St George's Community Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The leadership team has made improvements since the last inspection. There is a strong focus on the curriculum and teaching, which is having a positive impact on children's learning. All children who currently attend the nursery speak English as an additional language. Staff support children effectively to become confident communicators. During play, the staff model language well. For example, children in the role-play area dress as doctors and nurses. They hear and repeat words such as 'medicine' and 'prescription'. This helps to build children's vocabulary.

Leaders and staff are ambitious for every child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to reach their full potential. The curriculum is planned so that children receive a wide range of learning opportunities, which take into consideration the children's interests. As a result, children engage in play with enthusiasm and a positive approach. Children are supported with warmth and kindness from staff who are responsive to children's needs. Staff encourage children to give things a go and be curious. Children demonstrate kindness towards their friends and are encouraged to share and take turns. This helps to build children's confidence in learning. Staff are positive role models, and they support children to understand and follow routines. Children behave well.

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

• Leaders support staff to ensure that the curriculum provides children with positive learning experiences. Leaders evaluate teaching to make sure that there is a consistent approach and that children are all making progress. Training has been increased so that staff have an up-to-date knowledge of child development.
• Leaders ensure that there is regular supervision for staff. This helps to identify staff's strengths so that these can be shared and celebrated within the team. In addition, supervision helps to identify areas that need further support through training or discussion. Staff's well-being is important to the leadership team, and staff value this.
• Staff create learning opportunities that excite and engage children indoors. Activities are set up with clear learning intentions to capture children's attention. During outside play, children participate in learning about nature and building their physical development, so the learning is less broad and varied.
• Children are supported in developing their communication and language well. Staff and children sing nursery rhymes, and children are beginning to follow the actions. During storytelling, children listen intently to 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' and can recall some familiar words of the story.
• Children build their physical development through a range of play opportunities. There is a large hall where children have the freedom to stretch, jump and dance. Children use tweezers to capture pom-poms and place them into a bottle. This helps to build children's small finger muscles, preparing them for early writing.
• Staff support children in building their independence skills. On arrival, children are encouraged to place their coats on their named peg. When getting ready to play in the garden, they learn the skill of putting on their coats independently. During snack time, children are given choices in what they would like to eat. They learn how to pour water or milk into their cups. This helps to prepare children for school.
• Children have opportunities for thinking critically. For example, during sand play, they pour and fill containers. Staff encourage children to experiment and add water to the sand so that they can feel how this changes the texture of their play. Children are given lots of encouragement to give things a go, which helps to build their confidence and exploratory skills.
• Children are learning to identify numbers and count. They hear mathematical language, such as 'heavy' and 'light' and 'big' and 'small'. However, sometimes during mathematical activities, the expectation is set too high for some children.
• Parents share that they feel well supported in the nursery by leaders and staff. Their children are making good progress. They share that they receive daily updates when they collect their child. However, not all parents know what their child is currently learning or why they are being taught a particular skill.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider how the curriculum for outdoor learning can be strengthened to broaden children's learning outside
• ensure staff's planning for mathematical development considers the stage of learning for every child
• strengthen parent partnership further by ensuring that parents have a full awareness of what children are currently learning, so they can support children's learning at home.