Royal Oak Nursery & Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and quickly engage in activities, which have been thoughtfully set up to excite and engage children. Staff take time to develop secure relationships with the children and their family. During the settling-in process, leaders and staff gain an understanding of each child. They establish what interests them and what they like and dislike. This helps staff to plan for the individual needs of children. For example, babies learn to build their physical skills well. They develop their finger muscles by learning to fill containers with small balls they need to grasp. This helps to support babies hand-eye coordination. Babies new to walking are encouraged and supported by staff to take further steps to build their confidence.

Leaders and staff are ambitious for every child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to make progress. The curriculum is varied and wide so that children are provided with learning experiences that support awe and curiosity. Staff support children by being positive role models. Children learn routines from a young age, which they become familiar with. Children behave very well. Staff are skilful in supporting children to socialise with one another and learn to play in harmony. For example, children build a spaceship with boxes and take turns as they cut tape to build their transport. As children become excited with their creation, staff support their suggestion to paint the spaceship. This helps to build children's confidence as they are listened to and can experiment. Children have a positive attitude to their learning.

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

• The new leadership team have put plans in place to ensure that all children have positive learning experiences. The curriculum is overseen to ensure that children make good progress and reach their full potential. Leaders value their staff and ensure that there is regular supervision in place to identify staff strengths, well-being and areas that need further support.
• Leaders ensure that staff have the necessary training to ensure that their knowledge in child development is relevant and up to date. Leaders encourage staff to share training experiences so that teaching is consistent within all parts of the nursery. However, the monitoring of practice is not yet fully in place to pick up on minor weaknesses in teaching to take the curriculum to the next level.
• Staff skilfully support children, including those who speak English as an additional language, to become confident communicators. Babies choose puppets from a box, which represent nursery rhymes. They listen and move to tunes that are becoming familiar to them. Staff throughout the day talk to children during play and introduce new vocabulary, such as 'astronaut' to extend their learning.
• Staff bring stories to life by using accents and sounds to engage children. Children listen with intent and laugh as they enjoy the storytelling. Some children recall familiar parts of the story as they enjoy calming parts of the day to relax and listen.
• Staff support children to become independent. Children learn to put their coat on their named peg each day. When they go outside, they learn to put their coat on by themselves. At lunchtime, they serve themselves from large bowls of food and learn to use cutlery. This helps to prepare children for school.
• Staff support children to build on their physical skills. Outside, children build their gross motor skills through climbing and balancing on boards and tyres. They are encouraged to take risks as they jump from the apparatus to the mat. This helps to build children's resilience and confidence. Babies use chunky chalks to make marks on the ground, creating lines and swirls as they make large movements with their arms.
• Staff support children well in learning about the world around them. Staff introduce children to the natural life cycle as they explore the wormery in the garden. Children learn that leftover vegetable peel helps to feed animals and create compost. Staff support children to talk about how they care for things around them through two-way conversations with children. Learning is extended as staff take children on outings to the local area, which includes the allotment. This helps children to learn about how things grow.
• Partnership with parents is strong. Parents speak highly of the nursery and the staff. They state that they receive regular communication and that their children are making good progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the monitoring of practice to swiftly identify and address minor inconsistencies to improve the quality of the curriculum.