St Clements Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and keen to attend. Their key persons provide close support to help them settle in and. They feel happy and secure in their care after the long summer break. Children form friendships, hug friends when they arrive and play happily together. Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour and are good role models. They support children in learning what is expected of them and address issues skilfully and effectively before they escalate. Consequently, children behave well and learn good social skills and how to play safely.

Children make their own activity choices and lead their own play confidently, moving freely between the playrooms and garden. They enjoy creating imaginative games, designing pictures, reading stories and building models. Staff provide a balanced curriculum of activities which they build on as they identify and plan individual targets for children's learning. They join in to support children's interests and ideas to help keep them engaged. Staff encourage children's communication and language skills well overall. This includes strategies for children needing additional speech and language support and whose home language is not English. For example, staff use signs, actions and props to help children communicate their needs, make choices and understand routines. Children learn new words to build their vocabulary, such as what a fossil is and the names of different colours.

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

• The quality of teaching is good. Staff join in children's play to help them learn new skills. For example, they provide scales to help children calculate which objects are heavier or lighter and to sort objects by size to support their mathematical development. However, on occasion, staff do not provide the time for some children to respond to questions and challenges which support their thinking and problems solving skills further.
• Staff monitor and assess children's learning effectively. They work with parents to find out about children's development to form the basis of their assessments each term. They know what they want children to learn and support them in achieving in these areas through a balance of child-led play and focused activity sessions.
• Staff support children's curiosity and interest in learning. For example, children delight in learning how to use binoculars to make objects look bigger. They engage for long periods rolling balls down tunnels, while staff encourage them to experiment with speed.
• Children learn good skills to build their confidence and independence and to support their move on to school. For example, they learn to prepare their own snacks, chop fruit safely and to put on their coats for outdoor play. Children enjoy learning new skills and take pride in their achievements.
• Overall, staff support children in developing healthy lifestyles. They encourage healthy eating with fresh fruits and vegetables, and children know to 'wash germs off' their hands before meals. Children benefit from a good range of activities to support their physical development. They choose when they play outside, where they ride wheeled toys around circuits, use equipment to create games and run freely. However, on occasion, staff do not help children learn how to manage their personal hygiene well, such as when they cough and sneeze.
• Partnerships with parents and external professionals are good. Staff work very closely with families to meet children's needs and to safeguard their welfare. They provide many activities to involve parents in their child's learning at home. These include borrowing books from the book exchange, toilet training resources and ideas for physical play.
• The management team values and supports staff's well-being and professional development, including regular training opportunities. Staff benefit from sessions with managers throughout the term to build their knowledge and skills and receive support on a personal level.
• The strong management team monitors the quality of the provision well to identify and make improvements and to ensure additional funding is used to target children's learning needs. Parents share very positive views of the provision, such as how well staff listen, support them and help children make good progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff practice further to support children in managing all aspects of their personal hygiene well
• provide time for all children to respond to questions and challenges to support their thinking and problem-solving skills further.