Rimu Music Day Nursery and Forest School Lee

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome as they attend this nurturing and friendly nursery. Staff take the time to get to know the children during settling-in sessions. This helps children to settle quickly and develop strong bonds with staff as they eagerly invite them into their play. Staff have developed a strong curriculum around children's interests and individual needs that supports all children to make good progress in all areas. Staff gather starting points and children's interests from parents and through observations. They use this information to plan exciting activities that engage children in their learning. For example, older children show an interest in adding different herbs to the play dough. Children use scissors as they chop herbs or use their hands to tear them. Younger children eagerly recite phrases of favourite books and recognise numbers displayed around the room. Staff enhance their communication, language and physical skills well, overall, as they play.

Staff role model positive behaviour with the children. They support children to share, take turns and cooperate with each other. Staff remind the children of the rules. For example, they remind them how to keep safe when out in the garden. Throughout the day, children hear calming classical music. This provides a calm atmosphere where children behave well.

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

• Leaders have a strong ethos for the nursery. They want children to be happy and confident learners, who are ready for the next stage in their learning journey. The well-established team works well together. This ensures a relaxed and calm atmosphere, which supports children's emotional well-being. Overall, staff promote children's communication and language well. Children engage in lively conversations during activities and at mealtimes, which are very social events. Staff narrate children's play and ensure that children hear a wide range of words during the day. However, occasionally, staff use incorrect words, such as 'ouchy' and 'wormies'. Therefore, children do not always hear the correct vocabulary to develop their language skills.
• Staff know all children and their families very well. They work closely with families and external professionals to get them the help they need. While staff await external input, they create and implement individual plans for children to help close gaps in learning. Children and their families are very well supported. Children make very good progress from their starting points.
• Staff plan a range of enjoyable experiences to support children's development. However, on occasion, staff do not use group activities effectively to support children's listening skills to extend children's learning. For example, children's attention is not always sustained during group activities due to the organisation of these. Children are not fully supported to listen to instructions and often talk over others during story time.
• The curriculum has a good focus on developing children's understanding of nature. Children enjoy exploring the garden area and local nature and woodland areas within the local community. Staff support children as they explore insects and plants, looking to find insects in the soil and under logs. Children keenly build bug hotels for the insects to hide.
• Children learn how to use mathematics purposefully during play. For example, children count how many balls they throw into the box, recognise numbers and talk about different sizes and shapes in play. Older children are keen to work individually with their key person to complete simple addition and subtraction activities to challenge their learning.
• The provider values the team members and provides them with regular opportunities to discuss their well-being and training needs at one-to-one sessions. Staff have weekly meetings to discuss the children and plan for the week ahead to ensure that children's needs are met. Leaders encourage staff to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. They focus professional development on improving outcomes for the children attending. For example, staff have recently completed training to help them meet the needs of babies.
• Parents speak very highly of the care and education their children receive at the nursery. They comment on how their children made progress and have gained in confidence since starting. This shared approach to supporting children benefits their learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support children to develop communication and language skills through modelling words correctly
• review the organisation of group activities to better meet children's individual needs and learning outcomes, particularly children's listening skills.