Raphael Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are safe and very happy at this nurturing and stimulating nursery. Staff greet all children with care and enthusiasm. This helps children to feel valued and secure. Staff support children to develop good social skills. Children play cooperatively with their friends. For example, older children help each other to decorate the pictures they make and work together to make an obstacle course in the soft-play area. The manager and the staff have created a strong sense of community within the nursery. Parents comment about the warm and caring atmosphere and how excited their children are to arrive each day.

Staff have high expectations of children. They support children to learn through play. Children listen well and follow instructions. They are well behaved and considerate towards each other. Staff show a genuine interest in what children do and say.

Staff take children on regular visits within the local community. Children enjoy walks to the park and regular trips to the library on the bus. Staff use these trips to help support children's awareness of the world around them and the people who live in it. They also enrich children's learning experiences and help to prepare them for their future success.

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

• The manager has a secure understanding of the skills she would like children to learn during their time at the setting. The new curriculum is focused on what children need to succeed. Staff have attended additional training to support their understanding of how to embed this new style of curriculum. This has had a positive impact on the confidence of staff to provide children with good levels of support. The manager gives staff's personal well-being a high priority. This benefits all children greatly.
• Staff are good role models and engage well with children. They support children's learning through a variety of adult-led activities as well as child-led play. However, there are times when staff are engaged with children during a planned activity but are not fully aware of what else is happening in the room. This means children are not as supported as they could be in their learning.
• Children benefit from planned activities that build on what they already know and can do. Staff understand how children learn and use this knowledge to motivate children to develop their skills. For instance, staff plan an engaging activity to use tongs to pick up cooked spaghetti. This is carefully designed to help all children achieve. Staff help children's physical development effectively.
• Staff offer children plenty of time and space to be physically active. Children enjoy climbing and balancing, either in the garden area or in the soft-play area.
• They learn whether they are standing on 'big' or 'small' shapes. This supports them to develop their understanding of mathematical concepts. Children enjoy regular trips to the local park to build on and develop their physical skills further.
• Children of all ages are good communicators. They speak clearly and engage in meaningful conversations with staff in both English and French. Children show good recall and fluency as they retell familiar stories as they play. Older children securely join in lengthy conversations with their peers. Staff pose questions and give children time to process their thoughts. Activities are planned to promote listening skills. All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who are bilingual, are confident speakers and achieve highly.
• Staff do not always recognise opportunities that arise to promote children's independence. They are sometimes too prompt to step in and complete tasks for children before encouraging them to try for themselves. This does not fully support children to become independent in their personal care skills.
• Staff develop strong relationships with parents. They keep them well informed about their children's development. Parents give high praise for staff's in-depth, face-to-face and online communication with them. They are complimentary about the professionalism and support they receive and feel greatly involved in their children's education.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve staff's awareness of what is happening around them to target children's learning further
• support staff to recognise and make better use of opportunities to help younger children develop their independence skills.