Norton Hall Children and Family Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the nursery happy and eager to learn. They are greeted by kind, attentive staff who know them and their families well. This helps children to settle quickly and feel safe and secure. Children immerse themselves in the stimulating, exciting environment that reflects their interests. They enjoy independently choosing what activity they want to engage in.

Older children eagerly choose to participate in an activity where they try to remove dinosaurs from ice. They use various tools and try a range of methods to free the dinosaurs. As they do this, they are verbally able to describe what they are doing. Staff support them to learn new words and concepts, such as 'crashing' and 'melting'. This supports children's communication and language development, physical skills and understanding of the world. Younger children like using a range of pots, pans and resources in the home corner to pretend to cook food. They enjoy filling up pots and pans with pasta, putting them in the oven and then offering each other and adults 'dinner'. This supports children's communication, language and imagination.

Staff have high expectations for all children, and children exhibit good behaviours. Children are kind, motivated to learn and make good progress. Staff ensure children are ready and well prepared for their eventual move to school.

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

• The manager designs an ambitious curriculum that is clearly sequenced to support children to learn through the stages they need to make progress. However, this is not yet ingrained across the whole nursery. This results in teaching not being sharply focused on what children need to learn now and next in order to help them make the best possible progress.
• High priority is given to communication and language development across the nursery. Staff model excellent language as they sit alongside children and incisively know when to join in. They respond appropriately to test out children's ideas and encourage their thinking. This ensures children are confident to make decisions, solve problems and persevere at tasks.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are exceptionally well supported. The manager and staff have strong links with outside agencies and devise targeted plans of support for each individual child. This ensures children make the best possible progress they can.
• The nursery environment is welcoming and is reflective of the community it serves. The manager and staff team prioritise getting to know all children and their families well. The nursery celebrates all children that attend. This includes recognising their different cultures, celebrating festivals and respecting different families. This contributes to children's high levels of self-esteem as they have a great sense of belonging and feel valued.
• Children's independence and self-help skills are well promoted across the nursery. They are able to successfully put on their own shoes, tidy up resources and wash their hands before eating. They also like choosing what healthy food they would like to eat while at nursery and enjoy choosing fruit from the fruit bowl to take home.
• Children have weekly sessions with a sports coach who teaches them about the importance of exercise. He also helps the children to develop their coordination and build good core strength.
• Parents report how safe and happy their children feel at nursery. They share how confident their children have become since starting and are amazed by how well their children's language has developed. Parents are pleased with the good progress their children make. They state they are very happy with the excellent daily verbal feedback and the regular parent consultations they receive.
• The knowledgeable, passionately dedicated manager shows great commitment to the professional development of her staff team. This supports staff practice and well-being and helps leaders and managers to identify any additional training needs. For example, the manager identifies that new staff need training on the early years foundation stage, in order to help them embed their knowledge of the curriculum and further raise their teaching skills.
• Children benefit from the strong links the nursery has with local schools. Staff meet with teachers and parents to share information. This helps to keep children safe and supports a smooth transition as children move on to start school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to support staff to firmly embed the curriculum so that they focus clearly on what children need to learn now and next, to ensure children make the best possible progress.