Homeland Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this wonderfully nurturing, homely environment, where they develop exceptionally close bonds with their key person. They become deeply engaged and enthusiastic in their play, supported by highly knowledgeable staff. The meticulous sequencing of children's learning provides all children with a solid foundation on which to build further skills. Exceptionally rich and varied experiences are carefully planned, based on children's interests. For example, older babies start to notice sounds in the environment, such as an aeroplane. Staff enrich this interest in transport with a ride on the tram and the bus. This enables children to engage in real-life experiences, therefore offering more meaning to the activity.

Staff have exceptionally high expectations of all children. They promote children's courteous behaviour through consistent use of their 'golden rules' of good listening, kind hands and respect. Children show impressive respect for the people around them. Exceptional settling-in and transition arrangements between rooms support children to become exceedingly confident and self-assured individuals. As a result, children are well prepared for the next stage in their journey. During the COVID-19 pandemic, staff offered superb support to parents in order to help them to extend their child's learning at home. They also engaged in regular video calls with children. This helped to ensure that children continued to make excellent progress, and that they seamlessly returned to nursery when it was safe to do so.

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

• Leaders and staff implement an ambitious, bespoke curriculum which is designed to reflect the individuality of children. The early years teacher supports staff to effectively implement the curriculum across the setting. She meticulously focuses on the individual needs of the staff and their key children. This rigorous support enables all staff to receive highly bespoke professional development opportunities in order to maintain their skills at the highest level.
• High-quality interactions between staff and children help children to learn and confidently use new vocabulary. Staff offer a narrative as children play. This helps to support and extend children's impressive oral skills. Children effortlessly make links in their learning. They independently recall knowledge they have learned previously. For example, they eagerly recall the process of building a pond and making a habitat for the fish to live in. Children are extremely articulate learners who seek to build upon their knowledge and skills.
• Children have access to a thoughtfully planned and well-resourced outdoor area, where they learn about nature first hand. For example, children use binoculars to watch the birds feeding in trees from the bird-watching hut. They become immersed in planting their own seeds and vegetables within the forest-school site. This provides superb real-life opportunities to plant, grow and care for other living things.
• Staff monitor children's progress rigorously. They swiftly identify any gaps in children's learning and implement individual plans to ensure that all children receive the support they need to make excellent progress. Staff actively seek advice from other agencies, when required, such as speech and language services and specialist teachers. Excellent professional relationships with a range of other agencies help to ensure that all children's needs are superbly met.
• Leaders place a high priority on developing children's physical skills through play. For example, exploring malleable materials with younger children supports them to become confident in copying and instigating the moves, rolling the dough out, squishing and squeezing. This helps to develop children's fine-motor skills in preparation for writing and mark making.
• Children listen to a wealth of stories each day and delight in joining in with familiar phrases. They borrow books from the local library, further promoting their obvious love of reading. Literacy skills are further enhanced through a wide range of speaking and listening games. For example, children know that a label reads 'suitcase' as they recognise that it starts with 's'.
• Leaders place a great emphasis on the emotional well-being of staff by offering opportunities for team building, well-being events, and minimising workload where possible. They actively encourage and support staff to enhance their qualifications by attaining early years teacher status and forest-school practitioner qualifications. In return, staff retention is excellent, and the team are incredibly supportive of each other. Staff are encouraged to share aspects of their outstanding practice. They learn from each other in order to ensure consistency and continually build upon their impressive skills.
• Leaders are committed to supporting the physical and emotional health of children. External agencies support staff in delivering weekly music and movement sessions. They encourage children to become more active through practical sessions. Children understand the importance of good physical health and exercise on their bodies. Furthermore, they receive support from dental health professionals who help promote positive family attitudes to oral health.