Greenway Nursery And Rainbow Club

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff pride themselves on creating a family feel at the nursery. Children are very happy, safe and secure. The effective settling-in process helps children separate easily from their parents, including new children to the setting. Children are very confident individuals. Staff respect each child's individual personality, which helps children to feel valued. Staff are good role models who help children to learn about boundaries and working well with others. Children learn to manage their own emotions and start to recognise the needs of others around them. This helps children to build important skills for their future learning.

Children's well-being is paramount to the staff team and this includes regular access to the outdoors. Children have space to explore and investigate in their play. For example, they show good balance and spatial awareness when using the bikes and scooters. Children are excited learners as they search for insects when digging in the compost or observing the various hiding places in the 'bug hotel'. This helps children to build an early awareness of and curiosity about the wider world around them. Staff help children to learn about making healthy choices in the food they eat. They take time to involve them in discussions about their own likes and dislikes during snack-time and lunchtime routines. This helps children to learn about making informed choices to promote their own health.

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

• The manager is completely dedicated to her role and fully involves her staff in raising the quality of all areas of the nursery. Staff feel valued and part of an effective team. Leaders have worked well towards meeting the recommendations set at the last inspection. For instance, there is now a robust supervision process in place that helps staff to be more reflective in their practice. Time is also taken to plan for professional development opportunities to increase staff knowledge. For instance, recent autism training helps staff to further support all children who attend the setting.
• Children make good and steady progress. Staff carefully observe children's development and plan challenging next steps for children's learning in line with their interests. Children who are funded and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are provided with targeted support to help them succeed to the best of their ability. Staff recognise the importance of sharing information with other professionals and this helps children to thrive.
• Staff encourage children to develop a strong sense of belonging, which helps children to build on their self-esteem and confidence in their growing abilities. Children display positive attitudes to their learning and a willingness to try new things. However, staff are too quick to help children to complete simple tasks that they can manage by themselves, including putting on their clothing, serving themselves at mealtimes or helping to set up activities. This does not consistently support all children to develop higher levels of self-care skills and responsibility.
• Partnerships with parents are good. There is a constant two-way flow of communication. Parents feel included in their child's development and the next steps that are planned for their learning. For instance, the staff share books that parents and children can choose to use at home. Parents comment that they are impressed with the high level of care children receive and how staff strive to support the needs of the children.
• Children are eager learners. They quickly busy themselves in planned activities that also help them to explore with early mathematics. For example, children use play dough as cement to build blocks for a castle and count spots on a dice during group time. However, staff do not always encourage children to follow their own ideas to develop their creativity. For instance, staff often tell children what to do during creative activities and there are fewer opportunities for children to express themselves freely.
• Staff place importance on supporting children's communication and language, including children who speak English as an additional language. Children are articulate and happily express their own opinions in discussions with staff and visitors. They are given time to answer questions asked of them to build on their increasing vocabulary. Children enjoy regular story times and have access to a rich range of books to help them to build early literacy skills and a love of stories.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to recognise and make better use of opportunities to help children to develop higher levels of independence and responsibility
• strengthen support for children to develop their own creativity and imagination during planned activities.