Outdoor Owls

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy the time they spend at this warm and welcoming forest school nursery. They demonstrate that they feel safe and secure as they confidently board the 'classroom on wheels' minibus, to go to camp. Staff use this opportunity to introduce activities and read stories with the children. This fosters children's love of books and helps them to get ready for their day ahead.

Children have a positive attitude to learning and engage in open-ended play for sustained periods. They explore and experiment with confidence. For example, children work together to move planks of wood to balance on and use their problem-solving skills to climb trees. Children develop strong physical skills and show a strong interest in the natural world. They develop a good understanding of the changing seasons, living things and their environment. For example, they talk about different fruits that need the sun to grow and change colour. Children behave well. They are respectful and listen to the staff and their friends as they talk.

Staff have high expectations of children. They teach them how to assess risks and follow rules to help keep themselves safe. Children confidently know the boundaries of the nursery and raise staff awareness when children are near the boundaries.

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

• Leaders create an ambitious curriculum that focuses on children's physical, personal, social and emotional development. Staff have a good understanding of how young children learn and develop. They provide a varied curriculum, using their observations and assessments to build on what children already know and can do. The environment and resources support children's independence, well-being and learning.
• Staff interaction with children is good. Children remember previous learning. For instance, they ask staff for factual books, which they have used previously, so that they can look at the different types of plants. Staff have these ready to hand so that children can continue their learning. This has a positive impact on children's early literacy and deepens their knowledge even further.
• Children develop their imaginations. Staff are animated as they demonstrate how to interact with others during imaginary play. For example, they create imaginative games where children play in teams. This supports children to develop positive relationships with their friends.
• Staff successfully incorporate simple mathematical concepts, such as counting and addition, into everyday activities. For example, younger children count the number of stones they have collected in their pots. Older children start to recognise numbers and use simple addition.
• Staff ensure that the environment fosters children's independence. For instance, children take themselves to wash their hands after they have finished playing with messy activities and before mealtimes. This develops children's health and confidence in their own abilities.
• Children's behaviour is good. Staff are respectful to children's choices. This is demonstrated as staff ask children what activities they would like to participate in. Furthermore, they teach children about different emotions. This helps children to talk about how they feel.
• Parents are very happy with the nursery. They say that it is 'amazing' and they are happy with the progress their children make. However, the current systems in place to share curriculum information about their children's individual learning are not fully embedded. This means that parents do not consistently know what they can do at home to help extend their children's learning and development even further.
• Staff use the internet with children to find information, such as the names of insects. This helps children to learn about technology.
• Leaders are passionate about their ethos and provision they offer for children. They use research and seek training opportunities for staff to further develop their knowledge. Regular supervision sessions with staff are carried out, with targets set to support them in their roles. Leaders and the manager ensure that staff are supported in their role. Staff report that they feel valued as member of the team.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the already good partnerships with parents further so that all parents consistently receive information about the curriculum and how they can support their child's learning at home.