Smiles Nursery - Frederick Nattrass

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children develop resilience and a strong sense of community. They are kind, accepting and considerate towards each other. Staff promote children's personal, social and emotional development consistently. Children enjoy taking part in community events, such as collecting for food hampers and going on charity walks to raise money. This helps them to understand differences in people and the world around them. Children are happy to come into the nursery. Since the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, parents do not enter the building and use the entrance hall to drop children off. The manager has developed the hallway to show pictures of the staff who are in and copies of menus. This helps parents to know what their child has eaten and who they have been with during the day.

Overall, staff have high expectations for all children. They work hard to provide them with as many experiences as possible. Early years pupil premium funding is used effectively to close potential gaps in children's learning. For example, a sensory room has been developed to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The manager provides extra one-to-one support for some children, in order to fully meet their needs. This has a positive impact on their progress and well-being. Children show they feel safe in the nursery and are willing to try new activities.

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

• Children with SEND are effectively supported. Staff who provide one-to-one support know their needs exceptionally well and develop effective partnerships with other professionals. This helps children to reach their full potential and promotes consistency.
• Children make good progress and use the skills they develop well. Younger children show interest in exploring different fruit and staff help them to develop small physical skills as they cut apples. Older children build on their physical ability and develop writing skills, forming numerals and letters with minimal support. However, during some focused activities, staff do not always provide support to each other and the group size becomes unmanageable. This means some children lose focus and concentration.
• Staff know their key children very well and build strong relationships with them. Babies take staff's hand and lead them to the areas they want to play in. Older children have good communication skills and show confidence in asking staff for help. Staff engage in good quality interactions with toddlers. They show excitement in sand activities and begin to develop language skills.
• Children benefit from opportunities to learn and run around outdoors. Staff use one of the gardens to teach them about how to grow vegetables. However, during lunchtime, most staff are rushing to clean up and organise the afternoon.
• Some children do not receive clear messages about the healthy food on their plate or the reasons why they wash their hands. In addition, other children who arrive for late lunch miss out on the social aspect of mealtimes.
• Staff focus on building children's self-esteem and confidence. They offer clear, consistent praise and sensitively encourage children when they become frustrated. Young children begin to show awareness of the boundaries and make progress in managing their feelings. Older children show kindness to others and reach out to give them a cuddle when they are upset.
• Staff help children to develop resilience and enthusiasm to learn. They encourage children to persevere in developing new skills. For example, staff praise older children and sensitively suggest trying to use their finger on each shape to help them count. This is effective and children show pride as they count accurately. Young children are keen to join in and use their senses to explore the lemons. They laugh together with staff and learn new words to describe the taste.
• Staff benefit from a strong, supportive leadership team. They work together with passion and enthusiasm to identify and develop areas of the nursery in their strive towards excellence. The manager provides emotional support to the team and regularly holds appraisals. Staff say they 'feel on top of the world' after their meetings and have clear targets for their professional development.
• Parents are keen to leave feedback for the nursery. They are very happy with the changes made by managers and feel their children make very good progress. Other professionals who work in partnership with the nursery say 'they go beyond the call of duty and wrap their arms around the whole family'.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide support for staff to work with children during planned activities so they can maintain the highest levels of focus and concentration
• consider ways to enhance the overall experiences for children at lunchtime to help them further develop social skills and build on existing awareness of how to be healthy.