Mulberry Bush Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children and their families with a warm welcome to the nursery. Staff understand their role to keep children safe. Children recognise that staff enjoy their company and want to join in with their play. Older children call out to staff to join in with their games and interests, such as searching for bugs. Younger children move towards the areas where staff have set up engaging activities. For example, they gather together to use marker pens and enjoy creating artwork. Staff promote children's sense of achievements and children proudly show their artwork.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour and have a consistent approach to teaching children how to manage their emotions. Younger children learn to associate their feelings with colours. They say they are happy and explain what has made them feel happy. Older children learn to name their feelings. Staff know what children's play interests are and plan the learning environment to reflect this. This helps to engage and motivate children to play and explore. For example some children have an interest in role play ,and enjoy recreating familiar roles and experiences, such as cooking, cleaning and small-scale construction.

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

• The new manager has a clear vision for the nursery. She has worked with the local authority to address staff training and policies relating to safeguarding children. The manager has identified her aims relating to staff supervision and begun to support staff in their teaching roles. She now needs to prioritise the monitoring of the staff's teaching to identify where they need further support, to provide children with consistently high-quality learning experiences.
• The manager and staff have considered what children's learning priorities are. They have used this information to develop a well-sequenced and progressive curriculum. Staff have designed the learning environments to reflect the development needs of the children in each of the three rooms.
• Staff identify gaps in children's learning and development. Overall, they use this information to identify targets for children and plan effectively for these. However, not all staff use this information as well as possible to plan precisely so they focus on helping children to build on what they already know and can do. This said, the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) ensures that they make timely referrals so children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive the support they need.
• There is an effective key-person system in place. Each child has a consistent key person to build secure relationships and promote their well-being. However, when children move rooms, staff do not always provide comprehensive information about the children they have worked with to the new key person. This means that the new key person cannot plan as well as possible for the children.
• Staff follow good hygiene routines and promote this with children. Children learn about the importance of regular handwashing to help stop the spread of germs. They enjoy the nutritious meals and snacks. Staff make good use of mealtimes to encourage children to learn about healthy choices.
• Children know how to take turns. They tell their friend that it is their turn to be the driver while they play together on a tandem tricycle. Staff consistently reinforce their expectations and children receive lots of praise for their awareness of their friends needs. Older children develop good social skills and enjoy using their imaginations to develop storylines in their play.
• The manager and staff make good use of books and songs to deliver their curriculum, particularly for communication and language. Younger children pretend to go on a bear hunt in the wooded area. They enjoy naming animal pictures and making the different animal sounds. Older children enjoy listening to stories and express their ideas about the events and characters.
• Staff value the partnership working with parents. Parents appreciate the regular communication and ideas to support their children's continued learning at home. Parents say that their children thrive at the nursery and love to attend.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• monitor the quality of education precisely to identify where staff need further support in their teaching
• support staff to use what they already know about children to plan precisely for their learning and help them to build on their knowledge and understanding
• enhance arrangements for communication between staff when children have a new key person, so staff have a comprehensive understanding about children's achievements.