Little St Pancras Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children benefit from kind and nurturing interactions from staff. Staff create a warm and welcoming atmosphere for children to learn and play in. As a result, children show that they are happy and they feel safe and secure. Staff have high expectations for children's learning and behaviour and are extremely attentive to their needs. This helps children to show good engagement and behave very well.

Children delight in exploring a broad range of resources that support their development. This is evident when they run around and ride on a range of wheeled toys in the spacious and well-equipped garden. Children show great imagination and curiosity when digging for treasure and exploring insects outdoors. Furthermore, they show high levels of interest as they listen to stories, such as 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' and enjoy acting out the story in the role-play area.

There is a real sense of fun and enjoyment as children sing songs and use a colourful parachute. Staff skilfully support children's mathematical language as they use a water tray to explore concepts such as 'empty', 'full' and 'heavy'. Staff boost children's confidence and frequently offer encouragement as they play. It is evident that children are making good progress in relation to their starting points. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive good levels of support. Staff work in partnership with other professionals to achieve a consistent approach in relation to their next steps in learning.

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

• Staff are knowledgeable about how children learn and plan a varied and interesting curriculum that is well sequenced. Staff know individual children extremely well and carefully plan activities based on children's interests to close any gaps in learning. It is apparent that children are thriving and enjoy their time at the setting.
• Staff are good role models and they are effective in teaching children about positive behaviour. Staff are very clear about boundaries, and children respond well and show positive attitudes to learning.
• There is good emphasis on promoting children's language and communication skills. For instance, staff commentate effectively as children play and introduce rich descriptive language to support their understanding.
• Children have good opportunities to learn about leading healthy lifestyles. For example, staff talk to children during snack time about the importance of eating nutritious foods. Furthermore, staff host training for parents on providing children with varied and healthy foods to support their growth and development.
• Staff plan a variety of activities that recognise children's home culture. For instance, children learn about Eid. They enjoy dressing up and sharing food. This helps them to develop respect and understanding for others' lives that are different from their own.
• Parents speak positively about staff and the experiences of their children. They state that their children love attending and are making good progress. They say that they value the good communication, staff's experience, and the consistency in staffing arrangements.
• Staff acknowledge some of the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought. For instance, they are placing an even higher focus on supporting children's social and communication skills during small-group activities to boost children's learning in a social group.
• Children have very good opportunities to access a wide variety of high-quality resources indoors and outdoors. However, further consideration should be given to boosting children's interests further in mark making and early writing experiences.
• Staff have good opportunities to enhance their professional development. For instance, staff attend a variety of training courses to extend their knowledge, and this positively influences their daily practice at work.
• The manager is ambitious and highly committed to her role. She has good vision for making ongoing improvements. Good progress has been made to address the weaknesses identified at the last inspection. The manager is able to talk about plans for developing the outdoor space even further to better support the needs of the children that attend.
• Staff's well-being is given high priority. The manager values all the hard work of the team immensely. Although staff frequently meet to discuss children's progress and receive some ongoing coaching and supervision, this is not sharply focused to raise the quality of teaching to the very highest level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff supervision and monitoring to further enhance staff's overall practice
• build on opportunities for children to practise their mark-making and early writing skills.