New House Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The outstanding nursery offers children an incredibly warm, welcoming and fully inclusive environment for them to thrive in. The provider places an emphasis on supporting children to have a real love of learning and the world around them. Staff use the impressive outdoor area to create many different learning opportunities to increase children's curiosity and wonder. For example, children thoroughly immerse themselves in a sensory experience of acting out the story 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. They skip along to the musical rhythm and giggle with joy as they run through the paper snow storm. Staff build extremely sensitive, caring relationships with the children. They take the time to really know and understand each child. This supports children to settle extremely quickly and feel a sense of belonging. Each classroom reflects the children within it. Children's work is continually added to classroom display boards to support their sense of pride and well-being. Staff regularly update 'family boards' to help children learn about each other and to rejoice in telling their friends all about themselves.

Children flourish in the meticulously planned, stimulating environment. Staff link all learning to previous experiences to further enhance and extend children's knowledge and skills in every learning opportunity. Staff have a very exciting and enthusiastic manner with the children. They make every area of the nursery an inviting and thrilling place. Children are consistently busily engaged in exploring all the resources on offer. They eagerly await group times, where they intently focus with excitement. Younger children jump up and down and laugh as they learn about colours from the classroom puppet. Older children beam with pride as they begin to learn letter sounds and read simple words. Children are extremely well prepared for moving on to school, with a great deal of independence, self-esteem and a love of learning.

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

• Staff work very closely together to plan experiences that consistently build on children's knowledge over time. They are highly skilled at providing challenges for children to ensure they all make outstanding progress from their starting points. For example, while learning about autumn, younger children talk about colours and use fine motor skills to paint pictures. They later skip around as they rake up leaves and sing songs about the seasons. Older children engross themselves in cutting and creating their own autumn picture. They later delight in learning the names of different types of leaves and which chemicals cause leaves to fall.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make exceptional progress in their learning and development. Staff are extremely knowledgeable and are quick to put support in place once any gaps in children's development have been identified. They expertly adapt their teaching and practice so that children with SEND continue to benefit from an inclusive and challenging curriculum. The leadership team goes above and beyond to ensure that additional funding is best spent to help children with SEND. For example, specialist staff are brought in and resources of interest are bought to settle and involve children. The provider seeks additional specialist training for all staff to ensure they are highly skilled and able to provide targeted support for the individual needs of each child.
• Children treat each other and the environment with the utmost respect. They demonstrate exemplary behaviour, such as resetting the environment for their friends to use later. Throughout all rooms, staff remind children of the 'golden rules', and children are keen to help each other follow them. Staff use encouraging words and high praise to support children to be superb at sharing resources and taking turns.
• Staff are excellent at allowing children time to do things for themselves and positively encouraging them to persevere. Children's independence in all aspects of their learning and self-care is superb. Even very young and new children to the nursery are able to copy their friends, and they collect their own wellies and outdoor suits. Staff talk calmly to them and explain what to do. Children exclaim with joy and say, 'Look what I did all by myself!' Older children take extreme pride in being the lunch helper as they serve up lunch to their friends.
• The provider is highly successful at providing children with a rich set of experiences to help them understand families and communities beyond their own. Staff and parents regularly support children to celebrate and embrace cultures beyond their own. The children take part yearly in raising money for different local charities which are pertinent to the families attending. Older children talk passionately about the guide dog that they sponsor and who he will be able to help. As a result, children have a fantastic understanding of differences and how they can support and embrace everyone around them.
• The provider is highly skilled, passionate and dedicated to providing inspirational leadership to all staff. Staff comment extremely positively about the support they receive, both for their professional development and their personal well-being. The whole team is consistently reflective about its practice and children's developmental needs. Staff benefit from high-quality coaching opportunities to ensure they have the most up-to-date knowledge to continually build on their exceptionally strong teaching skills. Consequently, staff are able to evaluate and adapt the curriculum to reflect the changing needs, interests and experiences of the children who attend.