Shooting Stars Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and eager to arrive. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents do not enter the nursery. This does not stop children from entering confidently. The nursery environment provides a wealth of opportunities for children to create, explore and be curious. Children are keen to learn and try new experiences. They thoroughly enjoy their play and learning. Their behaviour and attitudes to learning are strong. Children learn to be confident and independent. They are interested to take responsibility for doing things for themselves. For example, children lead their own learning and make decisions about what they would like to experience and play with. Staff follow the children's interests and provide a curriculum that motivates children to make good progress. For instance, following on from their interests in pets, children recently had the opportunity to visit a pet shop.

Children's personal, social and emotional development has been a focus of learning. Children feel safe and well cared for. They have plentiful opportunities to develop their relationships with others. Children are kind, polite and well behaved. Staff help children to make considered decisions about their play. For example, they encourage children to earn marbles for the 'kindness jar', to respect the resources and to help to tidy up. Children are well prepared for the next stage in their learning, including starting school.

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

• Staff gather a wide range of information from parents about their child when they first start to attend. This helps to ensure that children settle quickly into nursery life and their individual needs are met well.
• Staff know the children well. They use what they know about children's interests and achievements to plan for their learning. Staff provide a broad and balanced curriculum that supports children to develop, consolidate and deepen their knowledge and skills. However, the organisation of staff and the environment for the babies is not as well implemented to support their well-being.
• Overall, staff promote children's communication skills well and speak clearly to them. They introduce babies and children to an increasingly wide vocabulary in a variety of ways, such as through songs, stories and rhymes. However, some staff do not consistently extend children's vocabulary. For example, they repeat words that children say but do not extend these and give them time to fully explain their understanding.
• Staff find out about the experiences the children have at home. They provide new experiences to help to enhance children's learning. For example, they enjoy hunting for small dinosaurs, visits from the police and a farm. Children benefit from frequent music-and-movement sessions, trips to the nature reserve or wildlife projects.
• Parents are very complimentary and value the staff. They talk highly of the personalised approach to settling children in, and they say how happy and excited their children are to attend. Parents comment positively about the wide range of experiences the staff provide and state that they are well informed about their child's day.
• The special educational needs coordinator quickly identifies any areas of concern in a child's learning. Staff build effective partnerships with other professionals who support children and their families to receive the help that they need. This ensures that early interventions, including referrals to outside professionals, are put in place in a timely manner.
• Staff are knowledgeable in ensuring that children's individual needs are prioritised. Additional funding is used well to close any gaps in children's learning. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress.
• Leaders have a clear vision for the nursery. They continually reflect on and improve their practice. Leaders have a good programme of support, coaching and training for all staff. Leaders observe staff as they work with the children and offer additional training to benefit the children and help staff to develop their knowledge and skills further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review and make improvements to the baby area to ensure that it is implemented effectively and enhances close attachments with key staff, to support babies' well-being and development
• build on the good systems for supporting staff's interactions to focus on the challenges during daily routines and activities and to raise the quality of education to an even higher level.