Halo Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and managers demonstrate high aspirations for all children. They have worked hard to embed and improve the curriculum since the last inspection. Staff training, and supervision sessions have been prioritised. Staff are confident to talk about their key children's development and the next steps for their learning. They have established effective partnerships with parents and outside professionals. This helps to ensure all children, including those with special educational needs and or/disabilities, are supported to make good progress. Staff ensure that all children are supported to have a voice. For example, visual timetables and learning prompts help children to understand the routines of the day so they can be included in the plans.

Children have secure attachments with staff. The warm welcome they receive in the morning supports them to arrive happy and confident. Children independently find their pegs to hang up their coats and bags. Staff support children to have choices. For example, children are excited to choose their favourite songs to sing. Their self-esteem is lifted when staff praise them for their good listening or for their helpful behaviours as they tidy away resources. Children learn how to keep themselves safe, staff teach them about safety protocols when they are going on outings to the park. These encouraging opportunities support children to develop positive attitudes towards their own self-care and learning.

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

• Managers and staff have clear intentions for the learning that children will achieve while attending nursery. Staff plan a broad curriculum with due focus on meeting all children's individual learning needs. Staff planning encompasses children's interests while also making learning fun. For example, children are excited to make and eat their own pizzas. They learn how to squeeze and spread puree onto their bases and add toppings of their choice. Staff introduce new vocabulary, such as 'ingredients' and 'spreading'. Children demonstrate good concentration skills. They listen and follow instructions well. These skills help to prepare children for their eventual move on to school.
• Children are excited to engage in adult-led learning experiences. They are focused on filling containers as staff teach them the concepts of 'full' and 'empty'. Children enjoy catching pretend fish in the water tray, as staff encourage them to count how many they have altogether.
• Children behave well as staff teach them about sharing and taking turns. However, staff do not consistently support children to understand the rules of accessing popular activities. This is because children who want to join in are told to return in a short while, when there are less children. Staff do not consistently monitor this, which means that some children do not get a turn. Consequently, children are not always supported to understand rules of fairness.
• Children are enthusiastic to go to the park. Staff support their independence. They teach them how to put on their own coats. They provide children with praise when they persevere with their buttons and zips. Children learn to climb and balance with staff, who teach them how to use physical play equipment. For those children who prefer quieter pursuits, staff provide chalks for drawing and buckets and spades to make sandcastles. This helps to ensure that all children can do something they enjoy. This, in turn, supports children to develop positive attitudes towards their learning.
• Staff provide ample opportunities for children to engage in role play to support their imagination. They plan adult-led creative experiences to encourage children to explore paint and concepts of colour. However, these experiences do not consistently support children to be successful in pursuing their own ideas. For example, small painting pallets with large brushes result in children's paper becoming saturated with water. This does not always support children to be successful in their creativity.
• Parents express high levels of satisfaction with the nursery. They value the positive relationships their children have with their key person. They state their children have made good progress. Parents comment particularly on their children's improved communication and language, and their development of good social skills. Parents feel well informed about their children's progress, and value both verbal and written feedback they receive.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on strategies used to support behaviour, so that all children are consistently supported to understand rules and boundaries
• improve opportunities for children to successfully explore craft materials, allowing them to use their imaginations to test out their own ideas.