Little Laura's Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive and settle very quickly due to the extremely strong and warm bonds they have with the staff team. They are immediately engrossed in the excellent range of different activities. Children are incredibly enthusiastic and excited about their learning and are keen to share this with their friends and staff. The nursery atmosphere feels like an extended family. Children are extremely kind and caring towards each other. Younger children learn from older children, and in turn, older children embed skills by helping their younger friends. The behaviour of children is exemplary. They are aware of the exceptionally well-embedded expectations and routines. All children have incredibly strong attachments to the staff and seek them out for comfort, as well as to share learning with them.

Children show incredibly high levels of confidence and independence. They draw on previous learning and use this independently. For example, they know to look for insects under a log as they had learned this during their forest school experiences. Staff plan the environment to be thoroughly purposeful, playful and positive. Children have excellent role models in their teachers and this is reflected in the children's excellent attitudes to learning. Children show great excitement about exploring and engaging in activities indoors and outdoors. Staff readily share children's learning with their parents, so they can extend this learning at home.

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

• Leaders have an extremely clear and ambitious vision for what they want children to learn and experience and the progress they want them to make. They share this with the staff, who are very nurturing and passionate about children's learning.
• The staff are highly qualified and experienced. This shines through in the way they skilfully support children to reach their full potential. All children make excellent progress from their starting points, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• The special educational needs coordinator is extremely knowledgeable and knows the children very well. They welcome other professionals into the setting, such as speech therapists, to devise strategies and targets. Staff promptly identify children's needs and support them exceptionally well. For example, staff set up small intervention groups to support children's speech and language development.
• There are very strong links with local schools the children will attend. New teachers come to the nursery to observe and spend time with the children. Staff attend local transition events to ensure that they share key information. Staff prepare children very well for school and share this with parents via a school readiness meeting. Children are excited about moving to school and are ready for the next stage of their education.
• Children develop exceptionally good communication and language skills. Staff take time to actively listen to them and respond thoughtfully and skilfully. Children learn new and ambitious vocabulary and use these words independently. For example, a child painted a sunflower and used the word 'nectar'. Another child on a bug hunt used the words 'wolf spider' and 'antennae'.
• Staff embed mathematics extremely well. For example, children count how many children are at circle time and also use their skills independently. They readily use mathematical language such as 'square' and 'bigger' in their own play.
• Staff have very strong links with the wider community. Children attend a community group for older adults where they sing to the adults and enjoy conversations. They learn increasingly high levels of kindness and empathy. Staff encourage parents to become fully involved in the nursery community. For example, staff ran a forest school session for fathers.
• Parents are extremely happy with the care and education their children receive. They comment about the great improvement in their children's confidence levels and how they feel fortunate that their children attend. Pre-school children talk about what they like about nursery. For example, they comment that they love everything about nursery and being with their friends.
• Staff skilfully tailor activities to meet the differing ages and needs of the children. For example, in an activity about insects, older children were encouraged to make observations and use non-fiction books for identification purposes. Whereas, babies had toy insects and staff used single words such as 'butterfly'.