Sawston Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children excitedly come into nursery and are greeted by smiling practitioners. They are strongly supported by a dedicated team, who prioritise children's needs. The environment sparks children's curiosity as they explore and endeavour to find out about the world. The ambitious curriculum is clearly embedded. Children make significant progress in all areas of learning. The transition between rooms is seamless, ensuring children are moved when they are developmentally ready and settle quickly. Key persons know their children exceptionally well and meet their individual needs. Practitioners and leaders have the same shared vision for outstanding practice.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make rapid progress from their starting points. The special educational needs coordinator provides highly supportive care to both children and families. The nursery liaises with a diverse range of outside professionals, who provide focused help and support. The drive and focus for meeting children's individual needs ensures children receive early help where needed. The passion from leaders and practitioners to ensure all children receive the highest quality care and attention to reach their full potential is extremely inspiring.

Children are exceptionally well behaved and show manners saying please and thank you. They are encouraged by practitioners to follow simple rules that children know and implement. Children openly talk about their feelings and these learning opportunities are captured for further discussion. Practitioners are attentive and nurturing. They quickly recognise how children are feeling from their emotions and seek to comfort them. The use of songs and rhymes is celebrated and embedded in every room. Practitioners burst into song and children join in, clapping along, and dancing to the beat.

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

• Children are very well prepared for their next steps in education, and this is evident in the feedback received from both parents and other settings. Practitioners ensure the safety of the environment with robust risk assessments and reflection. They attend regular training to ensure safeguarding, first aid, food hygiene and manual handling knowledge is up to date.
• Practitioners are highly motivated, and the well-being of staff is of high priority to the leadership team. They benefit from a supportive training programme, and opportunities to celebrate each other's individuality. Practitioners are enthusiastic, positive and they are valued. They are excellent role models, giving children the best possible environment to learn and develop in. The manager is passionate about her role, committed and an inspiring role model to her team.
• She, alongside a strong leadership team, mentor practitioners to be the best they can be. This teamwork model is exceptional and has a significant impact on outcomes for children.
• Children are excited to look at what is in the bag and discover a torch. They exclaim in delight about what happens when you press the button. Children wait their turn to have a go for themselves, sharing their delight in their facial expressions. Children play with dolls, make them a bed and imitate rocking and feeding. They race cars along a track, lining them up and counting how many. Children are focused for extended periods of time as their interest in an imaginative world is captured though diverse opportunities.
• Children explore making gingerbread men using play dough, following a favourite story. They are skilful in using tools and their hands to manipulate the dough. Children talk about a snake, and this sparks energy to make them. Practitioners add marbles and children make patterns, counting along how many they have. Children have the freedom of indoor and outdoor spaces that include snug areas with plentiful books and cushions for rest. They sit on practitioner's laps and ask for stories, joining in with repeated refrains and actions. Children have extensive opportunities to explore the community and benefit from real-life experiences, such as shopping for ingredients and writing their own letters to take to the local post office.
• The resources outside encourage lots of opportunities for children to climb, balance and take risks. They persevere even when things get tough and try again. Children capture water from the drainpipes, talking about how it moves down the pipe and ends up in the jug at the bottom. Practitioners use mathematical and scientific language to enhance learning in play, talking about depth, density and inviting children to make their own predictions. Children use pom-poms to make large movements in the air saying, 'whoosh' like fireworks. They put the pom-poms on their heads and look in the mirrors. Children ask each other, 'Do you like my hair?' then they giggle with delight. They use forks in paint to create marks like fireworks, alongside watching showing of the New Year fireworks display in London.
• Mealtimes are an excellent social learning occasion, created by practitioners in an unhurried way. Children are confident and independent in pouring their own drinks, scraping plates, and clearing away. The nursery offers a well-balanced menu of home-cooked healthy food by their own chef, using locally sourced produce. Parents are particularly impressed by the nutritional value on offer on the diverse menu, catering for varying dietary needs. Children's independence is evident in all the age groups, with toileting, handwashing, feeding themselves and helping to clean the tables after mealtimes.