New Century Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish at this inclusive, supportive and nurturing setting. Children quickly build strong, close relationships with staff. They often seek out their key person in order to enjoy cuddles, stories and singing together. Younger children squirm with excitement and giggle as staff sing them 'Round and round the garden'. Babies settle quickly and stroke the face of their key person as they are tenderly spoken to and fed a bottle.

Staff support children well to make friendships with their peers. They encourage games of football and doctors and nurses, where the children interact well and look after each other. Children show a keen interest in learning and thoroughly enjoy the activities provided for them. For example, younger children engage well and focus on pouring sand, navigating a balance path and creating group pictures. Older children immerse themselves in exploring 'full' and 'empty' with sand containers and finding letters hidden in water beads.

Staff know every child well and focus on each of them as an individual. Their needs are always attended to in a supportive and meaningful way. They support them to become confident, independent learners and to achieve their own full potential. Children are well prepared to move on to the next step of their learning.

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

• Leaders use their expertise to construct a curriculum that is ambitious for every child. All staff use assessment well, to plan and sequence learning for each child that supports them to make good progress.
• Leaders support staff to provide well-considered, targeted plans for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Small and achievable targets are designed to meet the children's needs. Staff are attentive and make every effort to adapt activities so that all children are included.
• Staff skilfully weave maths and number into the children's play. This supports even reluctant learners to engage with and enjoy early mathematical concepts. For instance, younger children count their play dough pieces as they cut them and talk about which ones are the 'longest' and 'shortest'. Older children are challenged even further to consider simple addition and measuring with rulers.
• Leaders and staff provide many exciting opportunities for children to learn about early sounds and increase their listening skills. Children smile as they eagerly join in with playing loud and quiet musical instruments. Others enjoy circle time, where they learn to hear and identify the initial sounds in words. They receive high praise and beam with pride as they identify them correctly.
• Staff focus on supporting communication and language for children. They speak clearly and model new vocabulary such as 'wriggle' and 'escaping' when investigating worms with older children. Younger children are encouraged to repeat 'ready, steady, go' when copying jumping and balancing movements in the garden. This supports children to make rapid progress in their communication skills.
• Staff support children well to develop independence and resilience through play. They show children how to carry out activities and then allow them appropriate time to try for themselves. If children get something wrong, staff are quick to encourage them to try again until they succeed. This supports them to have a good attitude to learning and provides them with the necessary skills to thrive in later life.
• Staff support children to understand their differences and similarities. Younger children enjoy using mirrors, and older children look at books to explore different people. However, staff do not fully explore and celebrate children's heritages. This does not support children to understand their own uniqueness and prepare them fully for future life.
• Leaders support staff to identify training needs to support the children in their care. For example, they recently completed training on communication and language, and phonics. This supports all children to make progress. However, the management team do not focus sharply enough on staff's professional development, to raise the quality of the provision to the highest level.
• Parents report that they are very pleased with the rapid progress their children make, particularly in relation to their confidence and communication skills. They find all staff to be very supportive and friendly and appreciate the home learning ideas provided. A parent stated that she 'would definitely recommend it to everyone'.
• Leaders have a clear vision going forward on the ways to continue to improve their already high standard of care and education. They are greatly reflective practitioners and use this knowledge to improve outcomes for children so they can continue to blossom in their care.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop further the ways in which to support children to understand their cultural heritage, to allow them to explore and celebrate their own uniqueness
• strengthen the evaluation of staff practice, to identify further training opportunities and help to raise the quality of the provision to an even higher level.