Little Mowgli Nursery

Inclusion: Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that the provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is effective. They do not provide adequate training and support to help effectively meet the needs of children with SEND or those who face other barriers to learning. Staff are unable to precisely assess children's development. As a result, some of the next steps identified for children's learning are not well enough matched to their needs.

Leaders do not have high ambitions for all children, or ensure that all staff understand how to implement the curriculum when children develop at different rates. Leaders do not support staff to adapt the curriculum to support children with SEND. Instead, staff provide the same activities planned for babies. This means that some children do not benefit from a curriculum that recognises their individual needs, resulting in them not achieving well from their starting points.

The provider has not ensured that the specialist support required for children with SEND is put in place. They have not ensured that expert advice from other agencies, such as speech and language therapists, is followed. Where leaders have provided specialist resources, these are not used effectively to reduce barriers to learning. For example, staff rely on equipment to pacify children and do not plan other experiences to motivate other learning. This means children are not getting the specific support they need.

Curriculum and teaching: Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that staff have appropriate support to effectively promote children's learning. This results in staff being unable to precisely assess and respond to children's individual development needs. For example, children with identified special educational needs and/or disabilities have the same next steps in learning as children who are developing typically.

Leaders have not designed a well-sequenced curriculum that builds on what children know and can do and that considers what children need to know next. This does not prepare children well for future learning, such as going to school. For example, at lunchtime all children are given spoons to eat their lunch, regardless of their ability. Additionally, while staff provide some support for children to maintain their skills, they do not provide consistent support for children to build on them further and make progress. As a result, not all children achieve well based on their starting points.

Leaders do not have effective oversight of how the curriculum is being implemented. Staff do not provide children with exciting opportunities that sustain their interest, meaning children's attention is fleeting. This has a negative impact on children's learning and development. Staff's lack of interactions with children does not best promote children's language skills and communication. However, the close bonds staff create with the children in their care are supportive of their personal, social and emotional development.

Leaders have identified that mathematics is an area of focus. However, they have not taken swift action to ensure improvement in this area. This means that mathematics is not taught explicitly to children. This provides children with limited opportunities to develop their understanding of mathematical concepts.

Achievement: Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that all children, including children with identified barriers to learning, receive a highly ambitious curriculum.

Children make some progress from their starting points. However, they do not receive enough support to make the progress that they are capable of.

Most children struggle to maintain attention during activities and story or group times. They have fleeting attention, which is not supportive of future learning, such as at school.

Children benefit from lots of opportunities for physical development. These include daily opportunities to play on large soft-play equipment and develop their large-muscle and movement skills. They also enjoy filling and emptying tubs during sand and water play, and transporting containers and heavy equipment as they play. Most children have good communication skills. For example, children join in with repeated refrains in a story, using language such as 'big, fat, gigantic octopus'.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Needs attention

Leaders do not ensure that staff are appropriately deployed or have the skills to support children's attention. Staff do not consistently promote some of the attitudes to learning needed to help every child achieve well. Staff frequently break away from storytelling and do not ensure children have exciting opportunities that sustain their interest. As a result, children's attention is fleeting, and they struggle to concentrate, such as when singing or reading as a small group. This does not allow children to develop the appropriate attention skills they need for the next stage in their learning.

Typically, staff help children learn to behave well. Staff are calm and consistent with all children in their approach to promoting the setting's expectations. This includes those with barriers to their learning. Staff are also positive role models. As a result, children's behaviour is generally positive. Children collaborate with their peers, such as navigating and building a role play in the soft-play area.

Leaders promote the importance of attendance with families and ensure they follow up on any unexplained absences in a timely manner.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Needs attention

Generally, children are happy, safe and settled. The friendly staff support children well through the close relationships they form with them. Typically, children's care needs are addressed effectively. However, leaders do not ensure that staff consistently support the most disadvantaged children effectively. Additionally, while the premises are typically clean and safe, staff miss occasional potential hazards when they complete their daily checks. These minor issues are quickly rectified.

Staff promote children's voice and liberty by offering choices within the routine, such as which cereal they would like or which story to read next. However, where children have identified barriers to communication, staff do not always work with parents effectively to ensure their children's individual needs are met. For example, in an effort to prepare children for school, staff shorten children's sleep time or encourage them to keep their shoes on. Due to their needs, this causes significant upset for some children.

Leaders ensure that children are provided with nutritious, freshly prepared meals and snacks, planned in line with nutritional guidance. However, there are inconsistencies in the way food is prepared that could pose a risk to children's health. Staff supervise mealtimes closely. They identify this risk and swiftly intervene for the youngest and most vulnerable children.

Leadership and governance: Urgent improvement

Leaders have not fully understood the requirements and have therefore not ensured that staff have the paediatric first-aid training they need to be included in the minimum required staff-to-child ratios. Consequently, staff are not consistently deployed in a way which meets children's needs. While there are enough adults on site to keep children safe, children's learning is poorly promoted. Furthermore, those children with identified barriers to their learning do not get the support they need to access an equally ambitious curriculum.

There have been recent changes to the leadership team, and recruitment to fill gaps is in process. However, while this is ongoing, the workload and wellbeing of the staff team are not being managed well. Additionally, while leaders identify some areas where improvement is needed, their actions are insufficient in addressing these weaknesses, such as the curriculum for mathematics.

Leaders do not carry out effective supervisions that focus on and support staff's professional development, and not all staff understand the responsibilities of their role. This means that staff are not equipped with the skills they need to adequately support children's needs. For example, although staff carry out assessments on children, they are unable to identify next steps which are accurately focused on what those children need to know and learn next.

Parents are happy with the setting and receive information about what their children do at nursery.