Old Sarum Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are safe and secure in this welcoming nursery environment. Caring and nurturing practitioners put children at the centre of all they do to ensure they settle well. They know the children and families well and create good bonds with them. For example, children enjoy cuddles when they need reassurance, and practitioners use what they know about children to ensure their needs are met. Children are confident and have high levels of self-esteem. They demonstrate that they are keen and eager to learn. The manager focuses the curriculum on promoting children's positive attitudes to learning and ensures that learning opportunities are exciting and engaging. Staff take into account children's individual interests and developing needs when implementing the curriculum. The play environment is well organised and carefully considers children's interests, which helps children make the progress of which they are capable.

Practitioners are polite and respectful to the children. They are good role models. This leads to the children being polite and respectful. Children are reminded about their manners, when required. Practitioners support children to learn skills for the future, such as to be independent with their self-care skills. Older children take ownership of their belongings. They help to tidy up and wash their hands independently before mealtimes.

The manager and practitioners work closely with external agencies to seek support and advice for children who need extra support. Practitioners monitor children's learning closely, and when they identify any gaps, they use the knowledge they already have to support children. Management makes timely referrals and liaises with parents to ensure that children receive the support they need to help them make the best possible progress.

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

• The manager supports practitioners to implement the curriculum to ensure that children become confident, independent and develop the skills needed to be ready for the transition on to school. They ensure that supportive strategies are in place to enable children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to develop to their full potential. However, practitioners do not always adapt their support and expectations to ensure that all children during activities are provided with the challenge they need. For example, they do not consistently provide challenges for older children to introduce them to new skills.
• Children behave well and interact positively with others. However, when children need reminders about their behaviour, practitioners do not use consistent strategies to manage this effectively. For example, when children run inside, practitioners remind children to use walking feet, but when children run again, they do not reinforce the rules. Practitioners do not always provide children with clear boundaries, meaning children do not always know what is expected of them.
• Practitioners support children's language development. They sing, read stories and model language throughout the day by using small sentences and asking children questions. They will model new words to them such as 'micronutrients' and repeat words to enable children to have the opportunity to enhance and extend their vocabulary.
• Mathematical concepts are introduced to the children during play. Practitioners implement simple counting and words to describe size and weight. Older children are introduced to the idea of 'time' using sand timers. Practitioners extend this by using language relating to time.
• Children are provided with healthy meals and snacks. They have access to fresh water throughout the day. Practitioners promote children's physical development. Children have access to outdoor space with a range of equipment, such as bicycles, push-along toys, and balancing beams. Children benefit from fresh air and explore moving in different ways. This supports children's well-being and physical development.
• The manager ensures that practitioners have regular supervision meetings where they can discuss their key children. In addition, they discuss workload and their own well-being. The manager supports her staff well to improve their professional skills and to provide good-quality interactions to support children's learning. For example, recent training has enabled staff to implement an effective curriculum to support younger children, those children learning English as an additional language and those children with SEND.
• Parents are complimentary about the provision. They comment that practitioners are warm and welcoming. Practitioners build strong partnerships with parents, gathering information through settling-in visits, stay-and-play sessions and ongoing conversations. There is a good exchange of information when parents drop children off, which helps practitioners to meet children's individual care needs successfully.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more targeted challenges during activities that extend childrens learning even further
• implement consistent boundaries and strategies for younger children to help them understand the expectations for behaviour so they learn the impact their actions may have on others.