Linden House Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children play and learn happily with their friends. They make choices about some of the activities they would like to join in, contributing to their ability to follow their interests. Babies crawl and practise their newly acquired walking skills, enabling them to explore and discover the resources staff set out for them. The attentive staff recognise when babies are tired, settling them to sleep with their special toys and comforters they bring from home. This helps babies feel secure right from the start.

Staff plan a varied curriculum to help all children build on what they already know and understand. For example, children play a matching game with staff. They talk about the pictures they can see and wait their turn to choose a card. This helps children build on their language skills, while strengthening their ability to take turns and follow a sequence of instructions. Children join in familiar routines, such as brushing their teeth, every day. This helps to promote positive attitudes towards good oral health and hygiene from a very early age.

Staff give gentle reminders to help encourage children to begin to regulate their emotions while they join in activities. This contributes to children's good behaviour and the positive attitudes they have towards others. As a result, children play in a harmonious atmosphere.

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

• Key persons know the children in their care well. They observe the progress they make and consider which areas of learning to focus on during both adult-led and child-led activities and games. The plans for the curriculum are clearly displayed for all staff to refer to, contributing to the consistent approach to teaching and learning.
• Those in charge of the nursery support staff to extend their own knowledge and understanding of how children learn. Staff access both online and face-to-face training sessions. They share ideas and new information through a staff newsletter and team discussions. This helps to ensure that the curriculum and nursery ethos is maintained from the youngest babies to those preparing to move on to school.
• Staff and leaders seek support from external professionals and agencies to help ensure all children have access to appropriate support and resources. This includes for example ideas and strategies to support speech and language. Additional resources for the most-able children are sought, helping to enable those preparing for school to confidently move on to the next stage in their education as independent, curious learners.
• Children with special educational needs and/ or disabilities do well in the nursery. Staff work closely with parents to maintain a consistent approach to children's developmental needs. This includes their emotional well-being. Staff use visual aids, such as cards depicting different emotions, to help children communicate how they are feeling. Through children's acknowledgement of different emotions, staff support them to feel calm and ready to continue their day.
• Leaders ensure that children's transitions through the nursery and to other settings, including school, are as smooth as possible. Children have short visits into their new group room to help them get to know different staff and new routines. When staff feel children are ready for the change, key persons share as much information as they can about children's interests and current stages in learning. This contributes to children's ability to confidently move forward in their learning.
• Children build positive relationships with staff. They welcome staff to join in their games and explorations. For example, children giggle during a game of hide and seek in the garden while they wait in anticipation for staff to find them. These relationships help children build their self-confidence to ask questions. However, staff do not always give children sufficient time or encouragement to help them develop their own thinking skills. As a result, children do not consistently solve problems for themselves or think about different ways of doing things.
• Staff recognise the importance of providing a balance between adult-led activities and allowing children to select how and where they play. During their interactions with children, staff do not always add enough challenge that focuses on individual next steps in learning to optimise children's progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• encourage children, giving them more time to develop their own thinking skills to help promote independent learning
• support staff to extend children's individual learning experiences through appropriately focused challenges.