READY STEADY GO St John's Wood Terrace

Inclusion: Strong standard

Children experience a consistently positive, nurturing environment. Leaders and staff demonstrate a highly inclusive and reflective approach to supporting children with barriers to their learning. They have strengthened systems and processes to ensure that children and families receive timely and effective support, particularly during periods of change. Staff work collaboratively with parents and external professionals to create detailed support plans that identify clear targets and strategies for children. As a result, children make wonderful progress from their starting points and are fully prepared for their next stage of learning.

Staff take time to understand each child's needs, routines and interests, enabling them to tailor provision carefully from the outset. Staff have a deep and secure knowledge of a wide range of additional needs and continually develop their expertise through impactful training, professional dialogue and collaboration with specialists, such as speech and language therapists. This enables staff to adapt practice confidently to support children's communication, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. For example, flexible approaches, such as adapting attendance patterns, help children settle successfully and feel thoroughly secure.

Leaders work closely with external agencies, including social care and safeguarding partners, to support vulnerable children and families. Staff demonstrate sensitivity and professionalism when responding to complex family circumstances. They maintain appropriate boundaries while continuing to provide emotional support and consistency for children. Therefore, children who experience instability are settled, secure and remarkably confident in the setting.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders provide a rich and engaging curriculum that reflects children's interests while supporting their development across the areas of learning within the early years foundation stage. They understand how young children learn and plan experiences that build on what children already know and can do. Their priorities include developing children's communication, confidence, independence and sociability. Observations and ongoing assessment help staff identify children's next steps and plan experiences that support their continued development, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. As a result, children build securely and consistently on their existing knowledge and skills over time.

Interactions are engaging and purposeful and build on children's interests and developmental stages. Staff observe children carefully and extend their involvement and learning. For example, children eagerly compare and count tomatoes, helping one another ensure everyone has the same quantity. Staff encourage children to talk about what they are doing and solve simple problems together. These experiences help children develop communication, early mathematical understanding and problem-solving skills through meaningful play. Children remain engaged and confidently explore their own ideas.

Children's communication and language develop through engaging and interactive experiences throughout the day. Staff talk with children during activities, routines and play experiences and encourage them to share their ideas and experiences. During together time and familiar songs, children eagerly join in with repeated phrases, actions and discussions while confidently responding to questions. These experiences help children strengthen their vocabulary, listening skills and confidence in communicating with adults and peers.

Children also benefit from opportunities to explore creativity and the wider world. Sensory experiences, including clay play, encourage children to investigate different textures, use their imagination and express their ideas. Regular visits to local parks and the local community broaden children's understanding of the world around them and help them apply their learning in meaningful ways. This helps children develop positive attitudes towards learning and prepares them well for their next stage of education.

Achievement: Strong standard

Children achieve very well and demonstrate extremely positive attitudes towards their learning. They are confident, independent and highly capable in managing their own needs and routines. Children make choices about their play, confidently access resources throughout the environment and take pride in preparing food together. Their behaviour is remarkable. Children show kindness, patience and respect for one another. They willingly share resources, help friends and take turns when participating in group activities.

Children communicate confidently with adults and their friends. They eagerly share ideas, recall past experiences and engage in meaningful conversations during play and routines. Children show curiosity and enthusiasm as they explore, investigate and problem-solve. They sustain high levels of concentration and become deeply engaged in activities that interest them, such as preparing gazpacho soup using herbs grown in the nursery's allotment. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are fully included and participate confidently alongside their peers. They form secure friendships, communicate their needs effectively and show high levels of emotional security and belonging in the setting. Consequently, children are extremely well prepared for their next stage of learning and development.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Leaders have established a calm, nurturing and wonderfully inclusive environment where children demonstrate prominent positive behaviour and attitudes to learning. Routines are embedded well by staff and support children to feel safe, secure and confident throughout the day. Children independently manage tasks such as choosing resources, tidying away and following familiar routines. Consequently, children develop high levels of independence, resilience and self-care skills.

Children's behaviour is highly impressive. Staff act as positive role models who support children to show kindness, patience and consideration towards one another. Children willingly share resources, help one another and work cooperatively during activities. They confidently follow familiar routines, including washing their hands before preparing food and sitting together to enjoy snack time. They understand boundaries and respond positively to explanations about keeping themselves and others safe, for example, by independently choosing to wear helmets before using ride-on toys outdoors.

Children show highly positive attitudes towards learning. They sustain concentration remarkably well, become deeply engaged in activities and eagerly explore the environment with curiosity and enthusiasm. Staff support children to confidently communicate with others, express their ideas and participate enthusiastically in conversations and group activities. Inclusive approaches ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are fully involved in routines and experiences. As a result, children are emotionally secure, highly motivated and well prepared for their next stage of learning.

Leaders promote attendance effectively through positive communication and supportive partnerships with families. They swiftly follow up on unexplained absences and understand the individual circumstances of families, responding with sensitivity and flexibility. Therefore, children settle quickly, benefiting from secure relationships and continuity in their learning and care.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Children's welfare and wellbeing are promoted notably well through warm relationships, consistent routines and a highly inclusive environment. Children are emotionally secure, confident and settled. Staff support children to readily express their feelings and respond sensitively to their emotional needs. Therefore, children develop a deep understanding of how to manage and regulate their emotions. Staff use sensitive and responsive interactions to ensure that children have a deep sense of belonging and form trusting relationships with adults and friends.

Staff support children to show high levels of independence in managing their personal care, hygiene and self-help skills. They confidently wash their hands, manage toileting routines and become increasingly independent in caring for themselves. Staff ensure that children understand how to keep themselves safe. For example, children confidently use child-safe knives when preparing food, choose helmets before using ride-on toys and learn how to use tools safely with gentle guidance from staff. Consequently, children develop prominent levels of resilience, confidence and growing responsibility for their own wellbeing.

Staff place important emphasis on healthy lifestyles and emotional health. Children enjoy regular outdoor play and physical activity, healthy discussions during snack time and learning about good oral health through everyday routines. They are highly engaged, active and motivated learners who confidently access quiet spaces and sensory experiences when needed. Staff embed an inclusive approach to ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are fully involved and thrive alongside their peers. As a result, children are extremely happy, secure and well prepared for future learning.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

Leaders demonstrate thoughtful and reflective leadership and are committed to providing high-quality care and education. They continually review children's experiences, interests and stages of development, adapting the curriculum and provision to meet the changing needs of the children attending. Daily reflection and evaluation help ensure children remain engaged, confident and motivated in their learning.

Leaders work collaboratively with staff to promote consistency across the nursery. Regular professional discussions focus on children's progress, wellbeing and next steps, while ongoing coaching, specialist curriculum support and professional development strengthen staff knowledge and practice. This creates a calm, consistent approach across routines, interactions and learning experiences.

Partnership working with parents is highly effective. Leaders communicate regularly with families about children's development, routines and wellbeing and provide workshops and guidance to further support learning at home and children's transition to school. Parents speak exceptionally positively about the nursery, describing leaders and staff as approachable, caring and supportive. They value the open communication and the positive difference the nursery has made to their children's confidence, communication and independence.

Leaders monitor children's attendance carefully and work closely with families and external professionals to maintain continuity in children's care, learning and wellbeing. Through highly reflective practice and a clear commitment to continuous improvement, leaders ensure the nursery continues to meet the individual needs of children and their families exceptionally well.