South Bank Colleges (Lambeth College) Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this setting and staff go above and beyond to make every child feel welcome and that they truly belong. Staff know all children personally and use this information to prepare bespoke activities and resources for the children which meet their individual needs. Due to the consistently high engagement levels, children make exceptional progress. Children are happy and settled and staff support their personal development through their caring and passionate nature. Staff support all children effectively, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children in receipt of additional funding. Staff ensure that all children achieve above and beyond their developmental expectations, due to their aspirational curriculum. Children are skilfully equipped for the next stage of their learning.

The manager is inspirational and supports staff attentively, ensuring that all adults are well trained and constantly developing their own knowledge and skills. Staff go above and beyond the expected and provide children with a rich set of experiences that promote an understanding of, and respect for, people, families and communities beyond their own. The wide variety of activities planned by staff strengthen parental engagement and children feel unique and a deep sense of belonging. Partnership with parents is exceptional, as staff care deeply about the whole family. Staff work diligently to support parents, and this develops the children further. Staff are excellent role models, and their high expectations ensure that children behave exceptionally, consistently demonstrating cooperation, positivity and high levels of respect at all times.

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

• Children are celebrated as individuals and staff show compassion for each child. This is evident, as each child has a board which displays their photo, a flag to show which part of the world they come from and 'hello' written in their home language. Nursery staff have learned new languages so they can communicate with the children who speak English as an additional language. This ensures that interactions are of a consistently high quality and staff are excellent role models for the children. Children speak fluently using a wide range of vocabulary, demonstrating confidence and excellent progress in their speaking and listening.
• Children confidently demonstrate their understanding of why rules and routines are in place, led and modelled by all staff. For example, children know to wash their hands before and after eating and can also speak clearly about how to independently look after themselves when going outside in the cold. Children show recognition of the impact their behaviour has on themselves and others.
• The manager provides highly effective professional development, ensuring that staff can constantly build and develop their knowledge and skills. This enables staff to effectively support all children and provide meaningful and high-quality learning experiences. For example, staff learned about schemas and provided personalised curriculum objectives for each child, based on individual needs, ensuring deep levels of engagement. Staff's firm understanding and delivery of their curriculum intent ensures that all children, including children with SEND, achieve the best possible outcomes.
• Staff regularly assess effectively and plan experiences carefully so that children's learning builds on what they already know and can do. They provide coherent experiences, ensuring that all children reach and exceed their goals.
• Children demonstrate consistently high levels of engagement in their learning and sustain high levels of concentration. Children are deeply engrossed in activities for sustained periods while in the nursery. This means that they are securing strong foundations for future learning.
• Children show consistently high levels of respect for each other and have positive attitudes. They share and cooperate exceptionally well and show politeness and manners in social situations, without the need for prompting.
• Children demonstrate high levels of self-control and they consistently keep trying hard, even if they encounter difficulties. Children show excellent resilience if things do not go as planned. For example, they do not get upset when models they have made break, but instead turn them into something new and move on positively.
• Staff make excellent use of college resources to further develop children's learning and talents. For example, college professionals teach mathematics skills in the nursery role-play area, sports skills in their outside area and are involved in parent conferences, connecting with nursery staff to embed exceptional provision. This allows children, staff and parents to further develop their skills, ensuring greater progress for their children.