N Family Club Church Street

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this exceptional nursery. They benefit from highly attentive and personalised care from their key persons. For instance, staff incorporate familiar words and phrases from children's home languages into the care routines and activities. Therefore, children build strong and affectionate attachments with the staff and feel very safe and secure in their care.

Children make excellent progress from their starting points. The highly ambitious curriculum greatly benefits children with their communication, independence, and social interactions. For example, toddlers are enthralled by the herbs and brightly coloured play dough in their play kitchen. They confidently shape and combine the ingredients to create pretend foods, which they happily share with others. Staff teach them new vocabulary, such as 'moist' and 'spicy', which children learn quickly and use to describe what they are doing.

Leaders and staff have the highest expectations for children's learning and development. There are multiple opportunities for children to cultivate their independence from the start. For example, babies and toddlers learn to access tissues at 'snuffle stations' when their noses need wiping. They use mirrors to check that they have done a thorough job and remember to dispose of dirty tissues in the bins. Therefore, children have fantastic self-care skills in relation to their ages.

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

• Leaders provide exemplary support for the staff team. Supervision and training for all staff is sharply focused to ensure that teaching is of the highest quality throughout the nursery. Staff are highly motivated to develop their professional skills and knowledge. They speak with great enthusiasm about the broad opportunities for training and how this helps them to enrich children's learning experiences.
• Staff say that they feel valued and listened to. They describe how leaders show genuine concern for their well-being, and provide regular treats and rewards for their hard work.
• Children benefit from outstanding, high-quality interactions with the staff. For instance, staff consistently use simple sign language to aid communication and patiently explain what they are asking children to do. Children read, sing and speak with staff throughout the day. As a result, they learn new words rapidly and demonstrate excellent listening skills. All children, including those who speak English as an additional language, are extremely proficient and confident communicators.
• Staff know the children exceptionally well. They provide highly stimulating activities, which instil children with the awe and wonder of learning. Therefore, even the youngest babies are motivated to explore and discover. Staff regularly check what children know and can do. They promptly identify where children need extra help and provide excellent support to close any gaps in their learning.
• Children's behaviour is exemplary throughout the nursery. They learn from an early age to understand and express their emotions. For example, as babies examine themselves in a mirror, staff use simple language to describe their facial expressions. They help toddlers to identify a wider range of feelings, such as by relating them to 'colour monsters' from a favourite story. As a result, children swiftly learn to regulate their behaviour and enjoy being kind and considerate to others.
• Staff recognise the positive impact that children's well-being has on all aspects of their learning and development. Therefore, there is a strong focus on supporting children's emotional health. For example, key staff visit children at home before they join the nursery to develop secure bonds right from the start. Consequently, children make smooth transitions into the nursery.
• Children thoroughly enjoy being outdoors in their stimulating rooftop garden and on visits to the local park. They build strong bodies through vigorous daily exercise and activities such as yoga and movement sessions. Children are keen to sample the tasty and nutritious meals and snacks provided. This helps them to discover and enjoy a wide variety of healthy foods.
• Staff forge strong partnerships with parents and work extremely hard to engage them in their children's learning. For example, staff provide story books and activity bags, which parents share with their children at home. They find out about the experiences that children enjoy outside of nursery, so that they can further support these. Parents say that staff provide exceptional support for each family's needs. They appreciate the wonderful care and experiences that the nursery provides for their children.