Harwell Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff make children feel extremely welcome, safe and secure. Children are greeted warmly at the front door and these positive interactions continue throughout the day. Leaders understand how important it is to children's sense of security to be cared for by staff they recognise and know well. Staff are deployed extremely well to ensure this is the case. Children respond by showing high levels of well-being. Children of all ages are confident to move around the environment and approach and engage with staff. They know they will be helped to join in with all the exciting activities on offer. In turn, this effective practice helps build positive attitudes towards learning. Children behave well for their age, because staff are clear and consistent about expectations and gently support children to learn to share and consider the needs of each other.

Leaders are highly ambitious for all children. They have designed a detailed programme of learning that provides children with opportunities to develop a broad set of important skills in preparation for their future learning. Over their time at nursery staff build on children's skills. For example, staff clearly build on children's self-help skills as the move from the baby room, to the toddler room, to pre-school. By the time children are approaching the start of school they are more than ready for the move.

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

• Children's language and communication development is given a high priority throughout the nursery. Staff adapt their interactions with children very effectively to meet their stages of development. They clearly model sounds and single words for babies. Toddlers are encouraged to engage in simple back-and-forth conversations about what they see and do. Staff understand the value of giving all children time to think, so they can consider their responses to questions and thoughtfully add to conversations. Throughout the nursery staff are always available to read with children, and children relish these opportunities. Children develop into confident communicators, with a real love of books.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive very good support. Staff identify children who may need extra help and work closely with parents and other professionals to ensure they get the support they may need to make the progress of which they are capable. Additional funding is used very effectively to help these children join in, and learn well from, all the nursery has to offer. These children are supported very well to close gaps in their learning.
• Leaders plan a comprehensive curriculum, based on children's interests and learning needs. Overall, staff share leader's understanding of the aims for the curriculum, especially in regard to promoting children's social, physical and language skills. However, sometimes during focused learning experiences staff are not fully confident about the skills or knowledge they are to focus on teaching children. At these times teaching is less effective at building further on children's existing skills and knowledge.
• Children are successfully supported to become inquisitive learners. Staff encourage children to keep trying and to explore all that is on offer. For example, children are fascinated to learn about the smells, tastes and feel of different fruits. Staff introduce new words and encourage children to repeat to embed understanding. Staff work with children to consider the impact that rubbish has on our environment and children enjoy learning about the different ways they can protect the sea and the creatures that live in it.
• Staff plan well to give children a wide range of experiences about the world around them. This adds to children's bank of knowledge and also helps them well to develop into responsible and caring citizens. Children learn about recycling. They learn about the natural world and make trips out into the local community to experience different types of transport and places of interest. Staff know that families come in all different shapes and sizes and value and celebrate all equally. Children develop a strong understanding of what makes them unique and valuable to society.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents are full of praise for the nursery, one saying they 'struck gold' when they found this nursery. Staff successfully engage them in nursery life. They invite parents to events hosted at the nursery, using these opportunities well to help them understand what their children are learning. Staff encourage parents to borrow books to read with their children and send home activities for families to enjoy together. This all helps further promote children's learning at home.
• The manager leads her team very well. She values her staff and the good job they do. She helps them achieve a healthy work-life balance, which in turn helps ensure a stable staff team, who know the children well and who children trust and like. This has a positive impact on the well-being of both staff and children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen some staff's understanding of the curriculum intent, to enable them to more precisely deliver teaching that focuses clearly on what children will most benefit from learning next.