Katharine Bruce Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff show passion for ensuring children become confident and independent learners. Children are highly motivated and show excitement, when engaging in all the activities on offer at the nursery. The experienced staff team know children well and ensure that they offer children high levels of challenge and quality interactions to support them to get the most from the planned activities on offer. The curriculum is language rich and supports children to develop sophisticated vocabulary. The links with real-life experiences allow children opportunities to understand and make sense of the world they live in.

Children show high levels of respect for each other and the staff team. The nursery motto is to 'Be kind, brave and show the hand of friendship to one another'. Children demonstrate they fully understand this as they play happily with, and alongside, their friends and staff. The effective use of storytelling, sensory activities and yoga allows children opportunities to talk about how they are feeling and explore ways to manage and regulate their emotions as needed. This supports children to feel safe and secure at nursery.

Staff fully encourage children to be expressive. Babies excitedly enjoy clapping and waving their hands as they move to the rhythm of the music during song time. Staff enthusiastically play musical instruments and sing familiar songs to children. Children enjoy moving coloured scarves up and down and from side to side as they join in with the actions to the songs. They show high levels of interest and engagement and are given huge amounts of praise from staff.

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

• Staff ensure that children are immersed in language as they play. Younger children enjoy learning the new words of 'sweet' and 'sour' as they squeeze lemons and limes to make flavoured water. Older children are supported to learn the new words of 'lava' and 'magma' and 'active' and 'dormant' as they engage in exciting experiments to learn about volcanoes. Staff support them exceptionally well and ensure that new language learned is regularly reviewed and revisited to embed this new vocabulary for the children.
• Children enjoy learning about where their food comes from and the importance of healthy eating as part of a healthy lifestyle. Children enjoy growing tomatoes, carrots and rosemary in their greenhouse. The nursery chef then supports children to become her 'mini chefs'. They use their home-grown produce to create 'yummy' dishes to share with their friends and family. Children have opportunities to taste a variety of different foods from around the world and staff use mealtimes to talk to children about the importance of eating a variety of different fruits and vegetables.
• Children show huge amounts of enthusiasm as they play and learn. Staff offer them motivation to keep on trying when they encounter difficulties. Children enjoy the success they feel as they are guided expertly by staff to persevere to make their 'monster truck' from large wooden blocks. Staff instill confidence in children so they can believe in their own abilities.
• Children are supported exceptionally well as they develop their small-muscle skills in preparation for writing. Babies enjoy squeezing, tearing and rolling out clay. Older children enjoy using paintbrushes to 'splatter paint'. Children of all ages enjoy stirring and mixing ingredients together in the mud kitchen to create 'snail sandwiches and pine cone pizzas' from recipe cards.
• Parents love the 'open door' policy at nursery. They say that staff are incredibly nurturing and that their children are greeted each day with enthusiasm. They know what their children are learning and can see the progress they have made since starting at nursery, and particularly how they have grown in confidence. They feel their children are well prepared for their next stages in learning, including starting school.
• Leaders ensure that staff are offered a programme of professional development that is personalised to them. Staff are given opportunities to gain a range of recognised early years qualifications and are set challenging targets to achieve by leaders. Leaders value partnership working and have built strong links with their local community, the local authority and parents. Leaders ensure that all children, including children from disadvantaged backgrounds and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are given access to a curriculum that supports them to thrive and achieve to the best of their abilities.