Greystone Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children benefit from bespoke settling-in sessions. The key-person system successfully values the needs and preferences of every child. This contributes towards the special bonds that are formed between children and staff. Children's behaviour is good. Children learn from staff that 'team work makes the dream work'. They happily work together with others to complete tasks, such as tidying up. Children are happy, settled and safe at this calm and inviting nursery. They make many independent choices during play and show confidence to ask for help.

Leaders and staff aim to ensure that 'every child gets the best possible start in life'. They create an ambitious curriculum that ignites children's natural curiosity and imagination. Children immerse themselves in their play and learning. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) reflect on their home life experiences when pretending to make a cup of tea using real-life crockery. Children who speak English as an additional language recall their learning from a trip to a health clinic at the community centre. During play with dolls, they display their excellent knowledge of different occupations and position a stethoscope accurately to listen for a heartbeat. Children investigate the properties of water when exploring the water wall. They watch as the water flows down a funnel and through a pipe and persevere when attempting to catch this at the bottom.

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

• Leaders and staff work together seamlessly. They draw on each other's strengths to create a diverse team. Staff show a true commitment to continued improvement. They make good use of additional funding to close any gaps in children's learning. For instance, the new woodland creatures area boosts children's confidence to engage with others and contributes towards their heightened knowledge of living things and their habitats.
• The well-qualified staff capture what children enjoy and need to learn next. Children, including those who speak English as an additional language, rise to the new challenges that staff present them with. For instance, they write with a purpose in mind when creating a recipe to make a fruit smoothie. Children respond well to staff. They count fruits, using one number for each item, and later recognise a group of three raspberries without having to count them. Children remain deeply engrossed in their learning and concentrate well.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language skills well. Children who speak English as an additional language enjoy singing songs in their home languages. They are starting to speak fluently and in full sentences. Staff are beginning to use a broader range of communication techniques, such as visual boards, choice cards and simple signing, to help children with SEND to communicate more easily. However, these personalised communication aids are not consistently used in practice from the outset. This does not support all children to make the very best progress in their early language development.
• Staff support children to develop a love for books and reading. Children thoroughly enjoy their time in the appealing reading den. They take interest in the print and illustrations in books and turn the pages, sometimes, from left to right. Staff read to children with enthusiasm. They encourage children to take books home to further inspire their early reading skills.
• There is a generally good programme of support, coaching and training in place for staff. The manager spends vast amounts of time engaging in discussions with staff each day. She carries out some formal supervision meetings with staff to discuss their ongoing performance. However, at times, these meetings are infrequent and some ongoing targets do not precisely identify what staff need to do to enhance their good teaching further.
• The caring staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. Staff invent enchanting songs to gain the attention of all children. They are quick to provide calming activities to help children to regain focus. Children adopt kind and considerate attitudes. They willingly share toys with their friends without prompting and often give each other a friendly cuddle during play.
• Parents are kept well informed of their children's learning and progress. Staff provide parents with access to resources, such as healthy recipe ideas, to further promote children's good health at home. They have plans in place to reintroduce events, such as stay-and-play sessions, to enable parents to feel even more involved in all aspects of nursery life.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• expand the use of the new communication aids and support children with SEND to communicate more freely, to help them to make the highest rates of progress in their early language development from the very outset
• strengthen the existing arrangements for staff supervision and provide more formal and frequent support and coaching to all staff that precisely focuses on helping them to extend their good teaching practice further.