Lowmoor Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome as they arrive at the setting. Staff form positive relationships with children and parents. Leaders ensure an effective key-person system is in place, and staff know the children well. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), progress well in their learning and development.

Leaders and staff plan a sequenced and ambitious curriculum that consistently builds on what children already know and can do. For example, the nursery embeds a strong emphasis on core stories to encourage children to develop a love of early literacy. Staff support babies to develop an understanding of different colours, and toddlers confidently relate feelings to colours, such as happy to yellow, as they listen intently to 'The Colour Monster' story. This supports children to develop an understanding of their feelings and supports their emotional well-being.

Staff are clear about their expectations of behaviour, and children adhere to these well. They treat each other, adults and the resources with care and respect. Gentle reminders to be kind and share are all that are needed to ensure that children recall what is expected of them. Children behave well and are prepared for their next stage of learning.

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

• Partnerships with parents are good. Leaders and staff support families with a lending library, regular events within the nursery that families attend, and a weekly food bank that is delivered to the setting to help parents that need this. Staff keep parents informed about their children's busy days as well as their recent achievements. Parents comment that the nursery 'feels like family'.
• The impressive newly added outdoor area is loved by all the children. For example, older children develop their large muscles as they master skills as they manoeuvre wheeled toys and use large apparatus. In addition, younger children develop their small muscles as they use ice-cream scoops to roll dough and place it on cone-shaped objects as they role play in the ice-cream parlour. Physical development is supported well.
• Children with SEND and those in receipt of additional funding are well supported during their time at nursery. Early interventions are in place, and staff provide lots of tailored support for these children. Leaders and staff work well in partnership with both external professionals and parents to identify where children need extra support to help narrow the gaps in children's learning and development. In addition, additional funding, such as the early years pupil premium, is used to enhance the curriculum and engage children in new experiences. All children receive the support they need to make good progress.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language development effectively and are good role models for the children's language. Staff narrate children's play and introduce new words, such as scoop and whisk, enabling children to hear and learn new vocabulary. In addition, children sit and look at books with their friends, discussing the pictures and recalling the story. However, during some interactions, some staff ask closed questions that only require one-word responses or do not give children sufficient time to respond before asking another question. Therefore, this does not fully support children to develop their critical thinking skills.
• Leaders prioritise staff's well-being, providing them with regular opportunities to discuss how they feel at work. Staff access a variety of training to continually improve their knowledge and skills. However, leaders are yet to precisely identify specific areas of development to ensure all staff's teaching skills are of a consistently high quality. For instance, some staff focus their attention on more vocal children when teaching in a group situation. This means other children become disengaged and are not gaining the full experience of the intended learning. Consequently, this has an impact on children's development across the provision.
• Staff begin to promote children's independence and personal hygiene practices. For example, children pour their own drinks at mealtimes and find their own belongings. Babies learn about good oral health as they practise cleaning their teeth. However, at times, the handwashing procedures are not consistently promoted by some staff. For instance, some staff do not always wash their hands after carrying out personal care, such as wiping children's noses, to help minimise the spread of any germs. This means, at times, children do not receive consistent messages about the importance of personal hygiene practices.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the monitoring of staff practice to ensure their teaching always has the best possible impact on children's development
• consider ways to improve hygiene practices so that they are consistently embedded to promote children's understanding of good hygiene.