught the skills they need to learn to make them independent and able to problem solve. Children are very confident and able to make choices and decisions about their learning. The staff provide an ambitious curriculum for children to access. This is built on the staff's firm understanding of what children already know and what they need to learn next. Children make excellent progress in their development across all age groups.

Staff are excellent role models for children. They work exceptionally well as a team and always prioritise the children. They expect children to be well behaved and to cooperate and, as a result, children behave impeccably. Staff value children's voices and give them numerous opportunities to express their thoughts and make choices.

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

• Parents speak extremely highly of the staff and how they go above and beyond to support children. They comment on the effective communication they receive, home-learning ideas and how they feel involved in their child's learning. Parent feedback is taken on board by the provider and used as a tool to continually improve.
• The leadership team is inspirational in its commitment to supporting and developing the staff team. Leaders prioritise staff's well-being and professional development. Senior staff have a clear and extensive programme of support for all staff that begins during a well-planned induction. They invest in the team through individual one-to-one sessions and staff meetings to support all the staff to grow and learn. Leaders meet with staff after they have attended training to check on the learning and cascade it to all staff. Staff recognise the support they are offered and especially comment on the well-being support available to them.
• Staff are committed to the development of all the children's speech and language. Careful consideration is given to this. Staff build on existing vocabulary and offer children new words, for example, 'unanimous' and 'oesophagus'. Children can be heard telling each other, 'you are brilliant!' echoing language that they have heard from staff.
• All children, particularly the youngest children, have close bonds with the key person. They spontaneously hug and cuddle staff while looking at books or reading stories. Staff are very experienced in comforting children that become upset and allow them space and time to express their feelings. Older children are very capable in recognising and expressing their thoughts and feelings openly with staff and other children.
• Children have interesting places to play outside in the garden. They are curious and explore new pieces of climbing equipment with keen interest. Children take great pride whilst planting bulbs and seeds. They help each other to dig holes and think about how deep or shallow the hole should be. Staff work very well together as they supervise the children both inside and out. They ensure that they are deployed well across the garden so that children are supervised at all times.
• A strong emphasis is put on sharing and turn taking across all age groups. Staff really explain and encourage kindness between children and minor disagreements are often dealt with directly by the children, with support from staff. This further develops children's self esteem and independence.
• Leaders and staff provide all children with an ambitious curriculum that is very well embedded across all age groups. Staff understand the importance of securely building on children's learning with repetition. Children are given many opportunities to recall past learning experiences and practise them until they are secure. Staff are very creative when planning new experiences for children. For example, children attend a 'planning meeting' that includes milk in china cups and biscuits. In these sessions, a very skilled member of staff chairs the meeting and children make decisions about what activities will be provided next week. Children learn a sense of democracy as they vote in order to come to a decision. Children practise their fine motor skills as they write the minutes and build on mathematical skills as they count the votes.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make excellent progress in relation to their starting points. They are expertly supported by staff under the guidance of the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo), who is skilled at ensuring that children have all the support that they need.