Selby District Peter Pan Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The majority of children who attend the nursery are children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They are supported by a team of passionate staff and volunteers, who endeavour to help them to reach their full potential. Children make good progress during their time in the nursery and are prepared well for their future learning. Transitions into school are planned carefully to minimise disruption to children's routines and ensure that they have the support they need to navigate change.

Children begin to understand right and wrong. They are given clear guidance about rules and boundaries. The calm, patient staff give children the time they need to manage and regulate their own behaviour. Children's social development through cooperative play is fully supported. They build resilience through play as they learn to negotiate, share, and take turns. Their self-esteem and confidence are fully promoted through staff's praise and encouragement.

Many children in the nursery do not communicate through verbal language. Staff enable them to have a voice through the use of sounds, visual prompts, and sign language. Children develop their independence successfully with the help of visual timetables that support them to understand daily routines. They begin to complete self-care routines and make choices about their play.

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

• Managers carefully plan a curriculum that takes into account each child's individual learning needs. Staff find out about children's interests from their parents and carers. They provide resources that reflect these, such as toy dinosaurs and foam for messy play. Children enjoy the sensation of painting using their hands, and squeal with laughter as they clap their hands together and observe how foam sprays into the air.
• Staff welcome children into the setting each day. Discussions with parents and carers ensure that children's individual care routines are always met. The nursery is spacious. This gives children room to move around and explore, including those children who need extra equipment to help them to access activities. The managers have thought about how they might make the learning environment more inviting, such as by displaying children's work. However, they have not actioned this. As a result, the physical environment is bland and does not fully promote children's sense of belonging and community.
• Key staff work highly successfully with other professionals to understand the interventions that children need, and how the strategies they implement support children's development. Professionals, such as physiotherapists, explain that children make good progress with the support they have from key staff and are well prepared with the skills they need for school.
• Staff use visual aids well to support children's understanding of routine. For example, children know that when their timer ends, they should sit down for a story or singing session. Staff promote children's communication and language skills through familiar songs and action rhymes. They model language throughout children's play. This helps children to understand what they are experiencing.
• Children develop their physical skills when they climb and balance during outdoor play. They enjoy walks in the fresh air and buy ice creams from the local sweetshop. With a new staff team in place, leaders have plans for children to enjoy more experiences away from the premises so that they begin to build on their understanding of their community.
• Children use tongs to pick up objects and small blocks for construction. This helps them to develop the skills and coordination they need for early writing. Staff promote children's love of books with a book of the week, such as 'The Frog Prince'. Staff link the book to activities that explore the spring and life cycles. This helps children to make connections between their learning experiences. Staff teach children early mathematics when they show them how to count forwards and backwards during number rhymes. They encourage children to explore the concepts of size and shape during construction activities.
• Staff work well as a team. They have a clear understanding of their role and support each other well during difficult situations, such as managing particularly challenging behaviour. Some children have complex care plans. Staff receive specialised training to manage these. Managers complete supervisions and appraisals with staff. However, managers do not use the information they gather to target professional development for staff. This means that they do not ensure that staff continually build on their skills and knowledge to deliver the highest quality learning for children.
• Parents greatly appreciate the care and learning that their children receive. They say that they are kept well informed about their children's progress. Their children always come home happy, and they know that their children are safe and well looked after.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider how the learning environment can be improved to provide children with more-welcoming spaces that embrace their achievements and fully promote their sense of belonging and community
• implement arrangements for staff to receive focused and highly effective professional development that helps them to build on their skills and knowledge consistently over time and raises the teaching of the curriculum to the highest level.