Riverside Nursery Schools - Twickenham Park

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and thrive in this stimulating and welcoming environment. When children start at the nursery, staff take time to get to know children individually, work with parents and settle them in at their own pace. This helps children to become confident and feel valued. Staff have high expectations of all children, and children behave very well. Staff treat children respectfully and support them to resolve any disagreements and reach a fair resolution. They remind children of the value of being kind to each other and to share and take turns.

Children are curious to explore the many exciting activities staff have planned for them. Younger children develop their physical skills by pulling up on low-level furniture and exploring with sand. Older children enjoy playing in the nursery garden, running, jumping, and learning to climb and balance. Leaders ensure the curriculum is ambitious and challenging for all children. Children with special educational needs and/ or disabilities and those who may need extra support are supported well by leaders and staff. They identify, refer, work with professionals and implement strategies recommended by them to support children. This ensures all children make good progress.

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

• Children's safety is a priority for leaders and staff. All staff have attended training that has given them a good knowledge of safeguarding and child protection issues, including how to identify and report concerns. Leaders have revised induction and training given to all new staff working at the setting, so staff understand their roles and responsibilities. This supports children safety at nursery.
• Staff know all of the children well. They regularly observe and track their progress. This enables them to plan exciting activities based on what children are interested in, what they know and what they need to know next. Any gaps in learning are quickly identified and supported. This means that all children are making good progress across the seven areas of learning.
• All children, including those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress in their communication and language development. Children are given lots of opportunities to sing songs, listen to stories and have conversations with each other. Overall, children benefit from regularly hearing new words, which broadens their vocabulary. However, younger children are not always provided with opportunities to listen to and learn new words to enhance and build on their growing vocabulary.
• Children behave very well and are eager to learn. They build positive relationships with their friends and staff. They focus on activities well. Children are kind to each other and support each other when they need help. They are given praise as they learn new knowledge and skills.
• Supporting children's emotional well-being is a focus for all at the nursery. An established and supportive key-person system, alongside regular communication with parents, helps to ensure that staff know children individually. This gives children a good foundation to begin their learning journey. As a result, children are confident and have high levels of self-esteem, which they demonstrate by happily talking to visitors and asking them to join in with their play.
• Transitions for all children are well thought out and carefully considered by leaders to ensure children's well-being is supported. This includes when children move rooms, have a new key person and when they leave to start school. Leaders have built positive links with local schools. Children are well prepared for the next stages of learning, including moving on to school.
• Parents are seen as partners of the nursery. They value the positive contribution the staff make to their children's lives and the progress their children have made in their development. Parents receive regular updates about their children's progress and information on what children are learning and their next steps. Parents discuss that although this information is positive, they would like this communication to be stronger so they are included in other matters affecting the nursery, such as food menus.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more opportunities for younger children to extend their vocabulary and enhance their developing communication skills
• strengthen communication with parents to involve them in matters at the nursery.