Green Garden Community Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy the time they spend with the staff at the nursery. They have formed close bonds with staff and enjoy involving them in their play. Children are happy and safe. They have respect for each other, staff and the learning environment. For example, children tell staff when they notice pen marks on a table. Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour and children understand the rules and boundaries. They behave well and enjoy the positive praise that staff provide them for their achievements, such as good sharing.

Children thoroughly enjoy sharing books and staff help them to develop their understanding of the characters and events in a story. Children eagerly explore sensory materials that represent the scenes from their favourite book. They develop their understanding of the meaning of words, such as 'under', 'over' and 'through'. Children confidently share their ideas about the story.

Children make good progress and gain a wide range of useful skills and knowledge. They concentrate as they sort toy animals into sizes and explain that they are 'big, middle and small'. Children make links with their own experiences and recreate familiar roles. For example, they pretend they are doctors and know how to use a stethoscope. They talk about the spicy food they cook during role play.

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

• The manager has taken positive steps to address the actions raised at the last inspection. She has worked closely with the local authority to provide staff with training to improve their knowledge and skills. This has been particularly effective in improving the curriculum for children's language development.
• The manager and staff reflect well on their practice. Staff receive effective supervision and support. The manager sets useful targets to help staff focus precisely on improving their practice. She nurtures and guides staff who are apprentices, as they work towards achieving an early years qualification.
• The manager has improved the curriculum to identify the knowledge and skills the children need to develop over time. Children benefit from a wide range of opportunities to be physically active. They enjoy jumping on a trampoline, riding bikes and playing ball games. They concentrate as they use scissors. However, the curriculum for children's physical development does not precisely sequence the skills that children need to gain to help them to make even better progress.
• The manager and staff monitor children's progress successfully and take swift action to involve outside agencies, to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Parent partnerships are good. Staff work closely with parents to find out about children's achievements and interests at home, so they can plan learning experiences that reflect children's current needs. Parents appreciate the daily feedback that staff provide about their child's learning.
• Children are well motivated to learn and make confident choices about what they want to play with. Staff plan their adult-led activities to meet children's individual learning targets successfully. However, staff do not yet enhance all areas of the learning environment as well as possible, so that children benefit consistently from opportunities to use their critical-thinking skills.
• Staff support children's communication and language development skilfully. Children receive targeted support that is well matched to their stage of development. Two-year-old children name animals, as they remove them from a bag and explore the sounds they make. Older children show control as they listen to what their friends say and respond with their own ideas. Children make good progress in their communication and language skills, which has also benefitted the progress they make in managing their feelings and behaviour.
• Staff provide children with good opportunities to learn about cultures beyond their immediate experience. Children learn about the different ways that people celebrate. Staff help children to appreciate their similarities and differences.
• Staff encourage children to gain confidence in their own abilities and to manage everyday tasks for themselves. Children learn to wipe their noses, wash their hands and access the toilet independently. They put on their coats when they go outdoors. Children understand about limiting the spread of germs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the curriculum for children's physical development to precisely identify the sequence of skills that children need to gain to further support staff in their planning
• help staff to plan the learning environment so that children benefit from further opportunities to extend their thinking skills and to solve problems independently.