Higher Broughton Children's Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and safe at this child-centred and friendly nursery. Staff get to know children well when they first start during the settling-in process. This helps children to settle and to develop a strong sense of belonging. They know where to put their coats and independently get their scarves from their own pegs. Staff build nurturing relationships with children. For example, babies snuggle up comfortably as staff gently rock them to sleep.

Children are positive about their learning. They enjoy spending time in the outdoor area, building up their large-muscle skills, while riding on tricycles and walking up and down steps. Children show curiosity about the world around them. They become fascinated while searching for bugs under logs. Children notice the frost and say that the 'ice is cold'. They develop their imaginations while going on an imaginary 'bear hunt'. Indoors, children practise their small-muscle skills while snipping wrapping paper using scissors, and by rolling out play dough. Babies enjoy sensory activities, such as exploring the texture of oats. They show perseverance and develop their strength as they climb up onto low-level apparatus. Babies are enthralled while reaching up to pop bubbles. They giggle with delight and ask for 'more bubbles'.

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

• Leaders' vision is for children to be at the centre of everything that they do. They aim to provide a 'stimulating environment' for the children. Self-assessment is thorough and allows leaders to continue to identify how they can further improve the nursery.
• Overall, children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those with funded places, make good progress. Leaders have developed a bespoke curriculum, which follows children's interests and builds on what they already know and can do. Children eagerly joined in with a walk outdoors to find animals, while staff retold the 'Dear Zoo' story. However, staff practice is not consistently high. For example, they do not always help children to engage in purposeful learning.
• Staff foster children's love of reading by sharing a good range of books. Babies repeat words that staff say during their play, such as 'scoop'. However, some staff's interactions with children are not always effective. For example, they do not always encourage children to partake in thoughtful conversations, to develop children's thinking and language skills. As a result, some children do not consistently make as much progress as they are capable of making.
• Staff support children who speak English as an additional language well. They use words in children's home languages to help them to feel valued and to grasp a good command of English. Staff teach children about differences between themselves and others, such as differences in appearances and the festivals that people celebrate.
• Staff promote children's independence. They encourage children to put on their own wetsuits for outdoor play. Children help to serve their own home-cooked, nutritious food. Babies learn to eat with cutlery and wipe their own faces after eating.
• Children were highly curious about the inspector. For example, babies babbled excitedly, while walking towards him. Children are caring towards others. During group time, they remembered to include staff and the inspector in the 'good morning' greeting.
• The support in place for children with SEND is a golden thread of this nursery. Staff support children with SEND remarkably well and get them the help that they rightfully deserve. Staff take children to the local shop, for example, to develop their confidence and social skills. Leaders have developed a sensory room to provide a calming space for children to benefit from.
• Partnership working is excellent. Leaders have strong links with external professionals. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the nursery and describe it as a 'godsend'. They say that their children have 'come on leaps and bounds' and that the staff go 'above and beyond' in their support. Parents value the 'fantastic' communication from staff, which helps them to extend their children's learning at home.
• Staff access an effective programme of training, supervision and support. They say that the nursery is like a 'little family'. Staff recently attended training to help to support children's emotional well-being, following the COVID-19 pandemic.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop their practice to a consistently high level, so that children always engage in purposeful learning
• strengthen staff's interactions with children, so that children consistently make as much progress that they are capable of making.