Peter Rabbit Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in the excellent care and expert knowledge of staff at this nursery. They feel valued and listened to. Children's ideas, interests and views are respected and creatively included in the planning of activities, to promote their continuous learning and development. For example, boys who require more support to develop strength and control of the muscles in their hands are enticed into engaging in a threading activity, as the beads are shaped as dinosaurs and cars. Children remain deeply engrossed in their learning for long periods of time and demonstrate superb cooperation and collaboration skills for their age. This helps promote a positive attitude to learning and supports children's growing understanding of social rules and relationships.

Staff make the most of every opportunity to teach children how to identify hazards, practise critical thinking and attempt to problem-solve for themselves. Staff remain vigilant and close by as they supervise and gently guide children where needed. Children remind one another about the rules and are quick to offer their friends comfort, cuddles and reassurance when needed. These actions are consistently recognised and positively reinforced by staff.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children who speak English as an additional language are extremely well nurtured by key adults who know their needs extremely well. The support for these children and their families is remarkable.

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

• Leaders have crafted a highly ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum for all children. The manager has shared her expert knowledge, enabling staff to provide a challenging curriculum that means all children make excellent progress.
• Staff place a strong focus on supporting children's listening and attention skills, alongside providing them with a rich and extensive vocabulary. Planned and spontaneous interactions with staff, as well as the resources, activities and experiences, precisely contribute to the delivery of the curriculum intentions. For example, children are taught the meaning of three new words from the book of the week, such as 'tempted', 'trespass' and 'comfortable'. Staff then use these words to scaffold children's learning across the week and support them to consolidate their knowledge and understanding of the word. This helps children to practise applying the new vocabulary and knowledge to ensure it has been remembered before moving on.
• Children develop a secure understanding of early mathematical concepts. For instance, staff ask children to recall what properties shapes have. The children are able to share prior learning, such as talking about shapes having elongated sides, and can remember how many faces and corners some shapes have. Young children can add and subtract up to the number 5 with ease, as mathematics is effortlessly woven throughout all areas of their play and learning. This ensures that children are well prepared for the next stage in their learning.
• The special educational needs coordinator works closely with all staff, parents and early years professionals to implement highly effective strategies to support children with speech and language difficulties. Additional resources and funding are used to good effect. High ratios of staff to children ensure staff are available to promote inclusion. Staff use visual images, sign language and small-group focus times to ensure all activities are fully accessible to all children.
• Staff are excellent at using daily routines, such as handwashing and mealtimes, to teach children the importance of maintaining good hygiene and to promote healthy lifestyles. In addition, such routines are used to promote children's independence. They relish being chosen to lay the table for snack time, and even very young children are encouraged to pour their own drinks and clear up any spillage.
• Children behave wonderfully. They indulge their natural curiosity and love for learning by testing out their ideas, and readily engage in positive risk-taking. They spontaneously apply safety knowledge that has been taught by staff and show respect for rules and boundaries. Children have a deep understanding of the expected levels of behaviour, which is supported well by the daily routines. For instance, children know to line up next to a number to wait to use the bathroom, or to come in and find their name to register their attendance before settling down to play.
• Staff warmly embrace children's unique family structure and heritage. They offer children and their families great opportunities to learn about each other's cultures and traditions. This helps to create an ethos of respect and to ensure each child feels valued and develops a greater understanding of the world around them. For example, children recently learned about how the Lunar New Year is celebrated in China, when parents were invited in to share stories and examples of their family celebrations with the whole setting.
• Parents are able to share examples of excellent parent partnership, including early intervention, referrals for children with gaps in their learning and development and effective support for children during key transition points. In addition, all parents are kept up to date and well informed by their children's key person regarding their child's progress, next steps for learning and ideas to extend their children's learning at home. This further contributes to the rapid progress children make from their starting points.