St Mary's Nursery, Camberley

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy themselves exploring their inspiring learning environment. Staff consider carefully what children need to learn next and create engaging activities to help children make excellent progress with a wide range of skills. For example, staff identified that some children need to build their upper body strength, so new play equipment with ropes to pull has been created. Children love to climb and learn how to navigate small risks around their spacious outdoor area. They paint walls with water and rollers and explore many real tools to construct and create as they play.

Children show exceptional levels of respect for one another and the staff. They play collaboratively, helping each other to push trailers of items around the garden. Staff encourage children to think through how they want to transport items and build things. This helps children develop excellent problem-solving skills and independence. Children have outstanding opportunities to explore the natural world. For instance, they built their own pond and watched tadpoles. Children laugh with their friends and get plenty of exercise as they search their garden on a bug hunt. They mark off the bugs they find on a card and learn lots of names of different wildlife and plants.

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

• Provision for children who speak English as an additional language and for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is exemplary and worthy of sharing with others. Managers and staff work tirelessly to secure additional funding and specialist support for children with a range of needs. They develop tailored communication strategies and work closely with families to ensure the highest levels of support for children. Children learn English in a short space of time and quickly close any gaps in their learning and development.
• Parents appreciate the superb support and opportunities their children enjoy at nursery. Staff give parents regular suggestions of activities to extend children's learning at home. Parents explain that the child-centred approach at nursery means staff know their children extremely well. Staff plan individual learning experiences that follow children's interests. Settling-in periods are carefully planned and children transition into nursery life with ease.
• Managers and staff enjoy exceptional training opportunities. For example, the nursery has been part of a pilot scheme to develop staff's skills in supporting children's understanding of emotion. All staff do a wide range of training online and refresh their knowledge regularly at staff meetings. Staff report extremely high levels of well-being. They feel valued by managers and supported in their roles. The team of trustees offers excellent support to the staff team and regularly visits to help with various aspects of running the nursery.
• Staff design excellent programmes to help children with their transition to school. Children excitedly talk about their 'school club' and discuss all the things they look forward to about school. They play games to learn about rhyming words and imagine what they will put in their school bags. Staff help children to develop superb language and early literacy skills. They read plenty of stories and introduce lots of new vocabulary throughout activities.
• The youngest children also develop high levels of independence. They serve themselves at snack time. Children all learn how to pour, to spread and to peel fruit. They go to wash their hands independently and clear away their snack items. Snack time is a sociable and relaxed occasion. Staff sit with the children and encourage lots of conversations about their play and learning. Children's behaviour is excellent.
• Staff place a strong focus on child-led play and planning around children's interests. Children are all deeply engaged in their chosen play. Staff join in enthusiastically with children's role play and creative activities. They extend children's learning and expertly spot moments to develop children's knowledge. For example, a child arrives and reports he is sad to leave his stick outside. The staff then encourage children to find sticks in their garden and read a book about a stick man. Children develop this activity by selecting paint and creating their own stick men. They are proud to show off their creations and complete all the tasks independently.
• Staff, children and families have outstanding opportunities to celebrate the diverse cultures within their nursery community. Children love to dress up in a variety of clothes for role play, which explores different cultures and jobs. They enjoy visits from a dentist and a nurse to learn about their work. Children go on walks to the local church, and members of the church come to read stories. Families celebrating Eid bring foods for all children and staff to try. The manager liaises with her local authority to get books written in all the different languages spoken by the children who attend.