N Family Club Highgate

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly welcome children and all the family into this homely and nurturing setting. Everyone is welcome and invited to learn, play, network and make the most of this inspiring and vibrant environment. Staff know their children well and plan and prepare exciting and engaging activities. Babies enjoy stimulating sensory sessions, such as exploring citrus fruits in the water tray and climbing into a sand tray filled with ramps, trucks and cars. They can explore freely in the carefully designed areas, including the well-resourced garden. In the garden, staff guide children and support their physical development as they practise their climbing skills and stretch and move their bodies with regular yoga sessions. Children enjoy selecting yoga poses and can move with coordination and control. They listen attentively as staff teach them breathing skills to support and regulate their emotions.

Children's interests and ideas are broadened and developed by the ambitious curriculum on offer. They benefit from small-group activities that enhance their love of learning and spark curiosity, awe and wonder. They enjoy observational paintings of sunflowers as they watch a video of a sunflower opening, and learn about Vincent van Gogh. Staff go above and beyond to give children a rich set of experiences which enhance their real life skills and knowledge of the world around them, including trips to local shops to buy produce, using public transport and exploring nature at the local forest space.

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

• Staff are particularly skilled at supporting children's language development. In the early stages, they use Makaton to help children communicate and make choices. Staff are excellent role models; they engage in conversation and use a range of vocabulary to help children to learn new words. When making a volcano, children watch an eruption and make their own explosive mixtures. They confidently learn and use the words to describe the volcano, such as 'lava', 'magma' and 'fossils'.
• Staff enhance and extend learning by asking open-ended questions and getting children to use their own ideas. They constantly foster independence and get the children to select resources for themselves. Children demonstrate high levels of engagement as they pour and collect water, search for bugs, grow fruits and vegetables, and make potions in the outdoor kitchen. They are very excited and motivated to learn. Staff track and monitor children's learning effectively.
• Children are confident communicators and express their needs clearly. They talk about their feelings thoughtfully and are aware of their emotions. They use the 'glitter jar' to explain how sometimes their feelings are jumbled up and know what to do to help them to feel happy. They demonstrate positive behaviour and attitudes and have developed secure attachments with staff. They are kind, polite and respectful towards their friends. Children offer to share, let other children join in their play and help each other with their aprons.
• Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the quality of this setting and delighted with the care and education their children receive. They explain how much progress they have made and how well they settled. They speak highly of the management and staff team, who go above and beyond to ensure they know each individual child and family. Parents are so pleased with the communication and know exactly what their children are learning and working on next. Staff provide so much knowledge and information, so parents can support their children during their early years.
• Leaders and managers are passionate about children's development and improving outcomes. They are ambitious and constantly improving and reflecting. They prioritise partnerships with parents and create a homely feel to the nursery with regular meetings, workshops and updates. Managers are diligent and knowledgeable and put improvements in place and monitor the impact. They have worked hard to ensure children develop a love of reading by creating a lending library and have stories of the month. Children are immersed in books, choose to read them spontaneously and can retell their favourite stories.
• Staff speak so highly of their well-being and the environment they work in. They get support for their professional development and benefit from training and networking. Inductions and supervisions are a real strength and help to support the staff to improve and develop their practice.
• Staff plan using their expert knowledge of child development, and a clear curriculum model, in order to narrow gaps in all children's learning and ensure they are ready for the next stage of education. Staff work with integrity and use additional funding carefully to ensure personalised plans are put in place and that they get the support from outside agencies, when needed. They take advice and action to make sure all children, including disadvantaged children and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are thriving.