New World Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are cared for in a safe and stimulating environment. Staff greet them warmly when they arrive. Children and staff develop close, caring relationships. Staff readily give cuddles and reassurance to children, where needed. The knowledgeable staff know the children well and plan a wide range of experiences that stimulate children's interests. Children throughout the nursery become deeply engaged in their play. For example, 2-year-olds are interested in themselves. Staff follow this interest and encourage children to draw what they can see when they look at themselves in the mirror. As children get older, they sustain high levels of concentration. Pre-school children are highly animated as they look for resources that will sink and float in water in the garden. They respond effectively to staff's open-ended questions, to predict and test their ideas.

Children behave extremely well and respond to prompts from staff quickly. Children learn to share and to take account of others. Staff give targeted support and reassurance where needed. They give children notice before they need to finish their activity. Staff use a one-minute sand timer. This leads to calm transition periods. Children are keen to help to tidy resources away.

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

• The nursery benefits from a strong management team. Managers and staff work extremely well together. The curriculum is exceptionally well designed to build on children's knowledge and interests. Passionate staff understand the curriculum focus and what children need to learn. They put this in place very well. All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children who speak English as an additional language, make excellent progress from their starting points.
• There is excellent support for children with SEND and any additional needs. The two knowledgeable special educational needs coordinators work closely with parents and other professionals. They develop precise support plans to help reduce any gaps in learning. Staff sensitively assess children's individual needs. They make excellent use of funding. This is spent well to provide one-to-one support and additional resources and has a highly positive impact on children's lives.
• Staff attend many training courses to develop their already excellent knowledge and skills. They do this to help them with children's specific needs. In-house training has focused on story and song sessions and how to interact with children, such as reading with expression. Children across the nursery love to sit with a member of staff and share a book or sing a song. This helps to develop their communication and language skills.
• The management team is highly proactive in monitoring staffs' practice. They model how to interact with children. Staff have all recently carried out peer-on-peer observations of each other's work. Managers meet with staff to discuss their well-being and the progress that individual children are making. This all helps to raise the quality of care and learning to exceptional levels.
• Staff place a strong emphasis on developing children's communication and language. They model key vocabulary to a high standard, so that children talk confidently about their activities. Two-year-olds gain in confidence to say what songs they would like to sing. When given the choice of singing fast or slow, they immediately say fast. Older children speak with increasing confidence to visitors.
• Staff exchange a wealth of information with parents on entry and thereafter. This helps staff to meet children's individual care and learning needs. Parents praise the staff for all the support that they provide to them. They like that they are given ideas for activities to do at home, such as an autumn hunt. They state that anything they ask is implemented quickly.
• Management and staff kept in close contact with families during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. This helped to support children's emotional well-being and continuous learning. For example, staff provided ideas for children's activities. They recorded videos of a song of the week and shared it on social media for families to access.