Learning Corner Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children benefit from an ambitious curriculum. Staff ensure that they know children well and know what they need to learn. All activities are designed to ensure that children make the progress that they are capable of. Children smile and are greeted by enthusiastic, caring staff as they enter their allocated rooms. Activities are set out which reflect the interests of children. As a result, children are eager to learn and explore what is on offer. Younger children select different tools and begin to make marks in dough. Older children select various craft materials and begin to make structures.

Behaviour is good. Staff provide times where older children integrate with younger children in the garden and at mealtimes. Younger children benefit from the company of older children, looking up to them as role models. Older children are kind and considerate to even the youngest of children, including them in their play and helping with their care. Staff provide opportunities to teach children about the rules and boundaries in the nursery. They organise activities that encourage children to share and take turns. As a result, children learn to play cooperatively with each other and share the resources that they are playing with.

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

• Staff are passionate about what they do. They are enthusiastic about the care and education that they provide to children. As a result, children are eager to join in with staff as they play in their rooms. For example, children are excited to learn about 'the colour monster' and talk about their feelings.
• Staff across the nursery ensure that they know all children well. This helps when children transition between rooms, as they feel at ease with familiar faces. This contributes to their confidence and self-esteem, and as a result, new children show confidence when in the nursery.
• Opportunities for children to play outdoors are abundant. Children benefit from a spacious garden that is planned well, so that children who learn best outdoors have opportunities to learn skills in all seven areas. Children scoop sand and staff talk to them about what they are making. Others are enthusiastic about fruits and vegetables that they are growing and continue to discuss this as they eat their lunch. Staff help them to make links and consolidate their learning, explaining that the strawberries that they are eating are like the ones they are growing in the garden.
• Activities are planned well and children are eager to join in with staff as they model play. However, on occasion, staff do not allow children to make their own decisions during play. As a result, some children tend to do what the staff are suggesting, rather than finding their own ways of doing things and beginning to solve problems.
• The leadership team has a clear vision for how to improve staff practice and the improvements intended for the nursery. The team ensures that staff are regularly trained, so that they have relevant knowledge to fulfil their roles. Staff talk about how they feel well supported by both the manager and the director of the nursery.
• Staff at the nursery work well with parents to ensure that any emerging need for families is looked after. They provide a food bank and spare clothing for families that need extra support. Parents speak very positively about the effective lines of communication that they have with the nursery, and say that they enjoy that their children are 'able to talk about emotions and feelings', and tell them when they are feeling happy and sad.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop their teaching skills to enable children to make more of their own decisions during play.