Lady Lane Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive excited and eager to explore the well-planned and organised learning environment. They build strong attachments and relationships with staff who are warm, welcoming and friendly. Staff act as positive role models to children with their kind, caring and nurturing approach. Children play well with their friends and learn how to cooperate, share and take turns. They delight in the encouragement and praise that they receive from staff during their play. Children are motivated learners and demonstrate high levels of confidence and self-esteem.

Staff give high priority to creating an inclusive and calm learning environment that sparks children's interests to explore the activities on offer. They provide children with quality learning resources that are available for them to self-select and initiate their own learning. Staff support and encourage children to become independent learners. They adapt their approach and respond to children's interests well. For example, staff extend younger children's learning and provide them with different materials to build simple structures as they master using blocks. This helps to further develop their physical skills and hand-eye coordination. Older children have opportunities to refine their fine motor skills and dexterity, for example, through mark making and playing with construction materials. This helps to develop the motor skills needed later for writing.

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

• Children settle in at the nursery well. Staff take the time to get to know each child and their family from their starting point. They gather key information from parents about their child and use this to plan familiar care routines and activities according to the child's interests. They use the information that they gathered to help children settle in and provide reassurance when they become upset, for example when children need their comforters that they brought.
• The curriculum is well planned and sequenced to help build on what children already know and can do, overall. Staff complete observations and assessments to monitor children's progress. They use these to identify what children need to learn next and plan their curriculum around this. However, on occasions, some of the youngest children do not receive the targeted support that they need to further develop their emerging communication and language skills.
• Staff value the importance of children having access to a wide range of books and text to help develop their literacy skills and vocabulary. Children develop a love of books and reading. They have daily opportunities to listen to stories during circle time. Children self-select from a wide range of books and look at these independently or with support from staff.
• Children are well prepared for their future learning and eventual move to school. Staff support them to become increasingly independent in managing their self- care needs and hygiene as they transition between rooms. For example, babies and younger children learn how to feed themselves independently. Older children learn how to manage their personal hygiene and eat using cutlery in preparation for their eventual move to nursery school.
• Staff give high priority to children's personal, social and emotional development. They teach children strategies to help them communicate their feelings and emotions in a variety of ways. For example, they use sign language, picture cards and spend time talking to children about their feelings and emotions. These highly effective strategies develop children's awareness of their feelings. They quickly learn ways to regulate their emotions from their starting points.
• Partnership working with external professionals is effective. For example, staff have good links with professionals who work for the local authority. They use these relationships to seek support and training, which contributes to the ongoing development of the nursery. Staff have recently received training on developing a communication-friendly environment. This training has been embedded well for staff working with older children. However, this has yet to be fully embedded for staff working with the youngest children in the nursery.
• Staff ensure that parents are kept well informed about the levels of progress their child is making. For example, they share information about their child's progress and next steps electronically and during face-to-face meetings. They share ideas about ways to support their child's learning at home, which helps to promote a consistent approach.
• The provider failed to notify Ofsted of a significant event, which is a requirement of their registration. This was discussed with leaders during the inspection and they are now aware of reporting significant events to Ofsted.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure the youngest children receive the targeted support that they need to develop their communication and language skills even further
• embed the recent training that staff have received to further develop their understanding of how to support communication and language skills in the youngest children.