Milly's Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager and staff plan a curriculum that has an extremely strong focus on children's developing social and emotional skills. This runs through the nursery practice with seamless fluency. Staff swiftly offer help and support to help children overcome challenges. This has a significant impact on children's emotional well-being and gives them the confidence they need to achieve their goals. For example, children squeal with delight when they discover how to make water flow through guttering. They experiment as they tip and pour and learn new words in context, such as 'faster' and 'slower.' Staff consistently provide meaningful praise, which builds children's self-esteem and reinforces positive behaviour.

Staff provide a highly inclusive setting. They are calm and patient, and consistently demonstrate kindness to all children. Children show high levels of energy and excitement as they enter the nursery. They welcome their friends and staff with a huge smile and demonstrate an impressive ability to collaborate with others. For example, they problem-solve and work side by side to gather an array of natural resources to build an obstacle course. Children show exceptionally high levels of respect to their friends. They consistently ensure their non-verbal peers can share their ideas and fully participate in activities. Children's behaviour is excellent. They show high levels of engagement and consistently show an ability to sustain their concentration as they engage in their play.

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

• Staff exchange detailed information with parents on entry. Alongside their initial assessments, this helps them to swiftly identify any gaps in children's learning. Staff work well with parents and other professionals involved in children's care. This ensures that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, receive the tailored support they need. The manager uses additional funding exceptionally well to benefit the specific needs of all individual children. Parents express how happy they are with the care and learning that their children receive.
• Staff manage children's behaviour exceptionally well. They sensitively help children express their thoughts and feelings with strategies that are unique to each child. For example, they give children the time they need to relax and spend quality time in the cosy calm area, should they need it. This has a significant impact on children's emotional well-being. For example, those children struggling to regulate their feelings return to their activities and continue their play alongside others. All children try exceptionally hard to resolve any small conflicts positively. For instance, should a small dispute occur, they use resources, such as sand timers independently.
• Staff build on children's understanding of the wider world well. For example, children take part in fund raising activities, which provides them with first hand experiences to learn about the needs of others. They delight in trips to local parks, and enjoy outings to meet residents from nearby sheltered housing. This has a significant impact on children confidence to interact with others in new and diverse social situations
• Staff demonstrate good skills in supporting children's speech and language development. For example, as children delight in planting activities, staff encourage them to use their own words to describe the textures and aromas of fruit and herbs. Staff use a wide range of strategies to engage children in discussion, such as through visual aids and props. They ensures all children have every opportunity to share their views.
• The manager provides staff with regular supervision and offers them opportunities for continuous professional development. However, some staff need additional coaching to help them support the on-going mathematical development of older children. For example, although they build on children's understanding of number and size as children engage in their play, they do not use further strategies to widen children's knowledge of mathematical concepts even more.
• Staff consistently encourage children to achieve their tasks. For example, children try incredibly hard, and with a little support from staff, successfully chalk out a road for their ride on toys. Staff skilfully integrate an understanding of rules and boundaries as children delight in their play. For example, children discover that if they work together and go in the same direction, they will not bump into each other.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide on-going support for staff, to help them develop even better strategies to build on the mathematic development of older children even further.