Pindar Nursery (Specialist Nursery for Children Aged 2-5 Years)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

All children that attend the setting have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Before children start at the setting, staff visit children and their families in their homes. Staff use the information they gain during discussions with the parents at the home visits to help new children to settle. Children develop secure attachments with the staff at the setting. Parents comment that their child often wants to stay at the setting for longer as they have enjoyed the day.

Children are supported to make choices about the toys that they want to play with. They concentrate as they build towers out of large boxes that light up and they show delight at knocking the towers down. Staff encourage the children to rebuild the towers and make them higher than before. Staff have high expectations for what all children can achieve. Non-mobile children have a session each day to help them strengthen muscles in their arms, legs and bodies. Staff use toys that light up and make sounds that they know interest children to encourage the children to stretch and reach out for them. Staff gently reassure and encourage the children, slowing the activity down and taking the session at the child's pace to ensure that the children remain calm and comfortable while they exercise.

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

• The provider and manager have addressed all actions raised at the last inspection. The setting is secure and only staff and other professionals that have been vetted can gain access. Children's records are kept securely and can only be accessed by those that have a professional need to do so.
• The provider, manager and staff have effective partnerships with parents and other professionals involved with children. Parents speak highly of the staff at the setting. They comment that they are kept well informed about their child's care, learning and development. Parents feel that since attending the nursery their children have made good progress in many aspects of their development.
• Additional funding received is used to provide children with opportunities that promote different areas of children's development. Children have daily access to a soft playroom where they are supported to take safe risks as they balance and climb on the equipment. Animal puzzles are projected onto the walls and floor in a sensory room. As the children move around on the floor, the animal hidden underneath the interactive puzzle is projected onto the wall.
• Staff respond to children's non-verbal communication, such as gestures and body language. They adapt the way they communicate to meet the needs of individual children. Staff use visual aid supports, such as pictures, Makaton signs and single words, to support children to understand what is being asked of them. The manager has a clear curriculum intention, which focuses on supporting children to gain appropriate communication skills in line with their individual needs. However, the manager has not ensured that all staff are aware of the curriculum intention. Therefore, staff are unable to take the curriculum intention into account when they plan and implement activities and set children's individual development targets.
• Staff have a clear understanding of the setting's policy for behaviour management. They understand that the way that this is implemented needs to be tailored to individual children's needs. Children are supported by staff to show respect for their peers. Staff offer gentle reminders about the nursery rules and that they need to be kind to their friends and take turns with toys and equipment.
• Staff ensure that the care needs of children are met. They are aware of the children that have allergies, and this is accounted for when planning sensory activities and providing children with meals and snacks. Staff have attended training in case they should need to use an adrenaline auto-injector in the event of an emergency.
• Overall, staff support children to explore a wide range of interesting activities. Children enjoy exploring chocolate sauce with their hands. They watch with interest as staff make the sauce drip onto the table in front of them. However, sometimes staff miss when quieter children would benefit from their interaction to help extend their play and support their learning further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support all staff to have a clear understanding of the curriculum intent, so that their teaching is consistently focused on what they want children to learn
• support staff to recognise when to enhance and extend children's play, particularly for quieter children at the setting.