Goslings Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Goslings Day Nursery provides an exceptional start to children's learning journeys. From the moment children arrive, they are met with familiar smiles and their names spoken with care. Staff are deeply attuned to children's emotional needs. Their relationships are the foundation of the setting's success and lead children's phenomenal attitude towards learning. The curriculum is both broad and intentional and rooted in the early years foundation stage framework. It reflects a clear understanding of child development and responds dynamically to the children's evolving interests.

Children have a vast range of learning experiences at this setting. Leaders ensure that staff plan a curriculum that is exciting and impactful for the children attending. This helps children be totally engrossed in the activities they do. They have time to think and reflect on their prior learning to answer questions. Staff use a variety of ways to support children's communication and language skills and are fully aware of the importance of listening to the children.

This is a setting where the ordinary becomes quietly extraordinary. Children thrive here. They are curious and brave and explore the world through play that is both spontaneous and sensitively guided. It is a place where confident and capable learners are nurtured from the earliest age.

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

• Leaders are thoughtful and principled, creating a culture of trust, professional growth and shared purpose. They continuously role model expectations for staff and mentor them effectively. Leaders put a lot of emphasis on building up and developing their team. They offer individual training opportunities for staff and take their individual learning styles into account. This helps staff to progress in their role and within the setting. This results in staff who feel valued and empowered.
• There are no significant weaknesses. Leaders have identified a small number of refinements to further strengthen practice of all staff and have plans in place to address these. Their reflective practice ensures that improvement is ongoing, embedded and responsive.
• Staff are passionate and highly knowledgeable about their roles and responsibilities. They transfer their positivity to the children, parents and visitors. Inclusive practice is reflected through tailored support that is seamlessly integrated into the day and never isolated. Every child is seen, heard and known. The nursery team demonstrates a deep commitment to inclusion. This is particularly so for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), those who speak English as an additional language and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The team's support is proactive, embedded and holistic.
• Continuous provision is thoughtfully planned and regularly adapted in response to children's interests and staff's assessment of their key children. Natural materials and open-ended resources invite exploration, supporting communication and language, expressive arts and designs and understanding of the world with equal depth. When children join play in the construction area, they get their high-visibility vests on and use the wool string to measure and compare sizes. They use their past experiences and imaginations to develop their play and extend their learning.
• Children form secure attachments with adults and peers, nurtured by consistent, emotionally available staff. Staff model care, empathy and reflective listening, which allows children to feel safe, respected and capable of contributing. Children are lovingly encouraged to 'have a try' at new things or are gently prompted when feeling too shy to contribute. Children become resilient learners who are confident within themselves.
• Staff plan regular outings to the local community to help consolidate children's learning. They take children to the local grocer after they create shopping lists with the things that are good for them. Afterwards, children cut the fruit to make a fruit salad for their afternoon tea. This helps children to develop and implement new vocabulary and skills across all areas of their learning. These experiences help children see themselves as valued citizens from the earliest age.
• Partnerships with families are exemplary. Parents speak with heartfelt gratitude about the support they receive, describing the nursery as 'an extension of family'. Staff make home visits before children start at the setting and continuously build on this partnership with daily updates about their children's day. There are workshops available for parents and much more to help them support their children at home.