Pepper Royd Day Nursery Ltd

Inclusion: Expected standard

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported to engage in learning that helps them to develop their skills. Positive partnerships with other professionals, who can offer support and advice, strengthens the support for children with SEND. Families describe how they are supported to continue learning at home with their children and the positive progress their children have made.

The key-person system ensures that staff know children well. They know their backgrounds and any barriers to learning that they may face. Interventions, such as helping children to regulate their emotions or reduce distress in identified situations, are well thought out and built up over time to help children to adjust and feel safe. This helps children with SEND to be included alongside their peers.

Leaders use funding effectively to support individual children's needs. For example, they identify training opportunities that help staff to support children with communication and language delay. Leaders purchase resources that help children to adapt to the environment. There is demonstrable impact of this as children who were initially finding it difficult to settle, are now happy and eager to attend.

Leaders swiftly identify where children need additional support and support staff to ensure that they help children in their development. Additional training has been appropriately planned to further support all staff to identify any barriers to children's learning quickly and precisely.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders have a clear oversight of the curriculum. The focus that leaders put on developing children's physical and social skills helps children to be ready for school. They ensure that staff work together effectively to support smooth transitions from one room to the next. They use assessment well to share information about what children are learning next so that this can be a focus when they move on and help them to build on their existing skills and knowledge.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from activities that are tailored to their individual needs. Staff know the children well and adapt their own approach to ensure that all children can access the experiences that are available.

Staff share stories with babies, pointing out the words and pictures. They encourage children to turn the pages. Staff choose 'The Gruffalo' as a focus to develop other activities that spark children's interest and engagement. Staff sit alongside children as they make 'Gruffalo Crumble'. They encourage children to remember the book and ask what else children could include in their crumbles. Children show an interest in books from an early age and this supports children's language development.

Staff are skilled in including mathematics in all aspects of what they do. They count as they throw a ball back and forth and use words, such as 'big' and 'small'. This starts to build children's mathematical language from an early age.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children develop their skills across all areas of learning. They develop their vocabulary so that they are able to communicate their needs. Children demonstrate their mathematical knowledge. During group time, they know how many objects represent numbers. They fill containers and say that they are 'full' or 'empty'. They take away numbers from larger numbers, as they sing number rhymes.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make progress from their starting points through targeted interventions. Children are well prepared for school. They are independent and confident in their approach to daily tasks. They have a wide range of vocabulary that helps them to communicate with staff when they need help. They hold back-and-forth conversations with both their peers and adults.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Staff are skilled at helping children to learn important social skills, such as sharing. When children are learning this new skill, staff sensitively and calmly help them to share with their friends. As children grow in this area, they sit and share play food with each other, playing together and using their imagination. Children develop positive relationships with each other.

Staff promote children's physical development through carefully-thought-out furniture to help babies pull themselves up and walk. Children learn to share with their friends. They learn how they are part of a community, through visits to local places, where they build relationships with older members of the community. They learn about kindness and compassion.

Children make dough independently following recipe cards. They sit and concentrate for sustained periods of time. When the dough is too sticky, children approach staff for help. Staff ask questions to encourage children to think about what they need to do. Children look at the recipe and say that they need to add more flour. Carefully planned activities support children to learn new skills.

Leaders ensure that they promote good attendance. They provide information for parents about the benefits of children attending their sessions. As a result, attendance across the nursery is generally high.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Well-established routines at lunchtime further promote children's developing skills. This time is used as an opportunity to embed children's independence. They confidently get their plates and serve themselves a portion of food and then join their friends at the table. Some children help staff to set the tables. They develop a sense of responsibility and belonging. Older children are good role models for the youngest children. They demonstrate increasingly positive behaviour. They calmly transition through different parts of the day. Babies and the youngest children follow their lead as they walk to the washroom to wash their hands before lunch.

Staff are sensitive to all children's needs. They build positive and nurturing relationships with babies. They offer cuddles and reassurance. They are in tune with their needs and support them to regulate their emotions, through offering rest and safe spaces where children feel safe and relaxed.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported by caring staff, who know them well. They adapt the environment so that children feel safe and able to explore. Staff help children to calm when they need some time to adjust between routine times.

Care routines are well thought out to promote the wellbeing of all children. Staff are sensitive when approaching children for intimate care routines. They are well supervised while they sleep and eat. Effective information gathering about children when they first start supports staff to meet their needs and understand their routines.

Outdoors, staff help children to to develop an understanding of their bodies and their physical development. Children enjoy jumping, climbing and balancing. Staff encourage children to think about how they can safely practise these skills.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders have a thorough oversight of the strengths and weaknesses of the nursery. They have rightly identified that further training will support staff to identify children's additional needs at the earliest possible opportunity. Leaders recognise where children may have gaps in experiences. For example, they focus on providing plenty of opportunities for physical development, where children may not otherwise have these opportunities.

Leaders provide staff with coaching and supervision so that they can discuss any concerns and any areas for development. They acknowledge that further focus needs to be placed on identifying training and development opportunities that link to their priorities for the nursery. For example, leaders have identified that further development is needed to support staff to be able to follow children's lead in play and link this to children's next steps in learning. This will further enhance the opportunities for children.

Support for staff's wellbeing is prioritised. Those who are undertaking qualifications receive ample, protected time to complete training and reflections. They are well supported by mentors across the nursery, and go on to become successful members of the staff team.