Granby House Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children happily play with their peers and staff. One-year-old children follow their interests in posting objects. After staff say 'ready, steady, go', children roll a toy car down a cardboard tube. Two-year-old children sit and follow instructions during group times. Staff offer children choices and ask them to choose a toy that represents a nursery rhyme. Children are excited to develop their speaking and physical skills when they join in actions and sing favourite songs. Staff understand how children progress. They encourage them to develop their vocabulary and understanding of positional language. Children learn new words, such as 'horizontal' and 'vertical', when they discuss fence poles. Children show good hand- and-eye coordination. For example, two-year-old children copy staff's actions to make marks that go up and down when they use chalk to draw.

Children are polite and use good manners. For example, when three- and four-year-old children ask for more food at lunchtime, they say 'please'. Two-year-old children use sign language to say 'thank you'. Children are keen to complete tasks. Two-year-old children use a dustpan and brush to sweep hay from the floor to help maintain a clean and safe environment. Three- and four-year-old children hand out plates to their friends at lunchtime.

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

• Staff support children's communication and language skills well. For example, they ask children a good range of questions that help to challenge their thinking skills. When children play with a toy pig and stick, they tell staff that they want the pig to climb up the stick. Staff encourage them to problem-solve as they ask them how they are going to get there.
• Staff plan a broad and balanced range of activities and experiences to support children's learning. They provide opportunities for children to develop an understanding of their local community. For example, they take three- and four-year-old children to see new houses being built. Children have opportunities to mirror what they see. They use foam bricks to build and construct, and they tell staff that they are building a big tower.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff share information with parents about children's learning, achievements and the care they receive in the nursery. The manager kept in touch with children and parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, she provided 'live at 11am' storytelling and singing sessions online. This helped children and families to maintain relationships with staff when they were absent from the nursery.
• Children show a love of books and stories. Some staff are dynamic storytellers and build anticipation when they read stories with children. This encourages children to become excited, highly engaged and to contribute their own ideas.
• However, this teaching practice is not consistent with all staff.
• The management team supports staff well, including giving consideration to their well-being. The manager asks staff how they are feeling and praises their achievements. The manager continues to support staff through supervision meetings. This helps staff to reflect on their practice and to identify further professional development opportunities. Recent training extends staff's knowledge of how to use natural resources to support children's mathematical development through play.
• Generally, children follow staff's expectations for behaviour. However, staff do not always make these expectations clear when they take them for walks in the local community. For example, staff do not support children to understand why they need to stay together in a group.
• The manager uses additional funding effectively to meet children's individual needs. For example, staff offer children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) one-to-one support in their play. Children form strong relationships with staff and go to them for comfort. The manager and staff work with parents to ensure that children with SEND have an allocated place at a school that is appropriate for their individual needs.
• Staff encourage children to learn skills for the future. For example, they encourage children to be independent. Three- and four-year-old children put on their own shoes and coats before they go outdoors.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's knowledge of how to use story times to excite and highly engage all children
• support staff to give children clear messages about what is expected of them and why, particularly when they take children on outings.