Growing Up Green

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children eagerly arrive and receive a warm welcome from the staff in this vibrant and well-organised nursery. They are happy and settle quickly, keen to engage with a range of exciting play opportunities. Staff work hard to get to know the children well in order to establish what they need to teach. They use this information to provide a broad and balanced curriculum to continue to build on what children already know, remember, and can do.

Staff offer sensitive and nurturing care to babies, and ensure that they tailor the care and support to the individual needs of each child. They emphasise the importance of developing secure attachments so that babies feel safe and secure. This contributes to very young children feeling confident to explore their playroom. They show fascination in their own reflection in mirrors and challenge themselves to navigate the step and slide unit.

Staff ensure that children have opportunities to learn about life beyond the nursery. This includes visits from people who help us, such as dentists and firefighters. Children learn about road safety and find out about the natural world as they visit areas in the local community. Furthermore, staff teach children what makes them unique and support them to learn about each other's cultural heritage. Staff support children to learn about customs, music, and cuisine linked to countries that families come from. This supports children to learn about and appreciate the diverse fabric of society and broadens their experience of the wider world.

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

• Leaders have good monitoring processes to support the new manager and have effective governance of the setting. They welcome and value feedback from parents, staff, and children to evaluate the effectiveness of the provision. Leaders use this to reflect on their service and devise action plans to continually drive improvement. There are some minor oversights in the robustness of recruitment and vetting processes. However, leaders protect children by not allowing new staff to start employment until their suitability has been assured.
• Overall, most staff have a clear understanding of how to plan and implement an effective curriculum to support children's learning. However, some staff are not always clear about this process and focus on activities prior to thinking about their intent for what children need to learn. Despite this, children demonstrate that they are making good progress in their learning and development.
• Staff organise play experiences that ignite children's curiosity and help them to make connections in their learning. For example, staff engage children in a singing session. Children join in singing 'Five current buns in the baker's shop'. Children delight as they exchange pretend pennies for purchasing buns. Staff teach mathematical concepts around counting buns and working out how many they have left. This contributes to building children's problem-solving skills.
• Managers and staff recognise that children need support to help them with their emotional well-being. Staff provide age-appropriate activities and resources to build on children's emotional resilience. For instance, staff engage children in discussions and stories that explore emotions and feelings. This contributes to equipping children with ways to cope when they experience big emotions. Occasionally, staff are not always swift enough when children become agitated or upset, which can, at times, monopolise activities taking place. Nevertheless, this does not happen often, and management recognise how to strengthen staff practice. This is to ensure that the approach to supporting children's behaviours is robust.
• Staff demonstrate good teaching practice to develop children's communication and language skills. Staff introduce new words that are connected to children's play and learning experiences. For instance, staff explain what a 'propeller' is and its function when a child is constructing a toy helicopter. Furthermore, children recall words that they learn when staff ask at story time if they know what an illustrator is. Children confidently explain that this is someone who draws the pictures. This contributes to extending children's range of vocabulary.
• The new special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works closely with a manager to have oversight of children. Plans are in place to support children who may have delays in their development. The SENCo works with staff to ensure that children receive support to help them to catch up. However, support plans are not always clear in how staff are to implement strategies in order to meet the actions set. Despite this, children receive good levels of support, and referrals are being made to external professionals. This is to ensure that children receive intervention at the earliest opportunity.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff's knowledge and skills so that they are confident in how they can consistently support children's emotional well-being
• strengthen teaching practice for staff to precisely know the intent behind what children are to learn prior to implementing activities
• review the support plans for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities so that they provide clarity about how staff are to implement strategies to reach their targets
• strengthen safe recruitment procedures to have assurance that vetting checks are robustly followed up so that suitability evidence is consistently sufficient.