North Road Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and enjoy their time at this inclusive setting. Staff are kind and nurturing. They warmly greet children and their parents when they arrive, helping children to settle quickly. Leaders and staff have developed a curriculum that focuses on providing children with a range of new opportunities that enhance their personal experiences. Children explore their local community and enjoy trips to the local park and mosque. Children thoroughly enjoy outdoor play. They run freely and enjoy the open space available to them. They develop their confidence and strength as they climb and balance on the equipment.

Children benefit from a well-thought-out learning environment, enhanced by interesting and creative resources that staff provide. This allows children to confidently lead their own play. For example, older children freely access paints and a range of mark-making tools. They paint sunflowers and remember that they had seen them on a recent trip to the park. They discuss the colours they create as they mix the paints together.

Children form good relationships with staff and with their peers. Staff set clear routines and boundaries. They gently remind children of the golden rules that they created together. This helps children to behave well and know what to expect next.

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

• The passionate and dedicated management team continually reflects on the provision to ensure it meets the needs of children and their families. Staff development is a priority. Regular observations of staff practice and purposeful supervision meetings help staff to understand their roles and responsibilities. Staff speak favourably about the support they receive from the management team in regards to their well-being.
• Staff value and promote children's understanding of equality and diversity extremely well. Children and their families take part in a variety of multicultural celebrations, including the setting's recent 'diversity day'. Role play areas across the setting include items from children's homes, creating familiar environments. This helps children to learn about their similarities and differences in enjoyable and meaningful ways.
• Staff deliver group activities to support children's learning. A daily 'dough disco' session supports children to strengthen their hand muscles by rolling, patting and stretching the dough. Children listen to familiar stories in large groups. Some children role play parts of the story using props. However, sometimes the pace of group activities does not meet the needs of all children. This results in some children becoming disengaged or not having sufficient time to complete the tasks asked of them.
• Parents speak extremely highly of the setting and the staff. They describe the setting as a 'home from home' and comment that staff build excellent bonds with children, treating them with love and care. Parents receive regular updates about their children's progress and development. They are thankful for the many opportunities to celebrate special events with their children, for example sports day and graduation.
• Overall, staff work effectively to develop children's communication skills. They model language consistently well and regularly sing songs during routine activities. However, on occasion, children are not given opportunities to explore their own ideas or express themselves fully. For example, staff ask children about the differences they observe in the play dough snakes they have modelled. However, staff quickly answer their own question and do not allow children enough time to think and respond. This can limit children's critical thinking and response.
• Staff incorporate mathematics through everyday experiences. Children learn positional language as they compare what is bigger and smaller. They count blocks during outdoor play, with encouragement from staff to notice what happens when they add more blocks.
• Children with special educational needs and/ or disabilities (SEND) make good progress from their starting points. They form close bonds with their key persons and, as a result, their individual needs are met. Parents of children with SEND speak extremely highly of the support they receive from staff and managers.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide further opportunities for children to develop their critical thinking skills
• review the pace of group activities to maximise the learning experiences for all children.