St Mary's Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a warm and welcoming environment which helps children to feel safe and secure. Children arrive with a smile on their faces and confidently say goodbye to their parents/carers. They are excited to see their friends and quickly settle into the routines of the day. For example, they hang up their coats and eagerly join in a dance activity which helps enhance their physical skills.

Staff use a range of strategies to help children learn about equality and diversity. Children understand about people who are different from themselves. They enjoy playing with small world figures that represent different cultures, ethnicities and abilities. This helps children to respect others which prepares them well for modern life. Children's unique qualities, such as their culture, heritage and family backgrounds, are celebrated, which promotes children's emotional well-being.

Children successfully develop their social skills. Staff are good role models and use a range of ways to promote positive behaviour. For example, each morning, children gather on the carpet where staff greet each child by name. This teaches children good manners which is demonstrated when children politely welcome visitors to the nursery.

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

• Staff prepare an exciting environment for children to learn and play indoors. They plan a range of activities which follow children's interests and promote learning across several areas. For example, children learn about vegetables and refine their fine motor skills when they transfer pumpkin seeds using tweezers. Children enjoy plenty of opportunities for fresh air and exercise. However, staff do not fully consider how to prepare an exciting outdoor learning environment. This means children who prefer to learn outdoors do not always benefit from learning across all areas of the curriculum.
• Staff observe children's play and use the information gathered to successfully assess children's progress. This means emerging gaps in learning and development are quickly identified. Furthermore, staff swiftly refer to outside agencies to ensure that children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, get any extra help they need to make continued progress.
• Staff have a good understanding of how children learn. For example, during small group activities, they build on what children remember by skilfully introducing new words, such as 'stomp' and 'anger'. This successfully supports children to develop their communication and language skills.
• Overall, staff deployment is good. Children are closely supervised, and staff meet their needs. However, occasionally, the youngest children are not supported to join in activities or lead their own play. Therefore, staff do not always effectively enhance the development of younger children's social skills and independence.
• Staff help children to keep healthy. For example, staff work in partnership with parents to teach children about the importance of good oral health. For example, they have arranged for a dental nurse to visit the setting to teach children a good toothbrushing technique. Additionally, staff provide nutritious snacks, such as fruit and vegetables, to encourage children to make healthy food choices.
• Staff support children well through a range of transitions. For instance, settling-in processes are flexible to promote the emotional well-being of each child. Furthermore, children's future Reception teachers are invited to spend time in the setting getting to know the children. Children manage the move on to school confidently as their individual needs are fully understood and planned for.
• Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. They encourage children to talk about and explore their feelings. This assists children to manage their emotions and helps them to understand how their behaviour affects others. This is demonstrated when children play happily together and readily share resources.
• The manager monitors staff performance regularly to help identify strengths and development areas in practice. Staff are reflective and are encouraged to attend training to help keep their knowledge up to date. Staff feel well supported. For example, they have regular supervision meetings when they discuss their workload and well-being.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop the outdoor environment to ensure that children who prefer to play outside are fully supported to learn across all areas of the curriculum
• improve teaching to ensure that staff consistently support younger children to develop their social skills and independence.