Park Community Nursery

Inclusion: Strong standard

Leaders are passionate about inclusion. Children and their families are made to feel welcome at this nursery. Leaders, alongside their staff team, recognise and value the fundamental part parents and carers play in their children's lives and work seamlessly in collaboration with them. Processes in place enable any gaps in children's learning to be swiftly identified and prompt action to be taken. Staff with lead responsibility for supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are dedicated to their roles and fully understand their responsibilities. They receive targeted training to offer ongoing support, guidance and advice to families, as well as to other staff.

Staff work hard to identify any barriers children may face to their learning and put appropriate interventions in place as a priority. This includes making timely referrals and working closely with external professionals. Staff follow targeted plans to ensure that children with SEND receive the right levels of consistent support to enable them to make secure individual progress. Leaders ensure families are supported to understand referral processes, and they work hard to provide ongoing support and guidance. They are always available as a listening ear, which families greatly appreciate. Staff provide parents with resources to use at home to mirror support that is available in nursery. This successfully promotes consistency of care and ongoing learning at home.

Leaders, staff and families work together to consider how best to use any additional funding they receive to support children's needs. This is robustly monitored to ensure the funds are having the desired positive outcome for each child as intended.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Since the last inspection, leaders have worked hard to revise the curriculum, providing staff with an array of training and ongoing coaching to support their understanding and delivery of the curriculum in practice. Generally, leaders accurately reflect on the quality of their revised curriculum. It is typically broad and ambitious to reflect children's interests and support all children's individual development, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Children's progress is monitored through effective assessment processes from their starting points to ensure they are continuously building on skills they already know and can do.

Leaders continue to identify areas for improvement, such as coaching staff to consistently recognise opportunities to entwine early mathematics into activities and daily routines. This is having a positive impact on the delivery of mathematics within the curriculum. For instance, younger children are supported to learn basic counting skills, and older children compare the length of their wiggly worms. However, some minor variations in some staff's teaching practice remain, which at times impacts some children's exposure to consistently high-quality interactions.

Children's physical development, as well as their personal, social and emotional skills, are well supported as they become confident communicators. Babies delight as they join in song and rhyme times. Older children are encouraged to learn new words and their meanings in context, such as 'habitat' and 'squelch'. Children develop their core muscle skills as they bend, dig and manoeuvre their bodies during outdoor explorations. Children who are receiving further support to develop their communication skills benefit from personalised strategies to ensure they can make their needs and wants known. This supports all children to feel valued.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children, including those who face barriers to their learning, make secure progress in their personal, social and emotional development, communication and language, and in their physical development. This means that all children have the necessary self-confidence and physical skills and a variety of ways to communicate, so they can benefit from the broader curriculum on offer.

Children's physical skills are particularly well supported. Babies benefit from exploring the well-considered environment as they begin to pull themselves up and take early steps. Older children manoeuvre their whole bodies as they run, climb and balance. This supports children's developing core muscle skills. Younger children use chunky tweezers to grasp pom-poms, and older children relish using hand-held tools as they create holes in the soft ground to plant their own bulbs. These experiences support children to strengthen their small muscles, as well as develop their hand-eye coordination and dexterity.

Children typically achieve the individual next steps staff thoughtfully plan for them. Younger children benefit from bespoke transitions to the older room where staff share relevant information to enable their learning to be continued. Children are well prepared for their next stages in learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Staff create a positive, respectful culture throughout the nursery. They understand the importance of children's regular attendance to fully promote children feeling safe, secure and ready to learn. Generally, children are supported to engage and develop positive attitudes to their learning as they join activities and play experiences. However, on some occasions, staff do not always recognise when some children need further support to engage in activities to promote their focus or fully encourage their positive attitudes to learning.

Staff are positive role models and have high but appropriate expectations of children's behaviour. They use encouragement and praise to build children's confidence and resilience as they learn new skills and achieve. Overall, children are supported to understand rules and boundaries, which in turn supports their understanding of how to keep themselves safe. For instance, staff support children to recall why they have been asked not to run indoors and the potential consequences. Generally, staff respond well to minor disputes children have. This enables them to recognise their own and others' feelings as they resolve problems. However, this is not consistent, and sometimes these disputes go unnoticed. On these occasions, children do not receive consistent messages as they develop their understanding of behavioural expectations.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Personalised care practices are carried out to meet the needs of all individual children. For instance, staff working with the youngest children know their individual routines from home and mirror these within the nursery day, such as milk times, weaning preferences and cues for sleep. Key people play an important role in all children's days and promote consistency of care between home and the nursery. Staff are respectful and nurturing in their interactions with children. This supports the secure attachment staff strive to build with every child, valuing their emotional security.

Leaders have re-evaluated their routines and transitional times to ensure these do not interrupt children's explorations. Staff provide warnings in anticipation for a change in the routine, such as getting ready for lunch and tidy-up time. This supports children's continued learning and meets their individual emotional needs as they can prepare for what is happening next. Generally, there are opportunities for children to build on their independence skills as they learn how to do things for themselves. For example, older children persist at getting their own puddle suits on to go outside. Children of all ages are supported to take care of their personal needs, such as wiping their noses. Overall, these opportunities support children's developing life skills as they learn how to keep themselves healthy.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders have worked hard since their last inspection to address areas for improvement. They are passionate about their roles and the difference they can make to children and families. They are reflective, understand their strengths and, generally, identify priorities for improvement. They understand the importance of supporting staff to achieve these within their own practice through training and ongoing mentoring. Leaders are still working on the consistency of all staff's teaching practice and quality of interactions to strengthen outcomes for children even further. The staff team benefits from the supportive leadership team, which knows and values staff as individuals, personalising the support and coaching they receive. Leaders maintain effective staff supervision arrangements and set aside regular time to develop practice as a team. This supports the smooth running of the setting, promotes a collaborative approach to improvement and creates a positive working environment.

Leaders are ambitious for all children, including those who face barriers to their learning. They place a sharp focus on developing positive relationships with parents and carers. They work in collaboration with them at every opportunity, as well as any external professionals, to ensure all children thrive. Parents and carers are highly complimentary of the care and learning their children receive. They talk positively about the effective two-way flow of information that is shared and report they are extremely well supported as individual families. They particularly value the entire staff team that contributes to having a positive impact on their children's emotional wellbeing and progress.