Plumstead Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders have worked hard to improve the curriculum implementation and ensure better outcomes for children's learning. All children, including those who receive additional funding, make good progress across all areas of learning. Children are highly motivated and independent learners.

Children arrive at the setting feeling happy and ready to and learn. Staff build secure and trusting relationships with children. They create a calm and nurturing environment where children feel relax and content. Staff work well with parents to help identify and meet children's individual needs. As a result, children feel safe and secure, and they settle well into the nursery.

Leaders have designed a curriculum with a strong focus on helping children to learn to self-regulate and become emotionally secure as they progress in their education. They have introduced different programmes, including breathing techniques to teach children how to relax and calm down when feeling angry or overwhelmed. Staff are gentle towards the children, and they build respectful relationships with them. Children are highly considerate of each other, and they play well together.

Staff set high expectations for all children's learning, including those identified as having special educational needs and/or disabilities. They organise the learning areas well and plan activities that capture children's interest and imagination. For example, babies maintain a high level of engagement while exploring 'moon sand' and moving objects from one area to another. Pre-school children maintain focus and concentration while mixing herbs and water to paint.

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

• Leaders and staff are reflective in their ongoing evaluation of the nursery. They have taken robust steps to meet the recommendations that were raised at the last inspection. Staff are clear about the curriculum aims, and they implement a broad curriculum that meets children's needs. Children of all ages enjoy the learning experiences on offer and make very good progress from their starting point of entry.
• Leaders of the nursery ensure that the needs of children and their families are at the heart of the curriculum. They ensure that all children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, have access to high-quality and diverse learning experiences to help ensure that they are not left behind. All children acquire essential skills for their next stage of learning, including starting school.
• Staff support children's communication and language development well. They engage children in back-and-forth conversations and encourage them to share their ideas. Staff use reading activities well to ask questions to help children remember what they have learned. Babies, toddlers and pre-school children hear and learn new language in their play. Pre-school children use a good range of vocabulary while having a discussion with the inspector about their time at the nursery and what they have learned.
• Leaders and staff have made changes to the planning to ensure that activities meet the needs and interests of children. They use observations and assessments effectively to monitor and plan for children's learning. However, there is not a clear balance between child-initiated and adult-led learning to ensure that children build on what they already know and learn new skills. At times, children tend to merely enjoy the activities rather than learning something new.
• Staff teach children to become independent. For example, they encourage and support babies to wash their hands and feed themselves. In the toddler room, children independently wash their own hands, dispose of their own used tissues and serve their own meals. Pre-school children manage their toileting needs self-sufficiently. Children have high levels of confidence in their own abilities.
• Staff set high expectation for children's behaviour. They are highly skilled in supporting children to understand the expected behavioural boundaries. They encourage children to share, take turns and talk about how they feel. Staff form positive relationships with children and offer lots of praise to boost children's self-esteem. This has a positive impact on children's confidence, behaviour and attitudes towards learning.
• Staff share information about what children are learning with parents, so they can continue supporting them at home to help provide consistency. Parents are kept informed about who their child's key person is and the progress that their child is making. Overall, staff have a good knowledge of what children can and cannot do. However, some staff who have been assigned key responsibilities are not fully aware of the languages that children are exposed to at home to help plan concisely for their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance planning and ensure that there is a clear balance of adult-led and child-initiated play, so children are fully supported and challenged in their learning
• embed the key-person arrangement to ensure that all staff who have been assigned key responsibilities know the children well, in order to plan and meet their individual learning needs consistently.