Molescroft Farm Children's Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The strong focus on the environment, sustainability and nature creates a varied and highly engaging curriculum. Children have opportunities to learn about growing vegetables and picking and using the produce in their food. Children know about composting. They collect the eggs from the nursery chickens. The nursery cookbook provides families with a range of recipes using seasonal vegetables to encourage children's love of food at home.

Children are extremely eager to enter this safe and welcoming environment. Children's strong bonds with staff contribute to their feelings of security and support their emotional well-being. Children respond well to praise and encouragement. Their behaviour is exceptional. Recent staff training has allowed staff to focus on children's emotional regulation and understanding feelings. This has enabled children to express themselves and make their needs known. Children have access to a selection of toys, which help them to manage their feelings and support them to calm and settle.

The curriculum is extremely ambitious for all children and based on staff's well-informed understanding of individual children. Flexible planning enables staff to follow children's interests. Children are exposed to a substantial range of innovative activities, enabling them to make the best possible progress. Staff have a clear understanding of how to build on and sequence children's learning. Children benefit from a range of valuable experiences, which motivate them to learn and eagerly participate in a wide choice of activities. Accurate assessments and timely interventions ensure children make great progress in their learning and development.

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

• Children are consistently supported to develop their communication and language to their highest potential. Staff provide a language-rich environment, introducing a range of new and interesting vocabulary. They are clear in their dialogue and use repetition to embed words. Staff use other measures to help children who may need additional support to develop their language. For example, signing, gestures and visual aids are used to enable children to communicate and understand the routine of the day. Children demonstrate their confidence in leading conversations. They talk about the slime trails left by insects in the garden. They stop on the walk back to the building to talk about the bees they can see and the herbs they can smell. Children spontaneously share their own experiences from home.
• Everyday activities are meticulously carried out to promote children's mathematical awareness. While gardening, they take turns measuring the depth of a hole to plant their seeds. Children's fine motor skills are developed as they carefully grasp the seeds and use tools to dig. Staff's inspiring teaching methods show children how to make things bigger or smaller. They learn about quantities in their baking. Younger children independently count as they play with the toy farm animals.
• Children show high levels of confidence to approach others and join in activities. They have opportunities to learn about taking risks and challenging their play. For example, they use a range of materials in the forest school sessions. They learn about campfires, collecting the wood and twigs from the environment and using them in their creations. They are introduced to a selection of tools, such as loppers and bow saws, and understand how to carefully use them. Dynamic teaching enables them to recall the skills used in previous activities.
• Staff embed children's understanding about healthy choices. Children know where food originates and what is considered healthy. They recognise the importance of handwashing and keeping germs at bay. They understand the importance of wearing sun-protection and during role play ensure their dolls have appropriate protection before going outside.
• Children demonstrate exceptional independence skills. Throughout the setting they strive to achieve skills which will support them on to their school lives. For example, children learn to pour their own drinks and self-serve their food. Older children clear up after lunch, wiping the table and putting their waste into the compost bin.
• Leaders' commitment to ensuring staff are highly trained and up to date in their understanding leads to staff having the skills, to effectively support children in all areas of their development. Staff value the effective supervision arrangements. The emotional well-being of staff is a high priority, and they are superbly supported.
• Leaders are highly reflective of the quality of the service and the care and education provided. They continuously strive to adapt the environment and practice with the children, to give the best possible learning opportunities. They have a strong vision for the future and a desire to constantly develop and move forward.
• Plans for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are excellent. Key-person systems ensure interventions are precisely targeted, and teaching is consistent. As a result, all children make purposeful progress in their learning. The setting is highly inclusive. Activities are adapted to ensure all children are able to participate in the exciting activities and learning. Appropriate equipment and resources are used to facilitate this further.
• The setting provides excellent support to children and their families through various initiatives. They provide a lending library to enable families to read together and a swap shop to donate and exchange clothing. Staff regularly share information through a series of webinars to help parents to support their children's learning at home. Parents appreciate the wealth of support given by staff. They believe the setting has significantly contributed to the progress children make. The setting regularly seeks feedback on the service they offer. In addition, the setting is supported by a parent committee. Leaders reflect on and use their feedback to contribute to the evaluation of the setting.