Green Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this welcoming nursery, where they confidently explore the exciting and enticing activities on offer. Pre-school children are motivated to learn. Staff place themselves at key points around the room, enabling them to purposefully interact in children's play and ask thoughtful questions to prompt children's thinking further. As a result, children stay engaged in their play for lengthy periods of time. Staff are positive role models. They support children to use their manners, take turns and help tidy away resources. Staff are vigilant and know which children require additional support to manage their emotions. For example, when children occasionally struggle to share toys, staff swiftly intervene and gently help them to play alongside their friends.

Children are eager to take part in outdoor play. Toddlers use their arm muscles as they play ball games with staff. They are full of smiles as they successfully throw balls back and forth to each other. Staff present additional challenge by encouraging children to stand further back and throw the balls overarm. Other toddlers watch with interest as staff demonstrate how to hit balls with a bat. This helps develop children's hand-eye coordination. Children persevere, happily running after any balls that roll away.

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

• Managers work hard to build positive relationships with parents in the local community. For example, early help strategies are well established to support parents to enhance their children's learning at home. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the care their children receive. They state their children are treated as individuals and receive consistent care and support to ensure they are ready for school. Parents say their children are developing positive behaviours and communication skills.
• Leaders and managers have created a culture where staff are highly valued. There is a strong focus on staff training, development and continuing support. Managers are reflective and constantly strive to improve. For example, managers provide opportunities for staff to network with other settings and organisations, to enhance their practice even further.
• Staff provide activities within the daily routine to help children develop their early independence skills. Pre-school children are praised for hanging their coats tidily away on coat pegs, serving their own lunch and pouring their own drinking water. Toddlers are supported to wipe their own nose, put their used tissues in the bin, and to place their dirty plates in a pile when they have finished lunch. This helps children learn to do as much for themselves as possible.
• Staff provide an abundance of activities for children to develop their small-muscle skills. These activities help children practise the skills that are needed for early writing. During water play, children use their thumbs to squirt water from spray bottles and staff help them use large pipettes to suck up water. Children use small pans to scoop up items under the water and are excited to find stones they can see themselves in. Staff introduce new vocabulary such as 'reflective,' and 'shiny' to describe the stones.
• Staff have thoughtfully placed books around the setting for children to freely access. Children chose books and confidently approach staff to read to them. In addition, staff ensure there are dedicated group story times. Pre-school children listen intently as staff read them a story about a police car chasing a thief. Staff provide time for the children to suggest what might happen next. Children actively engage and enjoy making the sound of the police siren, and consider what the police car can do to help it see in the dark. This helps children to develop a love of books.
• Staff know their key children, including what makes them unique. They determine appropriate next steps and understand how to embed these within children's play. However, there are occasions when staff do not recognise children's emerging interests during activities. As a result, children's questions sometimes go unanswered and their interests are not extended even further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's skills in responding to children's emerging interests, in order to capture their curiosity and build on what they already know and can do.