Silks Farm Nursery School and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, secure and settled and make good progress in this welcoming nursery. They enjoy the personal greeting at the door and run in to explore the resources. Children reflect the positive approach demonstrated by staff and show they are developing skills that support their ability to learn. They persevere at tasks and work cooperatively. For instance, younger children choose a more complex puzzle and enjoy the challenge of completing this. They work together to determine where the pieces fit, celebrating when they succeed.

Children mirror staff's caring attitudes. Their behaviour is good and they are kind and considerate towards others. They readily share toys and help with tasks, such as tidying up. Staff support children well in recognising and respecting differences. For example, children play instruments from around the world and talk about the foods they eat and the countries they originate from. Children are gaining a practical understanding of safety. For instance, older children note that there is water on the floor and ask for the warning sign so that they can alert others. Children have many opportunities to develop their physical skills. Young children learn to use the slide. Older children organise running races, being careful to allow each other enough space.

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

• The manager and staff understand what children need to learn in order to make good progress. They assess children well, offering them activities that relate to their interests and help them take the next step in their learning. The manager's good knowledge of each child aids her in using additional funding effectively to support children's development. The manager and deputy manager monitor each child's progress, taking swift action to support staff in addressing any weaker areas in children's learning.
• Staff report that they feel valued and are well supported. They receive practical supervision that helps them to assess their practice and develop this further, for example, through completing training provided by the company.
• Children of all ages show a love of books. Babies and younger children snuggle up with staff members as they look at books, eagerly naming the characters and illustrations. Older children choose a favourite book about a tiger. They listen intently, smiling and giggling as they anticipate what is going to happen when the tiger drinks all the water.
• Staff speak clearly to children and support them well in developing their communication skills. This particularly supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and they make good progress. Younger children are confident as they join in a discussion about a book, knowing that their contributions are valued. Older children use their good language skills as they explain and narrate their play. For example, children pour water in the garden and exclaim 'we've made a stream, it's flowing!'.
• Staff are observant and respond well to children's interests, using these to help promote their learning. For example, children showing an interest in dinosaurs thoroughly enjoy an activity to sort dinosaurs according to size and colour. They develop their mathematical skills as they carefully count the number in each group and decide which group is the biggest.
• Parents speak highly of the nursery. They feel that staff understand their children's needs and take care to help them settle and to interact with others. Parents report that staff communicate well with them so that they understand what their children have been doing and their ongoing development. This helps parents to build on children's learning at home.
• Children enjoy the play opportunities and staff usually adapt these well to suit each child's needs. However, staff sometimes answer some questions for children and solve problems for them, rather than encouraging them to do this themselves and supporting them to extend their critical thinking skills.
• Staff ensure that children are always supervised, promoting their safety. However, on occasion, some staff do not always consider the most effective prioritisation of tasks. This means that they do not always offer children the best support possible to fully extend their play and learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to further enhance children's play, for example, through encouraging them to think critically and solve problems as they encounter them
• help staff to gain an increased understanding of prioritising tasks, so that they consistently offer children the best support possible to build on their play and learning.