Great Sankey Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, confident and eager to attend this warm and welcoming nursery. They develop close bonds with staff, particularly in the baby room. Children are supported well by the nurturing and consistent staff team. Their experiences are firmly at the heart of everything the staff do. Children are enthusiastic learners. Babies explore a range of resources with increasing confidence. Toddlers delight in exploring what happens as they add food colouring to milk. Pre-school children are encouraged to play well together and to solve a wide range of problems and challenges. For example, they discuss why objects of the same size may float or sink in water. This helps to develop positive attitudes to learning and prepares children well for the next stage in their education.

Children of all ages are very well behaved. They are taught, from an early age, a range of innovative strategies that help them to express their feelings and regulate their own behaviour. Older children are skilled in identifying the feelings of others and offering their support should someone feel sad. Parents are no longer able to enter the playrooms, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, they value the regular points of discussion with staff and the use of electronic communication systems to keep them updated.

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

• The management team is passionate and shares the vision for the nursery with staff and parents. The manager has developed a range of strategies to support staff well-being. Staff feel well supported. The manager observes them as they work with children and gives suggestions as to how they could improve in the future. She also encourages and supports staff to increase their levels of professional qualifications further.
• Staff plan a wide range of group activities based on children's interests and what they need to learn next. For example, toddlers excitedly add different ingredients to 'magic potions' and wait for the mixture to bubble. Overall, children engage well in group times. However, sometimes, quieter and less-confident children are overlooked as staff focus on more confident and enthusiastic children in the group.
• Staff place high importance on developing children's speech and language. They talk with children as they play, describing what they see them doing and skillfully introducing new words. For example, staff introduce the word 'vinegar'. Children have fun attempting to pronounce the new word and receive lots of praise for their attempts. Children as young as one become engrossed in sharing books with their key person. Older children recall events from their favourite stories. They predict what they think will happen next in new stories, using their previous knowledge of how stories are sequenced.
• Staff monitor the progress that children make and swiftly identify any emerging gaps. This means that additional support, when required, is sought in a timely manner to help to ensure that all children's needs are well met. The special educational needs and disabilities coordinator is knowledgeable and passionate in supporting staff to plan for individual children's needs. She is always on hand to offer her advice and guidance.
• During the pandemic, children have had fewer opportunities for trips and outings. Despite this, their experiences have been enriched during special song and story times in Spanish. Children confidently repeat words in Spanish and engage in a range of songs and rhymes. They eagerly listen to a member of staff as she talks about her Spanish culture. This helps children to develop an understanding of similarities and differences between themselves and others.
• Older children enjoy a wealth of activities and opportunities outdoors in the well-resourced garden areas. Staff are aware that some children prefer to learn outdoors and carefully plan activities in their preferred environment. That said, staff working with the youngest children do not always focus sharply enough on consistently planning outdoor experiences for babies to enjoy.
• Parents speak very highly of the staff and the relationships they build with families. Staff support them to understand their child's progress and share ideas as to how they can support their child towards their next steps in learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider the organisation of group activities so that younger and less-confident children can gain the most from the learning opportunities provided
• further enhance opportunities for babies to learn and play outdoors.