Little Nest Day Nursery Forest Hill

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders are committed to providing an inclusive environment where all children are valued and supported to achieve their potential. They use robust observations and assessment information to recognise when children may need additional help. Through strategic support and inclusive practices, leaders take swift action to reduce barriers to learning and wellbeing. They make reasonable adjustments to the environment, such as providing quiet, calm spaces for children when they feel overwhelmed. They use targeted approaches, such as reading specific stories, to help children understand and talk about their emotions.

Leaders have a secure understanding of children's starting points. They monitor progress regularly alongside parents and carers, carefully assessing the impact of any interventions put in place to ensure they are working. Leaders know how to effectively direct early years pupil premium funding towards tailored resources and targeted support. This will successfully narrow the gap for disadvantaged children.

Clear processes are in place for multi-agency working. Leaders know when to reach out to external professionals to shape children's opportunities. They maintain seamless communication to support children known or previously known to children's social care. However, while leaders themselves are swift to identify needs, they do not consistently ensure that all staff have a secure understanding of how to assess, plan and deliver step-by-step support for children who need extra help. This lack of targeted training means that staff are not always equipped to independently implement the early identification of emerging special educational needs and/or disabilities during day-to-day interactions.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders demonstrate a clear understanding of curriculum design, carefully planning learning around what children already know and can do. Activities are structured to build on existing knowledge, skills and interests, ensuring steady and meaningful progress for all children. Teaching across the setting is typically effective, characterised by staff who use their knowledge of each child to ensure learning is engaging and purposeful. Leaders ensure teaching reflects children's varying developmental stages and learning styles. This inclusive approach ensures that the curriculum is accessible and impactful. It successfully supports all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and varied starting points, to make progress.

Assessment is a continuous, natural process. Staff closely monitor children's progress. For example, they note tool handling and dominant hand use in sensory play and discuss mark-making and colour choices with children to help them understand their thinking. However, while other areas of learning thrive, opportunities for younger children to develop their larger physical skills, such as building core strength and using the large muscles in their arms and legs, are not as consistently embedded. This highlights an area where leaders need to reflect and drive continuous improvement.

Communication and language development is prioritised through purposeful staff interactions. Staff utilise every opportunity to talk to the children, including routine times such as nappy changes and washing their hands for lunch. During play, staff actively narrate children's actions and introduce key vocabulary, such as teaching the concepts of 'scoop' and 'pour' during sand play. Mathematics is naturally embedded into daily routines and play. Children regularly practise counting, such as counting steps on the stairs or toys during tidy-up time. Staff effectively support this learning by modelling vocabulary related to size and measurement during play and using storytelling to introduce foundational mathematical concepts. Leaders also place emphasis on children's personal, social and emotional development. Staff interact in a calm manner and offer plenty of praise, reassurance and encouragement. Daily activities are deliberately designed to promote listening, 'kind hands' and turn-taking, such as the sharing of buckets and spades.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children, including those who may face barriers to their learning and wellbeing, typically make steady progress from their individual entry points. Staff focus heavily on communication and language, ensuring all children rapidly develop the vocabulary and speaking skills needed to express themselves.

Across the setting, children demonstrate growing curiosity, resilience and independence. Two-year-olds swiftly build essential social and communication skills. They learn to cooperate, follow established routines and listen attentively to adults. Because of this robust, well-sequenced curriculum and carefully tailored transitions, all children are well prepared for their next steps. This ensures a smooth and successful transition into school when the time comes.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Leaders have successfully established a positive, welcoming environment underpinned by commonly understood expectations for behaviour. This is evident from the start of each day, as leaders and staff greet children and their parents and carers warmly upon arrival. An emphasis is placed on the importance of regular attendance and punctuality, with leaders collaborating closely with parents to highlight the long-term advantages of consistent attendance.

The relationships between staff and children are a strength of the setting. Staff and children have formed trusting bonds. Children regularly approach staff for comfort or support and enthusiastically invite them into their play. These secure attachments are fostered right from the outset through flexible, robust settling-in procedures tailored to individual needs. This ensures staff know each child deeply, allowing new children, even those managing the anxiety of separating from parents, to show delight upon seeing their trusted adult. Children settle quickly and demonstrate that they feel safe, happy and secure.

Staff typically consider each child's stage of development and unique circumstances when supporting them to maintain the setting's expectations. Daily routines are clearly defined, which helps children feel secure as they know what to expect next. Staff remain responsive, modifying these routines if children indicate a need for a different approach. Leaders and staff consistently model kindness. They offer prompt, age-appropriate guidance to remind children of the importance of being kind to their peers. Through this supportive approach, children are well guided to learn how to collaborate, share and get along positively with others.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Leaders and staff effectively implement procedures that promote children's health, safety and overall wellbeing. A prime example is the nutritional lunch program. Children thoroughly enjoy the freshly prepared meals cooked on site each day. Through engaging lunchtime conversations, children learn what it means to be healthy, noting that eating broccoli helps them grow strong muscles. These positive experiences help them build healthy habits for the future. Daily routines are intentionally designed to foster both hygiene and independence. Young children follow good hygiene practices with support, confidently washing their hands before meals. Staff further promote healthy lifestyles by introducing oral health through stories and discussions. This helps children become familiar with toothbrushing routines.

Staff maintain a secure understanding of safe sleeping practices and conduct regular checks on sleeping children. By establishing clear care routines, leaders ensure that every child's individual needs are met in a safe and attentive environment. Leaders ensure that care practices effectively meet individual needs. Staff adapt daily routines seamlessly, ensuring all children, including those facing potential barriers, can access learning and support.

The key-person system is well embedded, allowing children to form secure relationships with their primary caregivers and the wider team. Staff typically possess comprehensive knowledge of all children across the setting. They speak confidently about each child's unique interests, preferences and next steps in their development. This emotional foundation allows children to feel safe, happy and secure, fostering a positive sense of wellbeing. Staff use their knowledge of each child to judge when to offer independence and when to step in with support. As a result, children are successfully encouraged to manage their own toileting and self-care needs, building vital confidence and autonomy over time.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders have a clear and ambitious plan for supporting continual progress in the recently opened setting. They offer a curriculum that empowers children to be independent, learning through exploration in the setting's well-equipped indoor spaces. Decisions made by leaders consistently prioritise the best interests of all children, particularly those facing barriers to learning, ensuring equitable access to rich learning experiences. Leaders demonstrate an ability to accurately identify the strengths of the provision. While they have successfully inducted new staff members, which has already had a positive impact on the day-to-day running, leaders recognise there is still work to be done to ensure complete consistency. However, leaders do not yet provide sufficiently targeted professional development to address these remaining areas for growth, which limits staff confidence and prevents practice from improving rapidly across the setting.