Pomfret Woodland Community Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are confident and motivated to learn in this stimulating and welcoming nursery. Staff value each child and have high expectations of their ability to learn and behave. They find out about and follow babies' care routines from home. This helps babies to settle quickly. Children's interests are reflected in the daily curriculum. Consequently, children enjoy activities and concentrate well. They make good progress and gain the skills for the next stage in their learning.

The curriculum is varied and interesting. For example, children learn about the world around them. Staff and children learn about insects. In the last few weeks, they have made a wormery and hunted for bugs in the outdoor play area. This week they are focusing on bees. Children learn and use new words with confidence in their independent play, such as 'antenna'. They can explain that insects use their antennae to hear and smell.

Children are expressive and creative. They enjoy exploring paints to make blossom pictures using pictures to help with their designs. Children further test their design skills to create artwork depicting bumble bees from a range of craft materials. Children learn to share and take turns well. Staff remind children to use 'kind hands' and words as they interact with their friends.

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

• The manager enthusiastically explains how she supports staff to deliver the curriculum. Staff observe children to assess any gaps in their learning. The special educational needs coordinator and experienced staff are proactive. They put effective strategies in place to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities while they await referrals to outside professionals. Additional funding is used well. Extra staff are employed to provide cover to key staff, so they can provide one-to-one support to children. This prevents children from falling further behind and helps to narrow the gap between them and their peers.
• Throughout the nursery, there is a strong focus on communication and language development. For instance, there is a letter sound of the week, and each area of play has new words displayed for children to learn and use with the staff's support. Younger children learn words such as 'clap' and bang' during a body percussion session. Children are very confident communicators, particularly in the pre-school room. They talk about their home lives, family members and the things they enjoy doing at nursery.
• Overall, children choose their own play and activity. They enjoy play both indoors and in the outdoor area. However, at times during some group activities, such as making play dough, children are not as involved or engaged. They wait for some time to have a turn to mix or add an ingredient. This results in children who lose focus and do not learn as much as they could. Also, during pre-school carpet time, where children sing, share news and listen to stories. This large group session is not as well planned. It is noisy, and some children are not able to contribute, and they lose interest.
• There are stringent procedures for supervising and monitoring staff performance. The manager spends time in the playrooms. She supports and observes staff to help extend their skills and knowledge further. However, there are some minor weaknesses in the quality of education that have not yet been addressed. Staff who work with younger children do not allow them enough time to think and respond to questions before providing them with the answer. This reduces children's engagement in learning.
• Parents speak highly of the nursery and value the support and guidance they receive. They comment on the kind and caring staff and the wide range of activities offered to children. Staff keep parents informed about their children's progress through daily conversations. Staff share newsletters and invite parents into the nursery for open days and special events.
• Children master physical skills well. The outdoor area is spacious. Children have excellent opportunities to develop climbing, balancing and jumping skills. Children's early mathematical development is very good. Staff make the most of everyday play and opportunities to teach children how to count. Children use mathematical language to describe shape and size, and they learn to match numerals to quantity.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review how some group activities are organised, so that all children are fully involved, engaged and their learning needs met
• support staff to consistently ask questions which promote younger children's thinking skills and allow time for them to respond.