St Lukes Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure as they arrive at the setting happy and eager to start their day. Staff greet them warmly and with enthusiasm. They make the best use of information from home to ensure that children's individual care needs are met daily. Staff know the children in their care very well and communicate with one another about each child's needs successfully. This helps to ensure children are well supported during their time at nursery.

Children are familiar with the daily routines and follow these well. They know what is expected of them and thrive from the consistent boundaries and expectations that staff skilfully reinforce. Children are supported to share, take turns and to cooperate with others from an early stage.

The provider is passionate about developing children's independence so that they are well prepared for their eventual move to school. Staff support children to become increasingly independent as they move from the baby room through to the toddler and pre-school rooms. For example, babies learn how to feed themselves at mealtimes using sippy cups and spoons. Staff working with toddlers teach them how to drink from beakers and use cutlery to eat their meals. By the time children are in pre-school, they know how to line up at mealtimes, serve their own food and carry their plates to the table.

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

• Children benefit from the broad, well-planned and sequenced curriculum, overall. Key persons regularly monitor and assess the levels of progress children are making. They share this information with the wider team, which helps them to adapt their interactions with children. This helps to ensure that children receive the individual support that they need in their learning, overall.
• Partnerships with parents and external professionals are effective. The provider and staff team work closely with parents and any outside agencies involved in a child's care. This helps to ensure children receive the targeted support and interventions that they need. Staff use agreed strategies in practice successfully. As a result, all children make good levels of progress.
• Staff provide children with opportunities to develop their understanding of different feelings and emotions. For example, they have ongoing discussions and plan specific activities that encourage older children to talk about their feelings and emotions. They support and talk to babies and toddlers about how they are feeling, such as when they express that they are happy or sad. This helps children begin to make connections between their feelings and emotions.
• The provider and staff recognise the importance of storytelling and singing nursery rhymes to promote children's language development. Babies and pre- school children benefit from the activities staff provide for them, which are connected to the stories they read. Staff read and sing songs with all children daily. However, on occasion, story time is not always well matched to the needs of all children in the toddler room. As a result, some children become bored and begin to distract others. The noise levels in the room increase, and this further impacts the children who are trying to listen to the story.
• Children are provided with a wide range of opportunities to develop their understanding of number and shapes through play. For example, staff model mathematical language to younger children and encourage them to count and recognise shapes. They build on the children's understanding of number and shape overtime, such as recognising groups of items up to five and the different properties of shapes.
• Children are well supported to develop their physical skills. Staff working with babies and younger children provide them with opportunities to develop the physical skills needed for crawling and walking. Staff working with toddlers provide them with games and activities that help to develop their coordination and balance during outdoor play. Pre-school children have opportunities to refine their fine motor skills and develop the hand dexterity needed for writing.
• The provider has a good oversight of the nursery. They identify areas for improvement accurately and effectively. Staff access a range of training opportunities for their continued professional development and recognise the benefits this has to their practice. This helps them to maintain the good quality standard of care and learning opportunities provided for children, overall.
• The provider failed to notify Ofsted of a significant event within the required timescale, which is a requirement of their registration. This was discussed with the provider at the beginning of the inspection, and they are now aware of reporting significant events within the required timescales.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• adapt story time activities to ensure that they match the needs of all children in the toddler room so that they can hear more clearly and make the best possible progress in their language development.