Rye Garden Day Nursery

Inclusion: Strong standard

Staff are highly committed to promoting inclusion for all children. Prompt action is taken to support children and identify any special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders and staff work closely with parents and other agencies such as speech and language therapists. This ensures a consistent and targeted approach to supporting children's individual needs and minimising any gaps in their learning. As a result, all children make good progress from their starting points.

Leaders make adaptations and carefully consider the use of additional funding. This ensures that inclusion is successfully promoted for children who face barriers to their learning. For example, higher ratios of staff enable them to complete one-to-one sessions with children and take children on outings to extend their learning and development effectively. Leaders and staff implement a specific speech and language intervention programme that is supported by the local authority. This targeted approach successfully enables all children to develop their language skills while engaging in activities that reflect all areas of learning. Consequently, all children benefit from this early intervention, demonstrating measurable and sustained improvements over time. This reduces the need for any further additional support.

Leaders and staff work with parents and consider ways to support children who are learning English as an additional language. They use lots of props and pictures to support children's learning and encourage parents to continue children's learning at home. This ensures a consistent approach to help children make the best progress.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders and staff offer a well-sequenced and broad curriculum. They successfully implement a specific speech and language intervention programme, enabling them to plan activities and target children's individual learning needs and interests. As a result, all children successfully make effective progress from their starting points across all areas of learning. Staff show meticulous attention to detail when setting out activities. They know what they want children to learn and use props and photos and model rich language, which results in children becoming engrossed in activities and extending their concentration skills effectively. This consistently effective teaching ensures all children are purposefully engaged in learning.

Staff frequently read stories and ask children lots of questions that make them think. For example, this evokes a discussion about rainbows where children identify that you need sunshine and rain to make a rainbow, and they discuss who has seen one. Staff use picture cards with children to plan the sequence of the day. This helps all children to know what is happening now and next. As a result, all children respond well to the transitions through the well-established daily activities and routines.

Children's mathematical skills are successfully enhanced as they count during play. For example, when playing with toy minibeasts they count how many they have found and staff encourage them to look at their differences and count their legs. Children play games where they match objects, and staff create fun games as they hide wooden numbers in the sand for children to find. This helps children to recognise the numbers and put them into the correct sequence.

Achievement: Strong standard

Children are keen and interested to learn. They develop their independent learning skills well as they follow their own interests and choose what they want to play with. They develop their fine movements while using small rods with magnets to catch their toy fish. Babies delight in finding toy eggs hidden by staff. Their language skills are successfully enhanced as staff ask them where the eggs can be. Children repeat words such as 'cushion', 'in', 'under', 'cooker' and 'bed' as they find the eggs.

Children are happy and settled. Older children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face barriers to their learning, are well prepared for when they move on to school. They develop their personal independence and self-care skills effectively, showing confidence as they do things themselves. Older children show increasing skills in their drawing and pencil control. They show pride as they begin writing letters and are supported well by staff in learning about letters and sounds.

Children's concentration skills are successfully enhanced. They fully participate in group sessions, developing their language skills effectively as they take turns to talk about their chosen objects and place them on the board. These repetitive targeted daily activities help children to make highly effective progress, particularly in their language skills and their social skills. As a result, children are confident and keen to show their friends and staff their achievements throughout the day.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Leaders and staff embed effective daily routines that contribute positively to children's behaviour and attitudes to learning. They constantly promote children's awareness and consideration for others. As a result, children share and take turns during play, and older children show consideration to younger children so that they can all participate in activities. Staff embed daily routines that successfully create a respectful learning environment. For example, children know to hold hands, make a circle and then sit down at the beginning of their group time so that everyone has a space and can see and participate in the activities. Children actively express their emotions as they talk about how they are feeling today. They identify their feelings and feel safe to talk about why they feel happy or sad.

Children follow well-established care routines, including putting their outdoor shoes in the box and independently changing them when they want to play outside. Staff gently remind children about expectations of their behaviour, and children respond well, acknowledging to use 'kind hands' and 'walking feet'. Highly impactful teaching, including a specific speech and language intervention programme, supports all children to express their needs. Staff ask children questions so that they gain skills to consider any conflicts and resolve the issues independently.

Leaders promptly follow up on any absences to assure children's welfare. They encourage children's regular attendance and support parents in obtaining any additional funding to promote children's care and learning.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Leaders and staff create a welcoming outdoor space where older children confidently develop their physical skills as they run around and climb with their friends. However, leaders acknowledge that babies have less opportunities to move freely between activities and develop their physical skills during outside play, and they plan to make improvements. During inside play, babies have plenty of clear play space to crawl and develop their walking skills, while being actively encouraged by staff. Leaders work closely with parents and show high regard to ensuring babies' individual routines are catered for so that their naps and mealtimes meet their individual needs. This promotes effective consistency of care between the home and nursery.

All children show strong bonds with staff and close friendships with other children. Leaders ensure children are provided with a balanced diet of healthy meals and snacks. Consequently, children enjoy their food and develop their personal independence as they make choices about the foods and the amount they want to eat. They enjoy relaxed mealtimes where they sit with staff, talk about the events of the day and follow well-established routines. The child who is helper of the day asks children what fruits they would like and carefully uses tongs to serve the fruits to them. This sparks lots of discussions about what foods children like. All children know to scrape their plates and wash their hands and face when they have finished. They help themselves to water throughout the day and are supported well by staff in developing their toileting skills. Consequently, children's health is successfully promoted.

Leadership and governance: Needs attention

Leaders have not maintained a clear oversight of how well procedures are implemented to ensure all records are accurately maintained. For example, some medication records are not completed accurately to ensure all required information is recorded. This means leaders would not be able to share accurate information with parents and other professionals if required.

Since the last inspection, leaders have taken appropriate action to notify Ofsted about any changes or significant events. They have recently improved the security of the premises and updated their risk assessments and routines, especially regarding busy drop-off and collection times. This ensures children are appropriately supervised and their welfare is safeguarded.

Leaders actively evaluate their practice and identify areas for improvement. They ensure regular supervision and appraisals enable staff to have opportunities to talk about any concerns and identify their ongoing professional development and training needs. As a result, staff implement effective and consistent teaching practice that enables all children to make progress across all areas of learning.

Leaders show high regard in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or those who face barriers to their learning. They work closely with parents and other agencies and are developing systems to review the impact of additional funding. Leaders are good role models and oversee the curriculum and staff's teaching practice effectively.