Maryams Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are cared for in a warm and welcoming nursery where their needs are the main focus. This nurturing environment helps to ensure that children arrive confident and happy, ready to engage in daily activities. The provider has created a curriculum that aligns with children's interests, and practitioners actively participate in play to enhance children's engagement and learning. For instance, during group circle time, children and practitioners explore books together and re-enact and discuss various parts of the story. Practitioners interact enthusiastically with children, which helps to keep children focused and encourages them to express their thoughts. Practitioners use activities well to promote reading and enhance children's understanding and communication skills.

The provider maintains high expectations to prepare children thoroughly for a successful transition to school. Practitioners work closely with local schools to uphold rigorous standards that support children's development of essential skills. For instance, the pre-school curriculum focuses on helping children to acquire fine motor skills, communication and language abilities. Children are supported to develop confidence and social skills, such as sharing and interacting with friends. Practitioners serve as good role models, supporting children's positive behaviour. They readily praise children's achievements, treat children with compassion and respond quickly to provide comfort when needed.

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

• Leaders have a clear understanding of what they want children to learn before they move on to their next stage of development. Practitioners know the children well. They plan a variety of engaging activities and experiences to build on children's existing knowledge and skills. However, practitioners do not always implement the intended curriculum with precision. For example, as children in the nursery explore South Africa during International Day, the resources and strategies to reinforce this knowledge are insufficiently planned. This occasionally hinders children's ability to achieve their full potential.
• Practitioners have a deep understanding of each child's needs. This enables them to promptly identify gaps in children's learning and provide targeted support, in close collaboration with parents and other professionals. Leaders utilise additional funding effectively to benefit children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This successfully helps children make good progress from the skills they start with.
• Practitioners create a language-rich environment that promotes communication and language development through play. For example, they engage younger children by commenting on activities and modelling single words. Similarly, practitioners incorporate new vocabulary, for example 'serrated' when discussing cutlery with older children during mealtimes.
• Children are independent. Babies actively explore their surroundings and begin to feed themselves. Toddlers take on additional self-care tasks, such as washing their hands and getting dressed. Pre-school children are entrusted with various responsibilities. They participate in mealtime preparation, setting the table, and distributing cups and plates. They serve themselves and pour their own drinks with ease. These skills help children in preparation for the future.
• The approach to physical development in the curriculum is carried out effectively. Practitioners help children to enhance their fine motor skills with activities such as pouring and filling and mark making. They arrange the learning spaces thoughtfully, enabling babies to move safely and explore their environment with assurance. Practitioners take children on daily outings to local parks, where children benefit from exercise and enjoy fresh air. Practitioners enrich children's knowledge of healthy eating through engaging in discussions and activities that support children to make healthy choices. These experiences contribute to children's physical growth.
• Practitioners focus on supporting children's personal, social and emotional development. As a result, children typically demonstrate appropriate behaviour. They form friendships and engage in cooperative play. Practitioners provide some assistance to help children to understand and regulate their emotions, such as planning activities that explore feelings. They ask children to identify if they feel happy or sad, and children draw or mimic the matching facial expressions using a mirror. However, practitioners do not consistently name or explore children's feelings when they are upset or in conflict and support children to better identify and communicate their emotions.
• Leaders and practitioners place high value on partnerships with parents. Leaders welcome parents at the entrance, and practitioners routinely discuss children's progress and upcoming learning goals with parents and carers. Additionally, they hosts regular parents' meetings and social events to strengthen these partnerships and support children's continued learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support all practitioners to implement the curriculum effectively so that the intended learning is consistently met and children achieve their full potential
• support all practitioners to help children gain a better grasp of the language surrounding feelings and emotions, enabling them to express their feelings more effectively.