Riverside Ready For School Centre.

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This nursery, which specifically supports two-year-old children, provides first-rate care and education. Staff pay great attention to detail when planning routines and learning experiences to ensure that every child is fully supported to thrive. Children quickly grow in confidence and make rapid progress in their learning and development. They show delight in their experiences as they play. For example, children giggle with glee while catching rainfall from the gutters. They fill and empty containers and experiment with the different sounds made when raindrops fall into different containers. Children learn about rhyme and rhythm while dancing in the rain, aboard the 'rain train'.

Staff grasp every opportunity to build on children's learning. Through direct teaching, they provide children with new knowledge and skills. Alongside this, staff join children's play to help them to remember and practise what they have learned. For example, staff help children to create a story about a spider they find. Children later share this with their friends, recalling the facts about how spiders spin webs and catch flies. Staff follow children's lead and expertly weave learning in to their play. The child-focused curriculum is highly effective. Staff's very high expectations help children to make remarkable achievements. For example, very young children are able to use scissors safely and correctly.

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

• Leadership is inspirational and has a tremendous impact on the quality of care and education in the nursery. Managers have very high expectations of all staff, which has played a key role in driving all aspects of staff's practice towards excellence. Staff benefit from incisive supervision sessions, training and mentoring, which has helped to raise the quality of education to consistently exceptional levels. For example, following training, staff have implemented focused activities that have helped children to make remarkable progress in communication and language development.
• Meaningful partnerships with parents have a remarkable impact on children's outcomes. Staff respect, value and support the role of parents and recognise the impact that this can have on early childhood experiences and opportunities. Parents are inspired to give their children even more rich and varied experiences outside of nursery. They welcome training and guidance to help them to better understand and support their children's learning at home.
• Children develop highly positive attitudes to their learning. They are highly inquisitive and become absorbed in activities in nursery. For example, children eagerly observe ants feasting on cherries that fall from a tree in the garden. Staff help them to further develop their interests, for example, by taking the fruits indoors to look at them more closely.
• Staff are skilled communicators, who support children's developing language skills extremely well. They model and define new words to help children to extend their vocabularies. Staff engage children in discussions, creating opportunities for them to use and practise different words in different contexts. Children become increasingly articulate and confident in their speaking and understanding of language.
• Staff's expectations for children's behaviour are upheld consistently across the nursery. Staff are extremely careful to help children to understand age-appropriate boundaries and routines. For example, children are familiar with countdowns and songs that indicate a change in activities. This supports their sense of security very well and minimises any frustrations. Children's behaviour is exemplary.
• Staff put much thought into the most effective ways to help children to do things for themselves. For example, children's belongings are easily accessible so that they can manage these themselves. Staff provide small and manageable jugs and utensils to allow children to successfully serve themselves easily during snack times. Children are considerably independent for their age.
• Children are kind and courteous. They begin to develop an early understanding and tolerance of the needs of others. For example, children invite friends in to their play and share their dough. Staff consistently model good manners and respect to one another and to children. This helps children to develop social skills and positive morals that prepare them well for life in modern Britain.
• Staff have an in-depth understanding of, and take full account of, every child's individual ability and life experiences. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from precise teaching plans and intense support. Managers use additional funding well, for example, to provide additional staff to help ensure that all children can access the curriculum. The most able children develop even more resilience and confidence in the challenging and exciting learning environment.