St Matthews Nursery and Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children clearly show that they feel safe and have a sense of well-being at this welcoming nursery. Relationships in the nursery are positive. When children arrive, staff greet them warmly and children are excited to enter the nursery and play. Children show a strong attachment to staff and make friends with the other children. Staff actively support children to be confident at nursery. They encourage children to make choices about what they do. For example, children know that they can look for extra dinosaur figures from a box to add to their play.

Staff know the children well. They plan an effective curriculum that is based on individual children's interests and offers suitably challenging activities. Children behave very well. They are curious about the activities, and they are motivated to join in. Pre-school children play well together, they use their imagination and develop confidence to play independently. Children pretend they are in a coffee shop and work together to count the cups ready for the customers' drinks. Toddlers enjoy being outside. They use the ride-on toys and show their awareness of space as they steer around corners. Toddlers show interest in what is going on around them. They exclaim 'bubbles' and 'aeroplane' when they look up and see them.

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

• Since the last inspection, the manager has taken positive steps to address the actions raised. All staff have the required Disclosure and Barring Service Checks in place. Staff have completed refresher training to ensure their knowledge about how to keep children safe and protect their welfare remains up to date. The manager works closely with the deputy. They continually reflect on staff practice through observations and discussions with staff to improve their interactions with children.
• Staff are effective in supporting and promoting children's developing language skills. They use descriptive words to enhance children's vocabulary. For example, during a story, children listen intently. They talk enthusiastically about dinosaurs and learn words, such as 'extinct' and 'volcano'.
• Staff provide a range of brushes and rollers for children to make marks with paint and children excitedly talk about what they are doing. For example, they talk about what they are painting. However, occasionally, staff interrupt children's conversations with questions about colours and numbers. Consequently, the natural flow of children's conversation stops, children become quiet, and this does not fully promote their developing conversational skills.
• Staff help children learn how to be independent. Toddlers learn to hang their own coat on their peg, and they select their own cutlery at lunchtime. Pre-school children put their own coat on. They manage to serve themselves the second helpings of their lunch well with large spoons. All children know the routines for washing their hands before eating and after using the toilet.
• Staff help to develop children's mathematical knowledge, particularly about numbers and quantity. For example, children count out the number of plates, so everyone has one. Staff ask how many biscuits they need and when children say different numbers the staff encourage them to count as the biscuits are put on the plates. This helps children to learn that the number of items counted needs to be the same.
• Staff extend children's interests as they add different resources to children's play. For example, children who are interested in cars enjoy exploring constriction toys that have wheels. They sit with staff and decide what they want to create. However, instead of supporting children to follow their own creative ideas, sometimes staff take the lead and create models for the children, and do not take account of the children's ideas.
• Effective working partnerships with children's parents help to ensure children's needs are met. Parents speak very positively about the nursery. They comment on how well the staff help their children to develop confidence to leave them when they first start attending. Parents like the detailed feedback they receive from staff every day when they collect their children.
• Staff find out about the experiences children have at home and plan for the children to widen their experiences. For example, there is a book lending library. Children who have less access to books can choose books to read at home with their parents. Staff send out activity packs regularly with a range of seasonal or cultural activities that children can do at home with their parents. This contributes to children's knowing about the wider word and other cultures.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve staff's knowledge about how to promote and encourage children's conversational skills
• develop staff's understanding of how to provide support for children to build on their own creative ideas.