Spring - Leam Lane

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a wonderfully calm and supportive environment in which all children make good progress. They are extremely caring, nurturing and responsive to children's needs. Staff know the children and their families very well. All children and babies demonstrate they feel happy, safe and secure.

Children are well behaved. They develop a very good understanding of the nursery's routines, rules and boundaries. Older children show high levels of self-regulation and build strong relationships. They remind their friends that, 'Sharing is caring, and caring is kind'. Staff give younger children consistent, gentle messages to help them learn to share resources, have good manners and behave well. The whole staff team are very positive role models for children. They speak to each other with kindness and respect and this creates a very happy place for children to learn.

This inclusive and stimulating environment ensures all children can fully participate and make the most of what is on offer. For example, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive the full attention and highly tailored support from their key persons and the special educational needs coordinator. They skilfully reflect on the children's needs and interests daily and children make good progress.

The experienced management team create an ambitious curriculum for children to succeed. Staff implement the curriculum well. All staff place top priority on promoting children's independence and communication and language skills through many interactions. This means older children especially excel in speaking, listening and attention skills, in readiness for their move to school.

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

• The leadership team and management are passionate. Children and their families are at the heart of everything they do. There is a strong culture of reflective practicem which, overall, ensures very good outcomes for children. All staff, including new staff and apprentices, benefit from incisive coaching, mentoring and support to ensure teaching is of a high quality.
• The excellent information sharing with parents and other professionals helps to ensure children receive consistent support and continuity of care. Additional funding for individual children is well managed and positively impacts on children's progress.
• Feedback from parents is overwhelmingly positive. Parents are impressed by the daily preparation and delivery of activities and experiences and the progress their children make. They value the support and advice they receive from their key persons on issues, such as weaning, potty training and behaviour management.
• There are very good systems to teach children about the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. For example, children grow their own vegetables and herbs and learn how to make good food choices for their oral health. All children, including babies, have ample opportunities to extend and practise their physical skills. Children thoroughly enjoy running around outdoors, balancing on beams and scooping sand and water. Staff encourage them to be 'future Olympians'.
• Staff work hard to ensure that children develop the fundamental British values they need to help them become kind and caring future citizens. Children begin to understand how voting for something gives a fair result. Staff treat the children with respect and courtesy, explaining that everyone is equal and should be treated kindly. Children demonstrated their growing kindness at the exciting arrival of two nursery guinea pigs. This helps children understand how to care for living things.
• Overall, the quality of teaching is very good, particularly in the pre-school room. Staff are highly skilled. They consistently challenge and extend children's learning. Older children talk with confidence and enthusiasm about their activities, and set themselves challenges. They show curiosity and readily approach staff to join in. They skilfully draw and make marks creatively, choosing to practise writing their names. Children chopping a variety of vegetables to make soup made links and recalled past learning and experiences. These critical thinking skills are valuable skills to take forward to school when the time comes.
• The very caring staff working with the younger children offer them an abundance of sensory and physical experiences. They ask simple open-ended questions and clearly demonstrate a genuine interest in what the children talk about. However, on occasion, staff working in these age-groups are not as consistent when speaking with children during routines and spontaneous play. They do not consistently plan opportunities and adapt their interactions to the ages and abilities of each baby and child to help them build on what they already know.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to make better use of their interactions with younger children in order to build on what they already know to challenge children's thinking, in particular during spontaneous play and routines.