Puffin Community Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a warm and nurturing home-from-home environment. They spend time getting to know children and treat them as unique individuals. For example, they use a variety of strategies to communicate, such as through visual aids and sign language. This helps all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or who speak English as an additional language, to settle quickly into their daily routines and activities. There are many opportunities for children to make choices about their play. This promotes their decision-making and independence skills effectively.

Children demonstrate they feel happy and secure. They are motivated to learn and show high levels of social confidence. For instance, they excitedly show the inspector the activities they enjoy. They demonstrate good coordination skills and build on the muscles in their hands and fingers as they successfully turn the handle of the Jack-in-the-box. With support from staff, they learn new words in context, such as 'open', 'pop' and 'shut.' Children respond positively to the high expectations of staff. They play cooperatively with their peers and thrive on the praise they receive for their efforts and achievements. This helps to build on their self-esteem and confidence.

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

• Staff observe children as they play. They make accurate assessments of children and can talk about where children are in their development. However, some staff do not use the information they have gained from these assessments to plan precisely for the next steps in their learning. Consequently, their teaching does not consistently focus on what they want children to learn.
• The manager regularly evaluates the quality of the provision. She has worked closely with the trustees of the committee to make sure that suitability checks are carried out as required.
• The manager has an ambitious vision for the nursery and is passionate about improving outcomes for children. She provides her staff team with many professional development opportunities, such as through coaching, supervision and training. However, some staff need further support to help them embed their new knowledge into their daily practice to ensure that the quality of their teaching is consistently at the highest level.
• Children are supported to lead active lifestyles. They play outside daily and enjoy using a range of equipment that supports their developing muscle control, balance and coordination.
• Staff support children to develop their speech and language well. They model words clearly as children play and introduce a rich and varied vocabulary. Through daily activities and routines, staff ensure that children receive lots of time to communicate and verbalise their thoughts and ideas. This contributes to the progress children are making in their language and communication development.
• Staff spend quality time with children, helping them to manage and regulate their feelings and emotions. When small disputes occur, staff use strategies such as picture cards, to help children to recognise and validate their emotions. This helps children learn how to react to how they are feeling, which is having a positive impact on how they manage their behaviour.
• The manager and staff work hard to build strong relationships with parents and people in their community, which contribute greatly to children's educational experiences. For example, staff signpost parents to the toy library, which has a positive impact on how they can support their child's learning at home. Children take part in activities in the local community, such as dance sessions, which helps to build on their confidence and self-esteem.
• Staff form strong bonds with children right from the start. They spend quality time with them to establish secure relationships, supporting them to feel safe and secure.
• Parents comment positively about the staff at the nursery. They are confident to share relevant information, such as any concerns they have about their child's ongoing progress. They say staff work highly effectively with other professionals to ensure that their children receive the relevant funding and crucial support they need to swiftly close gaps in their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support all staff to have a clearer understanding of the curriculum intent so that their teaching consistently focuses on what they want children to learn
• continue to build on the support given to all staff to ensure that they understand and embed their new knowledge and skills into their daily practice, to help raise the quality of their teaching to the highest level.