Roose Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The devoted staff place children at the heart of everything they do. Valuable home visits contribute towards the special relationships that children immediately form with their key person. This helps children to quickly settle and start learning from day one. Children are highly valued. Staff take time to say 'good morning' to every child as they arrive each day. They have extremely high expectations for children's behaviour and this is reflected through children's positive actions. For example, during a lotto game, older children delegate roles fairly and play according to the rules. They use considerate gestures, such as putting their hand up rather than shouting out. Younger children willingly give each other a 'thumbs up', to celebrate their active participation and 'good listening'. Children are extremely happy and clearly enjoy every minute of their time playing and learning at nursery.

The highly qualified staff strive to ensure that 'all children shine and gain the skills they require for life'. Babies demonstrate that they feel safe and secure. They show increasing confidence around people who they are less familiar with and happily initiate playing games, such as peekaboo. During play with dough, babies develop their own ideas and show great determination when attempting to balance objects to create a tower. Younger children show deep concentration as they explore and learn. They display exceptional listening and communication skills, when engaging in rhyming games. Younger children rightly recognise when someone is feeling happy or sad. Older children share their expert knowledge of the roles of the author and the illustrator when reading stories. They show excellent progress when ordering numbers from zero to 20, counting in 10s to 100 and recognising groups of four and five without having to count them.

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

• Leaders truly value their staff team and inspire them to be the best that they can be. Meaningful events, such as raft building experiences, contribute towards the heightened team spirit and noticeable positive energy and enthusiasm across the nursery. Staff receive personalised support that focuses on raising outcomes for children. The manager acts swiftly to model her expert teaching, to guide staff and boost their confidence further. This helps to ensure that the highest standards of teaching practice are consistently maintained across the nursery.
• Staff engage in high-quality interactions with children. They repeatedly look for ways to extend children's knowledge and skills. For example, at snack time, staff ask older children to share their excellent knowledge of foods that are healthy and unhealthy. They encourage children to hear and say the initial sounds in words, such as apple and orange, and to think of other words beginning with the same sound. Children actively participate. They show great confidence to express that 'octopus' and 'otter' begin with the same sound as 'orange'. This contributes towards their advancing literacy skills.
• Leaders are highly regarded as 'communication champions' and their practice is actively disseminated to others. They place an extremely sharp emphasis on supporting children's communication and language skills. Babies hear and say words precisely. They identify and name objects, such as a 'star', and express a desire to engage in linked songs that enhance their early language further. Older children engage in meaningful conversations. They use adjectives, such as 'gigantic', to describe the size of objects.
• The proactive staff go over and above to source early help and support for children as soon as they need this. They work together with parents and other professionals to identify and target support for individual children. Staff successfully support those children who struggle to regulate their behaviour. They gently explain what is happening now and next, to help children to prepare for any changes. This is having a very positive impact on children's ability to remain calm and maintain high levels of self-control.
• Staff make excellent use of additional funding, to narrow any gaps in children's learning. Innovative ideas, such as the weekly yoga sessions in the yurt, are helping children to develop their balance, increase their flexibility and improve their core strength. This is contributing towards their advancing physical skills.
• Leaders have a superb understanding of the geographical context of the nursery and the children and families that attend. They provide enriching experiences, such as visits to the local castle, trips to the nearby nature trail and outings to the allotment, to build on children's life experiences. This contributes towards all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, gaining a superior knowledge of the world in which they live.
• Children move on to school seamlessly. They take part in school assemblies that celebrate their individual successes and help them to focus on forming early friendships. Staff team up with teachers from school to engage children in games, such as wheelchair basketball. This supports children to gain high levels of respect for others and builds on their knowledge of what makes them unique.
• Staff provide exciting experiences that motivate children to exercise. Children are extremely eager to take part in the 'one mile per day challenge'. They run around the track with speed and precision and confidently explain the effects that physical exercise has on their bodies. Children learn where their healthy food comes from. They pick fruits from the orchard and use these to create dishes, such as 'Gruffalo crumble', to link in with stories that they enjoy.