N Family Club Greenwich Millennium Village

Inclusion: Strong standard

When children start at nursery, staff quickly and accurately identify gaps in their learning or development. As a result, children receive highly individualised support. For example, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from carefully adapted activities to help them learn the knowledge and skills they need to reach their targets. Children thrive as a result of the effective adaptations that staff have in place.

Children who speak English as an additional language settle quickly into nursery life, due to the abundance of opportunities they have to hear and use their home languages alongside English. For example, staff learn common phrases in children's home languages and use these during their daily interactions with children. Staff who are native speakers of individual children's home languages read multilingual stories with them. Leaders ensure that children access a wide range of multicultural toys and resources that reflect the nursery community and wider society. This contributes to children's understanding of themselves and promotes their tolerance and acceptance of other people and cultures.

Leaders ensure that they maintain close working relationships with statutory agencies involved in children's care. This facilitates effective communication, enabling leaders to respond quickly to any changes in children's circumstances. Therefore, any barriers that children may face to their learning are reduced.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Overall, staff implement the broad curriculum well. Staff promote children's communication, early mathematical skills, self-help and early literacy successfully across their interactions. Children recall familiar stories, finish simple rhyming strings and develop a love for books. Staff skilfully employ a combination of signing and simple narrations for children's actions. This is highly impactful and supports babies' emerging language and understanding extremely well. Staff adapt their teaching and employ agreed strategies, such as visual aids and 'Now and Next' boards. Therefore, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, progress well through the areas of learning.

Pre-school children who are preparing to transition on to school benefit from planned opportunities to practise and master their coordination, physical agility, balance and control during outdoor play. This includes regular structured physical education lessons. Children enjoy these activities as they learn to move with speed, negotiate space and avoid obstacles. However, staff do not provide sufficiently consistent opportunities for younger children in this room to develop their large-muscle control, stamina and coordination. This means that children who have recently transitioned in to the room have fewer opportunities to practise and refine these important physical skills.

Children demonstrate confidence as they count, and name shapes and colours. They learn to respond and share their thoughts when answering questions from staff. Babies and toddlers curiously explore and confidently choose activities for themselves.

Staff extend children's activities appropriately. This is effective at helping children build on their existing knowledge and skills. Children who recently transitioned in to the room engage well during adult-led activities. For example, they learn to focus as they build construction and engage in small-world and mud kitchen role play. However, during interactions, staff are often quick to offer suggestions and direct children's play without trying to understand children's ideas or thinking beforehand. Although this narrows children's creativity and ability to progress their own play ideas, children typically acquire the fundamental skills necessary for them to make successful transitions to their next stages of learning, including moving on to school.

Achievement: Strong standard

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make impressive progress from their starting points. Children are confident and display increasing independence. They manage self-help tasks with little to no assistance from staff. Children competently move from potty training to daytime continence, developing the confidence and independence they need to manage their personal-care routines successfully. This ensures that children are increasingly confident and ready to take the next steps in their learning and development as they transition on to school. Babies use cutlery to feed and serve themselves under close supervision from staff.

Younger children who speak English as an additional language quickly learn the nursery's routine, which supports their feeling of safety and emotional security.

Children enjoy taking part in extra-curricular activities, such as physical games, scooter-safety lessons and cooking sessions. They have lots of fun, and older children listen to instructions well. Babies and younger children quickly learn the nursery's routine, which supports them to feel safe and secure.

Overall, the rich curriculum and wealth of exciting learning opportunities prepare children very well for their next stages of learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Leaders have already identified transitions in children's routines as an area for improvement. They have successfully retrained and coached staff, ensuring that routines are now deeply embedded throughout the day. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, benefit from predictable changes within and across the day. Staff create flexibility within this structure, which is highly effective in helping individual children navigate the learning environment calmly. In turn, this supports children's emotional regulation and enables them to engage deeply in their learning.

Children behave exceptionally well and have high regard for staff. They treat each other with kindness and consideration. Children enjoy the company of their peers and learn to resolve minor conflicts amicably. They take care of resources and are curious and motivated learners. Older children line up patiently before moving from indoor to outdoor play. They learn to redirect their high energy during challenging outdoor play activities. There is a rich sense of community within the nursery. Children display a willingness to collaborate and develop their skills for teamwork.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Staff respond to individual children very well. Staff working with babies devote their undivided attention as they cuddle, reassure and encourage babies' exploration. Staff seek children's permission before performing personal care. Staff recognise children's non-verbal cues that indicate when they are tired or require space to regulate. This ensures that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, develop emotional security and a deep sense of belonging.

Staff use daily routines and planned activities very effectively to promote children's physical health, welfare and wellbeing. For example, children learn good hygiene practices during messy water play, which helps to secure their meticulous handwashing habits.

Lunchtimes are calm, sociable events. Children sit appropriately at tables, chatting with one another and staff. Children have very good manners. They understand healthy choices and comment positively about their favourite foods with staff. Leaders organise visits from the dentist to teach children about oral hygiene and correct toothbrushing. Together, these activities support children's understanding of healthy lifestyle habits.

Staff carefully judge when to offer help and when to step back, allowing children to practise and develop independence in self-care skills. Staff teach children about personal safety in age-appropriate ways. For example, children are familiar with the road safety messages shared by the nursery's mascot, 'Safi' the chameleon. This helps children to recognise danger and hazardous situations, and take age-appropriate action to keep themselves safe.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders are passionate individuals committed to securing positive outcomes for children. They remain aware of the prevalent socioeconomic factors that affect the local community. This has led leaders to prioritise children's oral health and physical fitness. For example, they provide opportunities for children to learn about good oral hygiene through collaboration with dentists. Older pre-schoolers, babies and toddlers have plenty of meaningful opportunities to develop their large muscles, coordination, balance and control across outdoor and indoor environments. However, opportunities are limited for pre-school children who have recently transitioned in to the room.

Leaders ensure that staff consistently deliver a targeted curriculum for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders ensure that children experience a rich set of activities that helps them progress well across the areas of the early years foundation stage.

Leaders and those responsible for governance jointly complete quality audits to identify areas for improvement. Leaders have focused on coaching, modelling and monitoring staff to successfully embed routines across the nursery. However, there are some weaknesses in the quality of teaching in the pre-school room. This is because staff often overly-direct children's ideas, which limits their ability to develop their child-led imagination, creativity and expression. Despite this, children typically develop their independence alongside acquiring the key skills necessary to make successful transitions to their next stages of learning.

Leaders have built very strong partnerships with parents. Parents are actively involved in the life of the nursery. Many are professionals who contribute by reading stories and delivering age-appropriate health talks with children. Parents report their deep trust and confidence in the leadership team, and feel that their children make impressive all-round progress at the nursery.

Staff report that leaders are empathetic and offer them professional guidance. They value the clear progression pathways and manageable workloads. Overall, staff morale is high, as staff feel heard and appreciated by leaders.