Lascelles Park Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children demonstrate they feel safe and that they are happy at the nursery. They enter the nursery with confidence and leave their parents easily at the door. Children have a welcoming environment in which to play. Staff attractively set up exciting activities for the children to inspire them to play. For example, the children have cosy den areas to relax and enjoy books in. The environment is organised effectively to ensure all areas of learning are catered for and to promote learning. For instance, children have access to media and materials, such as paint, dough and cutters, which help them to build on their small-physical skills. Outside, children have a good range of play equipment, which they climb, balance and pull themselves onto. This supports and builds on children's moving and handling skills for physical development.

Children are busy, engaged and have fun playing games with their friends where they are heard giggling together. For instance, children show great delight as they wave ribbons and copy each other in different movements. Children behave well, and together they share and turn take effectively. Staff have high expectations in helping children to manage and talk about their feelings. For example, they ask children about family members and talk about different ways their friends feel as they play. This supports children's emotional well-being. Children benefit from staff talking and providing a narrative to their play, and overall, communication and language is well promoted.

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

• The management team have successfully enhanced the nursery since the last inspection. They have reflected on ensuring all documentation is now in place and that training for staff is fully embedded and understood.
• The curriculum is organised well. The management team and staff know what they want the children to learn and provide good-quality teaching to help children achieve this. Staff know their key children and plan and provide activities that are supportive of their next steps and help them make progress. Additional funding is used effectively to enhance children's learning experiences and development.
• All staff provide a wide range of activities that support children's future skills in learning. For instance, staff incorporate mathematical learning in everyday activities to help children learn about numbers, measures and size successfully. This was seen at the inspection, as the children hunted for treasure in the sand, counting how many pennies they have, to filling containers with water. These types of activities help children in their development for future learning.
• Staff support children's communication and language skills well overall. For instance, they respond to what children say and repeat words back to children to help them with pronunciation. Staff help children to learn words in context accordingly. For example, they use songs, rhymes and stories to help children hear, speak and sing with the repetition of words. This helps to build on their vocabulary. However, sometimes, staff do not encourage less-confident children to join in during group activities to help them take a more active role.
• Children are seen to manage their personal care needs very well. For instance, they wash their hands without prompting, and most know when they need a tissue and use these effectively, disposing of them as needed in the bin. Staff support children's behaviour well and offer consistent praise to them for their achievements. However, on occasion, staff do not help children to understand the consequences of why rules need to be followed. For example, children are not supported to learn why they should not run inside or why they should not kick toys.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents speak very positively about the support their children receive, how lovely the staff are and the good amount of information that is shared with them. Partnerships with other professionals is well established to help meet and maintain continuity of care.
• Staff receive good support, coaching and training to help them advance their knowledge and skills. They comment that they are valued and supported by the management team, that they have regular supervision and can talk about their performance and training regularly. This helps to ensure that staff are confident and capable in their roles and responsibilities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• encourage all children to take an active part in group activities, in particular to support those who are less confident at these times
• build on the good-behaviour management strategies to help support children's understanding of the rules and boundaries even further.