Oak House Nursery School Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this exceptional setting, where they feel safe and secure. They confidently explore a range of activities and resources that stimulate their curiosity and love of learning. Children show high levels of enthusiasm and engagement when they interact with staff and their friends. For example, babies delight in sensory experiences while they play barefoot in an indoor sandpit and freely explore painting activities. Tiny tots enjoy mark making in shaving foam, pasta play and singing sessions. Toddlers create Christmas table decorations from foliage collected in the local environment, and pre-school children practise their nativity songs spontaneously outdoors while they play to the beat on drums.

Children enjoy exploring a variety of inspiring spaces and activities outdoors that promote their physical development and well-being. Toddlers search excitedly for Santa during frosty morning treasure hunts in the nursery field. They explore risk and challenge when they climb ladders to rescue Santa from a tree, closely supervised by staff. They squeal with delight when they pull Christmas crackers found along the way. Pre-school learn about the environment, as they collect eggs from the nursery chickens, help look after the nursery guinea pigs and have lambs and sheep come to visit. They grow seasonal fruit and vegetables which they nurture, harvest and eat. Furthermore, during summer months, they enjoy tractor and pony rides around the field. All children rapidly develop and progress extremely well in their learning.

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

• Leadership and management ensure the curriculum is ambitious for all children. They monitor the provision and quality of teaching closely. Staff receive highly focused and successful training to continually improve outcomes for all children.
• Staff get to know children extremely well from the outset, and gain a clear understanding of their starting points and past experiences. Enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff plan activities to extend children's learning. Children are prepared for their next stage of their educational journey by staff who communicate well together, with parents, between rooms and with feeder schools to ensure smooth transitions.
• Communication, language and literacy are promoted in an exceptional way. Staff meticulously plan activities, that extend children's vocabulary and language skills. Staff use an initiative called 'Fab Vocab' to introduce and repeat new key words in activities and conversations in all rooms. Babies and tiny tots enjoy stories, songs and cuddles with their key persons. Toddlers join in with familiar phrases in stories, while pre-school children learn early phonics skills needed to support them when they move on to school. The nursery's book-loan scheme enables children to enjoy a greater range of books with parents at home, to further build on their vocabulary and love of books.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are fully supported. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) and the nursery's own inclusion team work collaboratively with parents and other specialists, which helps to ensure all children are provided with the right support to reach their potential. Management place great importance on providing all children and families with the best possible care and education, including funding extra staff to support children's individual needs.
• Parents talk about feeling proud that they can send their children to this nursery. They describe their children's early years experiences here as "magical, fun and amazing". They talk about nurturing relationships, the fact their children love attending and they benefit from strong two-way partnerships with staff. Staff keep parents fully informed of children's routines and progress during daily key-person conversations and communications on an online application. Staff provide suggestions to support home learning and offer advice and support for care routines, communication and language and behaviour management at home.
• Respect and tolerance are promoted at a very early age. Younger children learn about themselves, their families and their community. Links with a pre-school in Gambia enable older children to learn about other cultures and ways of life. Regular fundraising events that children and families enjoy at the nursery provide funds for food and education for children in the pre-school in Gambia.
• Children's health and well-being is a key priority. Children are extremely well cared for by staff who know them well. Safe hygiene procedures, routines and care practices promote children's health and well-being. Nutrition is excellent, the in-house chef prepares salt and sugar-free meals that all children enjoy. Meals are adapted to accommodate children's dietary requirements. Following requests from parents these meals can now be purchased to enjoy at home, including family-sized portions for families with busy lifestyles.
• Leadership and management are exemplary. They are passionate and highly reflective. For example, despite the already highly innovative and exciting outdoor spaces they have created, they have plans to develop an outdoor kindergarten in the future.