Serendipitys Day Nursery and Pre-school

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders support staff to continuously build on their knowledge of how to meet children's individual needs. This results in staff supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. The early identification of children's emerging needs helps staff to recognise how to support children. They identify and implement targeted plans that are tailored to each child's needs. These are reviewed regularly to assess the impact the support is having and are developed to meet children's changing needs. This individual support helps children to progress in their development.

Additional funding that some children receive is spent appropriately. This includes providing one-to-one support from staff to offer children individual help to meet their targets. Furthermore, resources are purchased to help children manage their behaviour. On the whole, children receive support to reduce any barriers to their learning. However, staff do not help all children to learn about their families' cultures and traditions to help them understand about similarities and differences between themselves and others.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

On the whole, children progress well from their starting points in learning. This includes children who face barriers to their learning. Leaders and staff identify a curriculum to support children's communication and language skills and independence. Overall, they do this well. However, sometimes, the implementation of the curriculum design to support all children to develop their early speaking skills is not consistent. For example, not all staff's interactions during some daily routines reflect leaders' expectations to communicate to babies.

Staff's teaching includes modelling how to complete tasks for children to copy. For instance, babies copy staff to stack and build towers, supporting their hand-eye coordination and concentration. Staff plan activities that enable all children to follow their interests, such as in insects. For instance, toddlers are offered experiences to see different insects and develop their imagination and creative skills when they make pretend insects using dough. Pre-school children learn about the life cycle of bees and caterpillars.

Staff provide experiences for children to develop their physical skills. Babies kick balls back to staff to help develop their balance and coordination. Staff plan music activities where they help children explore how to move their bodies in different ways. Pre-school children climb on tyres outdoors, supporting their balance and coordination.

Achievement: Expected standard

Generally, children progress well in their development. Babies are supported to learn positional language through their play. This includes when staff ask them to go up steps and down slides on apparatus. Babies are supported to develop their balance and strength in their legs as they pull up to standing to join planned activities at tables. Pre-school children remember previous learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. They share their knowledge with staff that caterpillars nibble small holes in a cocoon before they turn into a butterfly.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported to close gaps in their learning. For instance, they develop their language skills through group times and watching staff's faces when they talk. Others develop their concentration and focus as they begin to sit with their peers to eat and extend the time they spend at activities.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Overall, leaders and staff manage all children's behaviour in an age-appropriate way. They use simple language to explain to babies the behaviour they want to see, such as to put their bottoms down when they sit at the top of a low-level slide. Staff give babies plenty of praise to help raise their self-esteem and confidence. Toddlers receive stickers from staff for positive behaviour, such as when they help to sweep the floor and clean tables. Staff support pre-school children to learn rules and boundaries, such as to use their hands kindly and to walk indoors. This helps children to understand behavioural expectations, develop positive relationships with others and learn how to promote their safety. Adaptations are made by staff to meet children's individual behavioural needs.

Leaders understand and share with parents the importance of children attending regularly, such as to build relationships with staff and their peers and providing consistency for children in preparation for their move on to school.

Generally, children show that they understand routines staff implement during the day. However, sometimes, staff do not support pre-school children outdoors as effectively as indoors to help tidy away toys. Furthermore, staff do not give toddlers clear instructions about when they want them to tidy away toys. This is confusing for children.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

When children first start attending and move rooms in the nursery, they visit at certain times of the day. This helps them to become familiar with staff and the environment gradually. For instance, children visit firstly to play with toys and resources and then extend this as they attend during meal and sleep times. This helps to promote children's emotional wellbeing when they face changes.

Leaders and staff offer children a balanced diet, offering regular meals, snacks and drinks during the day to promote their health. Information about foods children are offered is provided for parents, so they know what their children are eating. This includes sharing menus and providing information about individual children's eating habits on an online app. If children face barriers to their wellbeing and welfare, such as individual dietary or medical needs, staff work with parents to help them meet these.

Staff provide children with a safe environment, asking them to help to maintain this. Children take responsibility for helping staff to clean tables. Children learn aspects of how they can keep themselves safe. Staff ask children about what they need to do when food is hot. Children reply they need to blow on it. Staff carry out fire evacuation drills with children, helping them to understand how to evacuate the building safely.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders and staff keep parents informed about their children's care and learning well. Parents access an online app where they can see activities children engage in, their next steps in learning, care routines and how they can continue to support their children's learning at home. This includes receiving advice from staff to support their children's toileting habits and to manage their behaviour.

Leaders have made recent improvements in the nursery due to having a higher intake of babies attending. The changes include moving rooms around to provide babies with more space and easier access to outdoor learning. Although leaders reflect on the effectiveness of the setting well overall, they do not identify some next steps for improvement to build on children's experiences. For instance, leaders do not identify where staff are not fully supporting all children to learn about their families' cultures, to embed routines or to implement a highly effective curriculum to support babies' early speaking skills.

Leaders support staff's practice and wellbeing through, for example, regular meetings to discuss what they are doing well and how to develop their practice. Regular check-ins with staff help them to feel supported with their wellbeing. Staff build on their professional development. They attend training that helps to develop their understanding of how to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Furthermore, it helps staff to plan activities more precisely to support babies' sensory development.

Leaders and staff arrange visits for children to learn about their local community. For instance, staff take babies to a library where they listen to stories to help them develop a love of books.