Sir Leslie Martin Nursery Ltd.

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have a happy, busy time in the well-equipped nursery. They demonstrate their trust in the friendly, attentive staff. Staff understand how children learn. Pre-school children take off their shoes and socks, ready to walk along a 'sensory footpath'. Children's deep involvement is obvious as they step cautiously into cool water and carefully onto a tray of twigs. The activity promotes rich dialogue because staff encourage and support children to talk about the exciting first-hand experience. Children take several enthusiastic journeys along the footpath. They learn words to describe the different textures and materials.

Staff work in partnership with parents and carers. They ask parents to help children to find things at home that all begin with the same sound. This helps children to hear, and begin to discriminate between, the initial sounds of words. Staff and parents exchange information about babies' daily care. This helps everyone to promote continuity in babies' care and well-being. The nursery day runs smoothly. This is because routines are clear and everyone follows them. Children of all ages know what they are expected to do and what will happen next. This helps them to develop self-control and confidence.

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

• Managers communicate their intentions for the curriculum. They want children to become independent in their play and learning. Throughout the nursery, staff demonstrate an attention to detail when they organise rooms and resources. They patiently guide babies to tidy all of the metal items into a well-positioned basket. Older children increasingly take the initiative at tidy-up times. Children become self-motivated participants in communal tasks.
• There are systems in place to supervise staff and to help them to continuously improve their professional skills and knowledge. However, managers sometimes do not pay close enough attention to the detail of staff's interactions with children. This means that targets to help them to improve focus more heavily on the activity than on their teaching. This slows staff's progress towards a consistently high quality of teaching.
• Staff write one observation per month, for each of the seven areas of learning, for every child in their key group. This helps them to notice children's development. However, achieving the observation quota is less effective in helping staff to identify, and plan for, what is most important for children to learn next. It does not promote children's swiftest progress.
• Children learn actively. Younger children wheel small-world vehicles through paint and find out that this makes interesting marks. Pre-school children use sticks to make marks in sand. Staff skilfully help them to notice when the lines that they draw are 'straight' or 'the longest'. This helps children to learn vocabulary that supports their mathematical development.
• Staff help children to look closely at the natural world around them. Toddlers make pictures of sunflowers and learn that sunflowers are usually yellow. Children plant sunflower seeds and watch them grow. This promotes children's understanding of the seasonal cycle of growth and renewal.
• Children listen to stories every day. Staff help them to think and talk about the characters and events in the stories. Children learn that print carries meaning and that reading is pleasurable. This promotes their readiness to read, when the time comes.
• Children eat a balanced, healthy diet and staff create a cheerful, sociable atmosphere during mealtimes. Babies benefit from staff's close attention as they enjoy the tasty food. Older children learn to sit together and participate in polite conversation as they eat. They learn to listen to other people's experiences and views about the world. This helps to prepare children for life in modern Britain.
• Staff identify and address hazards to children's health and safety. Outdoor play sand is always covered at the end of the day. This keeps it free of anything that could cause children to be ill. Staff regularly apply sun cream to children's skin, when the weather is hot. This helps to minimise the harmful effects of the sun.
• Managers check that staff know and implement the nursery's child protection procedures. They review policies and procedures, such as those for safely recruiting and vetting staff. This means that staff's suitability to work with children is checked and regularly confirmed.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• pay closer attention to the detail of staff's interactions with children, so that targets for their development show precisely what they need to do to improve their teaching
• make better use of observation and assessment, to identify really clearly what children are intended to learn next.