Notting Hill Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm and friendly welcome when they arrive at this nursery. Staff develop strong bonds with children. This helps the children to feel safe, relaxed and brave enough to explore. Staff take time to get to know children's likes, dislikes and routines. They work with parents to find out what their children can already do to help them plan what they need to learn next. They provide activities that they feel the children will learn from and enjoy. They share these activities with parents and encourage them to do them at home. This helps children to develop new skills and make progress.

Children enjoy spending time in the well-equipped outdoor area. Children learn to climb and walk on planks, ride bicycles and swing on the tyre swing. This develops their larger muscles and balancing skills. They play in the mud kitchen, experimenting with herbal tea bags and watching what happens when they add water. This develops their levels of curiosity and love of learning. Staff take children on walks in the woods where they look at the natural environment and learn to decide which activities are safe. This teaches children about the wider world around them and supports them to learn how to risk assess.

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

• The manager and her team have a clear idea of the skills that they want children to learn. They help children to keep trying when they find a skill difficult. For example, children persevere when struggling to open small packets. Staff encourage children to do it for themselves and provide support if necessary. When learning to use a tap in the mud kitchen, staff encourage them to ask a friend how it works. This helps children to learn how to solve problems for themselves and to become resilient learners.
• Staff regularly sing songs and read stories to children. They introduce new words as children play. For example, during an activity based around the 's' sound, staff encourage children to use words like 'sprinkle' and 'scoop'. Some staff have had training to further support children's speech and language skills. They use pictures and objects to encourage children to use new words. When children make mistakes in their speech, staff sensitively repeat back the phrase or word correctly. This helps children to develop good speech and language skills.
• Staff provide engaging activities that children want to get involved with. For example, babies play with different coloured flowers. Staff support them to match them to the corresponding paint colours. They develop their early mark-making skills by dipping the flowers in paint and pressing them onto paper. Other children become curious and come to join in. This motivates children to learn and fosters a good attitude to learning.
• Overall, children show good behaviour. During activities they wait patiently for their turn and share resources well. However, on occasion, activities last too long and staff do not recognise when children are becoming distracted. At times, this results in some children losing focus and disengaging from the activity.
• Staff understand the importance of children developing their levels of independence. They support younger children to get tissues to wipe their own noses. Staff put photograph labels on water bottles to help them find their own drinks. They encourage toddlers to get their wellies and coats on before going outside. Staff help the eldest children to be independent with self-care tasks, such as using the toilet and washing their hands. This gives children the independence skills that they will need when they move on to school.
• The manager is passionate about the care that she and her team provide. She checks in with staff regularly to gain feedback about how to improve the nursery and to identify any training needs. Staff feel valued and that their opinions matter. However, staff organisation is not always effective when children are getting ready to move from one activity to another. Children do not always receive the same level of engagement during this period. This sometimes results in unwanted behaviour.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider the length of time that children are expected to sit and listen during adult-led activities to help children to remain engaged and focused
• review staff organisation during transition times to maximise children's learning time.