Nature Trails

Inclusion: Strong standard

Leaders and staff are passionate about the care and support they provide for all children in this nursery. A highly effective key-person and co-key-worker system helps to build secure relationships with children, promoting children's emotional wellbeing and strong attachments.

Consistent assessment procedures help staff to identify children's individual needs at the earliest opportunity. This means staff are knowledgeable about the children in their care and swiftly plan and implement interventions for children to support any gaps in their learning and development. Staff confidently and consistently adapt their interactions and teaching approaches to meet children's individual needs. For example, at mealtimes, staff use visual cues and hand signals to support children's early communication skills and engagement in social mealtimes. This inclusive practice is embedded across the nursery, helping children to understand and follow daily routines, building their self-confidence and sense of belonging.

Leaders use additional funding highly effectively to develop personalised support plans, purchase specialist furniture and adapt the environment to ensure accessibility for all children. This responsive and highly inclusive approach is particularly effective in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), those who face barriers to learning and children known to social care services. Children therefore receive highly effective, tailored support that enables them to thrive in this nursery.

Leaders work collaboratively in partnership with parents. They involve and consult parents about all areas of their children's learning and development, guiding them through any referral processes. Parents are invited to join staff on access and inclusion walks as their children transition across rooms in the nursery. This highlights the consideration and careful adaptations that are made to nursery provision to ensure the seamless continuity of care and learning for children with SEND as they move across rooms. Leaders are swift to obtain advice from specialist professionals, working in partnership with them to further enhance outcomes for children and their families.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders have designed and embedded an exciting and engaging curriculum that is led by children's personal interests and individual needs. The curriculum clearly identifies and builds on what children already know and can do, identifying what children need to learn next. Staff understand the curriculum well and deliver it consistently across the setting. Staff ensure that children enjoy their learning and receive high-quality learning experiences. For instance, when children's imaginations are ignited by recent trips to London, staff respond to children's curiosity, teaching them about famous landmarks and buildings. This engages children well in learning that develops their understanding of nature and the world in which they live.

Songs, rhymes and stories are embedded throughout daily practice and play a significant role in supporting children's communication and language development. Staff consistently model language, repeat key vocabulary and engage with children sensitively as they play, to extend and develop their learning experiences. For instance, babies show excitement and engagement through facial expressions and babbling as they slide ducks down water chutes. Older children incorporate newly introduced vocabulary, such as 'blue tits', as they recall the names of birds they have seen in the garden.

Staff skilfully tailor the curriculum to meet each child's uniqueness and developmental needs. To ensure children with barriers to their learning are included, they provide meaningful adaptations to activities, such as using pictures, signs and words in children's home language to help them understand how to follow daily routines. Adaptations to planned activities are consistently considered to ensure they have the most positive impact for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those with other barriers to their learning. For example, staff create safe spaces for children and use social stories and yoga to help them regulate their emotions, enabling them to access the full curriculum.

Achievement: Strong standard

Children's physical development is nurtured from the youngest age through carefully sequenced activities to build their confidence and skills. Adaptations are expertly made to the learning environment and planned learning opportunities to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to access a full curriculum. This promotes the best possible outcomes for children with SEND and those with other barriers to their learning.

Communication and language are effectively threaded through the curriculum and are given consistently high priority across the nursery. Children with barriers to their learning benefit from very skilful adaptations, such as staff using words in their home language and picture cues, to support their communication skills. As a result, all children make exceptional progress in this area of their development.

Children develop an understanding of numbers and mathematical concepts. Older children count confidently beyond 20 and use mathematical vocabulary to describe common shapes and compare objects of different sizes and weights. Children are prepared extremely well for their move to school.

From a young age, children develop a range of skills, including high levels of independence, self-confidence and resilience. Children have extremely positive attitudes to learning, persevere to overcome challenges and show immense pride in their achievements. This prepares all children well for the next stage of their learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Leaders and staff create a highly nurturing and inclusive environment. Routines are embedded consistently across the nursery to promote positive and consistent behaviours. Children know and respectfully follow the rules and routines of the nursery, and this helps to keep them safe and feel secure. Children's behaviour is exemplary as a result. Leaders and staff consistently promote a culture where children are celebrated as individuals. Staff offer lots of praise, which children show pride in receiving, building their confidence and self-esteem.

Staff are excellent role models for children. They interact sensitively and warmly with children at appropriate times to promote extremely positive attitudes and behaviour. Staff know the children in their care extremely well and make timely adaptations to support and promote their positive behaviour. For example, they model turn taking when playing games with children, explaining why sharing is fair, promoting their patience and building their cooperative skills.

Children across the nursery are highly engaged in their learning and show high levels of enjoyment. Young children persevere with tasks and problem-solve as they play. For example, when pouring sand into a container from a jug, they work out that a leaf blocking the flow of sand needs to be removed before resuming the activity. Older children discuss previous learning, recalling events from stories they have shared. They play imaginatively, using shaving foam to recreate snow scenes from stories they know. They recall familiar story language as they describe the 'swirling, whirling' snowstorm. This illustrates the positive attitude and excitement for learning that children develop in this nursery.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders and staff skilfully demonstrate a culture that prioritises children's welfare and wellbeing. They undertake effective risk assessment to ensure resources, activities and learning environments are always safe and secure for children.

Children feel confident and secure in sharing any concerns they have or seeking out comfort or reassurance when required. Babies demonstrate how secure they feel in the care of the attentive staff. They confidently approach staff with books, sitting down beside them ready to share a story. This demonstrates the strong attachments and relationships they form with staff.

The key-person system is strong. Staff know their key children extremely well. They work extremely closely with parents to support all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those with other barriers to their learning. Staff are acutely responsive and aware of the medical and dietary needs of the children in their care, ensuring their ongoing safety and wellbeing.

Staff establish secure routines to support all children to be independent. Very young children learn to pour their drinks from jugs into open cups and drink confidently, using their dominant hand, from cups with handles. Older children self-serve their food at mealtimes and clear away their plates after eating. Children make healthy choices about the snacks they eat, and staff help them to learn how the fruits and foods they eat help them to grow and stay healthy.

Children practise strong hygiene routines. Systems in place promote this, along with independence. For example, older children enjoy privacy when visiting the toilet and will ring a bell if they require the assistance of nearby staff. Children understand how to make healthy decisions to support their own self-care. Staff sensitively request permission from babies before changing their nappies. They maintain eye contact with babies and chat away to them as they take care of their personal needs. Children discuss the importance of handwashing and, when playing outside, physical activity. They comment that when playing tennis, their heart beats fast because they are working hard. This promotes children's understanding of healthy lifestyles extremely well.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

Leaders are fully committed to ensure they always meet requirements and are highly reflective if they identify areas of weakness. Ofsted was notified recently of a possible breach where a child was outside in the fully secure garden area when other children were inside. That said, staff from adjacent gardens would have seen and heard the child when they emerged from their hiding spot. Leaders were proactive and took steps to ensure registers of children are completed as they move in and out of the garden area, along with continued headcounts, visual checks and garden sweeps by a designated member of staff. This due diligence ensures that children's safety is always prioritised.

Leaders have an extremely positive outlook on driving improvements for their setting. They consistently and effectively reflect on the setting's strengths and areas for further enhancement, ensuring progression for the setting is prioritised. Leaders recognise the importance of continuous professional development of staff and make this a priority. Leaders recognise the benefit of promoting staff wellbeing, providing regular staff meetings, supervisions and appraisals. Leaders provide thoughtful guidance, supervision and professional development for staff, which helps maintain the high standards of practice across the nursery. This also creates a working environment where staff feel valued and are highly motivated and consistent in their approach to children's care.

Leaders work closely with other specialist agencies and professionals to ensure children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those with other barriers to their learning receive the support they need. This helps all children, including those with SEND, to make progress. Parents report that times of transition for their children are thoroughly considered and take place smoothly. This prepares and supports children with SEND to manage change well as they move on to the next stage of their learning journey.

Partnerships with parents and carers have a very positive impact on children's experiences and progress. Parents speak highly favourably about the nursery and the attentive and caring leaders and staff. They value the regular guidance and daily communication staff provide, helping to ensure that children enjoy continuity of care and learning between home and nursery. Leaders consistently promote the benefits of regular attendance and punctuality with parents. As a result, children feel secure and confident and make sustained progress in their learning and development.