South Hills Nursery St. Peters

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very settled in this friendly nursery and have extremely strong bonds with the staff. They are exceptionally confident and independent learners, who explore enthusiastically and develop creative imaginations. For example, they experimented with making perfumes and potions in the mud kitchen using ingredients such as fresh lemons, limes and lavender. Children are exceptionally well behaved. They respect one another, play cooperatively and quickly learn how to negotiate and express their feelings. Staff know the children well and provide high levels of support to help them make good progress, whatever their starting points. They have a good understanding of children's level of development and individual interests, which enables them to carefully tailor activities and teaching support for each child. Staff use praise and encouragement to build children's self-confidence and give them the foundations they need to be active learners with a wide range of independent skills.

During the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the nursery merged with others in the chain to ensure continuity of care for those children that could attend. Staff kept in touch with other children and parents through regular telephone calls, and gave parents ideas for activities that they could do to support their children's learning at home.

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

• Staff support children's communication and language well. Children are extremely confident and articulate speakers, who initiate conversations with adults and other children and enthusiastically use language in their play. For example, staff introduced new vocabulary, such as 'grocer', as they discussed a story about a tiger coming for tea, and the children thoroughly enjoyed putting on different voices as they pretended to be characters from the book.
• Managers and staff know what they want children to learn and why. They ensure that children are secure in their knowledge before moving them on to the next steps in their development, using their detailed knowledge of each child's level of progress and their interests. They respond promptly to children, setting up activities such as an ice cream parlour when this was identified as a particular interest.
• Leadership and management are strong. There are effective systems in place to monitor staff performance, such as ongoing discussion, peer reviews, supervision meetings and annual appraisals. Leaders use these to identify training needs and ensure that staff can access the professional development they need. As a result, staff practice is consistent. There is a strong focus on staff well-being. One of the team is a mental health first aider who can provide support for her colleagues if they are struggling with their mental health.
• Staff make good use of the current range of resources to support children's learning. However, this range has not been reviewed fully for some time to enable staff to use a wider range of stimulating toys and equipment to take children's learning to the next level.
• There is a particularly strong focus on behaviour management in the nursery. Staff use consistent methods to ensure that children follow the 'golden rules'. They suggest the words children could use to negotiate with their friends and offer praise when they successfully ask them to stop doing something they do not like. Children's behaviour is excellent.
• Staff are sensitive to children's emotional well-being. They have identified that children are still anxious about COVID-19 so have set up a 'happy hospital' in the role play area, where children can have positive experiences of making each other better.
• There are good partnerships with parents. Staff work with them to find out relevant information about each child before they start attending and share information about their progress frequently, using an online platform and through telephone calls. Parents comment that their children are making good progress and that staff support them well. Parents of older children who are moving on to school enjoyed attending a graduation ceremony where children proudly celebrated their achievements.
• Staff are skilled at identifying when children may need additional support. They work in partnership with other agencies, including health visitors, specialist organisations and the local children's centre, to ensure these children are supported to make good progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on the existing range of resources so staff can use a wider range of stimulating and interesting toys and equipment to help children make the best possible progress.