Mere Green 0-5 Nursery

Inclusion: Strong standard

Leaders and staff demonstrate an excellent commitment to inclusion. Leaders ensure that staff are well equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to help children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) reach their potential. Children with SEND make positive progress from their starting points. Leaders work in close partnership with parents to ensure a clear connection for children between home and the nursery setting. This means that children benefit from consistent boundaries and expectations, helping them to feel secure and achieve well.

Leaders develop and sustain excellent working relationships with external agencies and professionals. They act quickly to identify gaps in children's learning and ensure appropriate support is in place to help them thrive. Leaders and staff use a communication screening tool to identify any delay, and implement targeted next steps to help children make rapid progress.

Leaders work closely with families of children with other barriers to their learning. They make well-informed decisions about how to use additional funding to maximise outcomes for children. This includes providing increased outdoor play for children who may have limited access to a garden. This helps all children develop confidence in their physical skills and abilities.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders support staff to deliver a highly effective and ambitious curriculum for all children. Staff consistently adapt and adjust their teaching methods and styles to meet the needs of the children they work with, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). For example, they introduce mathematical ideas and new vocabulary and apply core language symbols to build on what children with SEND already know as they scoop soil into pots and plant sunflower seeds.

Leaders and staff place a significant emphasis on children's physical, social and emotional development. They consistently model language that supports children to understand their own feelings. Leaders have developed a nurturing space where staff support children when they feel overwhelmed. Every interaction is respectful, and staff pay close attention to children's feelings to support their emotional wellbeing.

Books and stories are valued and are used as an integral part of the provision. Children visit the library every week with the staff and are encouraged to select books from the high-quality texts on offer. Stories, songs and rhymes form a big part of the joyful interactions between staff and children. Staff are skilled storytellers who use visual aids and resources to involve their audience. This approach engages children in the highest level of participation. They eagerly get involved in group time, and even the youngest children remain focused and involved during these lively sessions.

Achievement: Strong standard

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make secure progress and achieve well across all areas of learning. They confidently interact socially with their peers, which helps them to play cooperatively and develop early friendships. Children typically develop a wide vocabulary and demonstrate high levels of knowledge of the world around them. Children with SEND build the skills needed to play alongside and interact positively with others. Children build a sound understanding of numbers, and apply this effectively as they sort and count items during small-world play and group activities. Older children achieve well in phonics. They use their knowledge of sounds and letters to confidently write their names. Children build their strength and stamina, which helps them to achieve high levels of skill in their gross and fine motor movements. All children are developing the skills they need to be ready for school.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Leaders work closely with staff to foster a warm, positive learning environment where children experience unconditional acceptance. Staff build nurturing relationships with children, which helps to develop a sense of connection and belonging.

Regular reinforcement of the 'golden rules' helps children to make positive behaviour choices. Expectations of children are clear and appropriate for their age and stage of development. While staff are consistent, they skilfully adapt their communication style to ensure that younger children develop a clear understanding of how to respond positively to others.

Staff members support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to build connections with their peers and fully support them to engage in group play. This contributes positively to the relationships that children develop across the provision.

Routines are firmly embedded, which helps all children feel secure. Children respond positively to staff when transitions from one activity to another are supported effectively. This helps children to remain engaged and reduces the incidence of unwanted behaviour.

Leaders routinely promote attendance and punctuality to lay the foundations for children's future learning. They work in partnership with parents to support children with SEND who find it difficult to settle. This helps children develop coping strategies, which in turn helps them feel calm and more regulated. Parents praise leaders and staff for their understanding and sensitivity, which are highly effective in helping children to feel emotionally secure.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders and staff ensure that care routines and support for children's personal needs are of the highest standard. They support children in an unhurried, enabling way to become involved in their personal care. Even the youngest children in the setting wipe their noses, wash their hands, put on their coats and find their lunch boxes independently.

Staff make necessary adjustments for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, such as supporting them to eat their lunch at a time that meets their individual needs. These adjustments also ensure that children receive high levels of supervision and interaction at mealtimes, which further extends their social skills.

Leaders provide cosy spaces where children can spend time when they feel overwhelmed. Staff respond promptly when they see that children need emotional support. They model the language of feelings respectfully, which helps children understand their own feelings. Parents say that these support strategies embedded by leaders and staff in the setting have impacted positively on children's wellbeing at home.

Staff consistently enable children to get involved in adventurous play. This extends children's understanding of how to keep themselves safe through practical risk assessment. For example, balance bikes provide a challenge for children, while this movement helps them to experience a sense of freedom, creating joyful play opportunities. Staff weave mathematical learning into their interactions as they encourage children to think about speed and direction.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

Leaders are highly effective. They continuously reflect on and evaluate the provision to drive improvement and make decisions in the best interests of the children who attend. Leaders build highly effective relationships with external agencies and other professionals. This ensures that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those with other barriers to their learning access the support needed to thrive and reach their potential. The number of 2-year-olds in the setting has increased, and leaders ensure that the provision reflects children's varying needs. They work in close partnership with the staff team to identify the setting's strengths and continuously improve the service on offer. For example, they have developed a water station, ensuring that all children drink water regularly from open-topped cups.

Staff report high levels of wellbeing. They say that the support offered by leaders contributes positively to both their personal and professional development. Regular supervision sessions enable staff to identify training opportunities that will further develop their knowledge and skills. Communication across the team is excellent, which helps the setting run smoothly, impacting positively on children's feelings of familiarity and wellbeing.