Scallywags Day Nursery Limited

Inclusion: Strong standard

Leaders and staff swiftly and consistently identify if children require additional support in their learning. Leaders and staff are equipped with excellent knowledge on how to support children with additional needs and/or other barriers to their learning. The internal special educational needs officer creates individual strategies to support these children effectively. Individual education plans are created specifically to support individual children's needs. Parents are updated on the strategies in place to ensure continuity between home and the setting. As a result, children progress with appropriate pace. Staff use pictures to show children what is coming next in the routine. The consistent approach allows children to order their thinking and prepare for transitions. The setting further supports these children by working collaboratively and effectively with area special educational needs officers and other outside agencies.

Leaders and staff use additional funding, such as early years pupil premium, very effectively. They have a robust system in place where leaders and staff decide how to use the funding, dependent on the child's interests and areas of development. This is a result of the staff's profound knowledge of all children. This ensures children in receipt are offered resources and opportunities to support their development even further.

Leaders and staff create books, called social stories, that capture behavioural difficulties and/or any other barriers to children's learning. These effectively capture the individual needs of children through a story to support an area of development. As a result, children begin to understand feelings and emotions successfully.

All children are given opportunities to experience rich encounters within the local area, for instance, visits from the emergency services, trips on local transport and cultural celebrations involving parents. These are all adapted to meet all children's ages, stages and needs. These encounters allow children to explore experiences they may not be offered elsewhere.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders have created a rich curriculum across the setting, which is embedded and understood consistently by staff. Learning follows the children's interests and engagement in a calm and relaxed environment.

Staff deliver activities and day-to-day routines that are adaptable for all ages, for example, a scavenger hunt prepared for forest school. Children are encouraged to identify items/species from pictures and hunt for them. This is extended for older children to tick the pictures once found, then draw their interpretations. As a result, children are offered opportunities for progression that are appropriate to their age and stage of development.

Younger children are given learning opportunities to develop their personal, social, emotional, communication and physical skills. Babies babble and give gestures to staff, displaying their needs and wants, to which staff respond immediately, for example, pointing and eye gazing to the soft play. Staff encourage physical development by supporting babies to crawl and climb. As a result, babies form confidence in staff and build positive relationships.

Older children are given learning opportunities to effectively support their literacy development. For example, children are encouraged to write their name for registration, using their name cards. Children are given mathematical opportunities through counting money in role-play canteens, which is extended by introducing simple addition and subtraction. Staff ensure natural resources are appropriately adapted, such as using sticks to measure distance. This enhances children's progression for the next stages in their lives, such as going to school.

Leaders and staff ensure that children are offered experiences in their development to use in-the-moment thinking. For example, during a duck egg activity, children suggest looking at the eggshells through a telescope. Staff use rich language and encourage children to identify similarities and differences in size and patterns, and use mark making tools to draw their own. This type of learning enables children to grow their critical thinking abilities positively.

Achievement: Strong standard

All children flourish and make secure progress in development that is individual to them. Through their extensive understanding of the curriculum, staff consistently identify gaps in children's learning through frequent tracking and monitoring. This continuously gives children opportunities for extension in development.

Children are well prepared for the next stages in their lives. Younger children are supported in building friendships with peers through small-group activities, for example, during a fruit and vegetable stall role-play activity. Children are encouraged to take turns with each other, offering kindness and respect. Children develop their language skills through imitation of appropriate words used by staff in play, such as naming the fruits and vegetables they touch. Across the setting, children explore their independence, such as dressing themselves for outdoor play and serving their own food during mealtimes. Older children are supported in exploring their phonics skills, for example, focusing on one letter per month and learning how to write, pronounce and identify words beginning with the letter. As a result, children develop skills to support them in moving to school.

Children are extremely positive in their attitude to learning and are praised for their achievements. Children are fully engaged in activities provided for them and thrive from their ability to make decisions.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Leaders and staff set high expectations for children's behaviour and promote this through positive role modelling. Children are extremely well behaved, show respect to each other and offer support when needed. Children can identify potential conflicts arising and attempt to diffuse them independently, for instance, by using appropriate language such as 'No thank you, I don't like that.' Children are aware they have support from staff in these situations and will seek help confidently if needed. As a result, children build trusting, positive relationships with staff.

Staff offer consistent praise to children throughout daily tasks and activities and encourage manners, such as saying 'please' and 'thank you'. As a result, children are role-modelled respect while feeling valued and appreciated.

Leaders and staff work collaboratively with parents to ensure attendance and punctuality are consistent. Leaders have updated policies to strengthen their monitoring of attendance. They follow a robust strategy of identifying reasons for absence, documenting and monitoring for patterns. This ensures parents understand the importance of consistent routines to support children's learning, development and wellbeing.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders and staff consistently prioritise all children's welfare and safety. Leaders update policies and procedures frequently and effectively. Staff discuss potential risks when outdoors with the children, for instance, road safety, strangers and hazardous risks from the forest destinations. Staff create child-friendly songs surrounding these risks, which children frequently sing on the journey to and from the forest area. Staff involve children in daily risk assessments of the forest area, with supervision. Children thrive from this independence and form an in-depth knowledge when identifying risks themselves.

Children are provided with healthy lifestyle learning through daily routines and activities. The setting provides balanced, healthy meals, as well as discussions around healthy eating, exercise, rest and their importance. Babies and younger children are enriched with language appropriate to their age around foods and physical activity to promote healthy lifestyles. Younger children are encouraged to explore through their senses, such as taste-testing fruit and vegetables. Staff support the children in using utensils hand over hand to cut the fruit and vegetables.

Older children are given opportunities to engage in yoga sessions, tree climbing and den building in the forest. As a result, children's physical and wellbeing development is prioritised. Leaders also support families widely through offering parent packs for healthy lifestyles and transitions, for example, bags that contain information, props and guides for routines such as oral health and toilet training. These effectively support children and parents with transitions to ensure healthy lifestyles are maintained and embedded.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

Leaders have an extremely positive outlook on driving improvements for their setting. Leaders effectively and consistently reflect on the setting's strengths and areas of improvement. Leaders and staff collaboratively create internal action plans, ensuring progression for the setting is prioritised. Leaders maintain high-quality teaching by providing compulsory and additional training programmes to their staff, continuously developing knowledge and understanding.

Leaders also offer their expertise to the local community, providing accredited training courses and support to local settings. Leaders also provide paediatric first-aid courses for parents attending the setting and within the community. This benefits children and parents in the community, offering continued support and confidence.

Leaders prioritise the wellbeing of the children and staff in the setting. New staff are effectively supported in their roles. They are given shadowing opportunities with senior staff, self-reflection observations and feedback and supervisions. Staff have an extremely positive outlook on the setting's aims and are fully confident in their leaders' approaches. They feel valued, with their opinions and ideas taken account of. As a result, staff are positive, happy and calm in their teaching approaches, offering the best development opportunities to children.

Leaders are tremendously passionate in providing high-quality care and learning for all children. Leaders have created highly successful and positive relationships with parents and carers. Leaders provide effective communication of day-to-day occurrences through an online app and verbal handovers. Leaders arrange termly assessment meetings and hold frequent parent events. Parents comment on the importance this has had in creating a community for them. This benefits children through continuity of development from home to the setting.