Grendon & Billesley Nursery & Family Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are making continual progress across the seven areas of learning. They have access to a very good variety of resources. Staff promote children's development of physical skills through energetic adult-led activities. Children aged two to three years participate in jumping as high as they can off the ground and running on the spot. Children engage when they listen to music that captures their attention.

Babies confidently explore their immediate environment through one-to-one support from the staff who care for them. Babies are very settled and staff sensitively support those who are new to the nursery. Babies are given the time and care they need to become familiar with their new environment.

Pre-school children develop good friendships with their peers. They frequently chat with one another while they play and create their own games. Children in the out-of-school club laugh with staff when they play games of bingo. All children learn the importance of using their manners and being respectful towards adults and visitors.

Children are engaged in their learning most of the time. Children of all ages and stages of development relish the opportunities available to them to play in the well-resourced and exciting outdoor areas. They make their own decisions about who and what they want to play with. Children frequently choose to move between playing indoors and outdoors throughout the day.

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

• Management and staff work extremely well together as a team. Staff feel valued by management and very supported in their roles. Members of the management team know the individual staff very well. They identify staff's strengths and areas they need support to develop. Management provides counselling opportunities for all staff to support their mental health and well-being. Specialist help is provided to support the whole team through challenging times. For example, staff were helped to implement strategies to manage their concerns and anxieties, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Overall, the quality of teaching is good, children are very happy, and they enjoy their learning. That said, there are occasions when staff are not fully effective in encouraging the children to have a go for themselves. At times, this hinders the progress children make.
• Staff promote children's personal development well most of the time. However, there are occasions when staff do not explain to the children the consequences of their behaviour. As a result, children are not always clear about what staff expect of them.
• Staff support children's communication and language effectively. They ask the children questions to help them to think. Staff also introduce sign language to aid children's skills in communicating. Young children express themselves and demonstrate their understanding of language by the signs they make. For example, they listen to a story, read to them by staff, about a monster. They sign to indicate that they understand when the monster is feeling happy, sad or angry.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They are knowledgeable about the children's individual needs. Staff understand that these children may need more intense support to begin to learn to manage their own feelings and behaviour. Effective strategies are in place to ensure staff are supported to identify gaps in children's learning. Staff can also identify potential delays in children's development. The special educational needs coordinator takes swift action to provide intervention at the earliest opportunity. Staff also use funding to support the children's development.
• Children thoroughly enjoy a well-balanced and nutritional diet. All food is cooked on site from fresh ingredients each day. The organisation of mealtimes helps children to socialise with staff and one another. Children develop a secure understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and diet. For example, they engage in conversations about the benefit of eating vegetables.
• Inclusive practice is extremely successful with regard to partnership working. Parents express in abundance the excellent service provided for them and their children, including during the period of recent lockdowns. Parents describe the nursery as 'perfect' and 'fantastic'. They enthusiastically compliment the staff on the support they give to them in meeting their needs, in addition to superbly meeting the needs of their children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• utilise opportunities more consistently for children to be encouraged to have a go at developing their own ideas during activities and independently manage routine tasks, to enhance all areas of their development
• improve the arrangements to ensure all staff consistently implement strategies designed to support children in managing their own behaviour.