St Paul's Walden Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a safe and welcoming environment for children. They know that children need to feel happy and secure to thrive. Children's emotional well-being is prioritised. Staff offer families home visits before they join the nursery and tailored settling-in sessions. This helps children to build secure attachments with them, and children swiftly settle. They show that they feel at ease, are confident and keen to learn. Staff plan engaging learning experiences that support children's interests. This child-centred approach helps all children to make good progress in their learning. For example, the rich range of creative materials and staff's positive interactions motivate children to draw pictures of bats and pumpkins. Children add intricate details, such as stars, and are keen to share their achievements with the inspector and staff.

Staff are positive role models. They consistently use good manners when speaking with each other and the children. This motivates children to do the same. Children are active problem solvers. Through trial and error, they discover that they need to compress the sand in their bucket before flipping it over to help the sand hold a shape. Children benefit from outings in the community, which help them to learn about the wider world. Staff intuitively build on children's experiences, such as recent visits to see a doctor through their imaginative play. Children proudly share their achievements from home with their friends, such as demonstrating how to assemble the parts of a trumpet and produce a sound. This helps to enhance children's self-esteem.

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

• The support for children's language and communication skills is a real strength. Staff consistently speak to children clearly and ask meaningful questions while they play. For example, as children explore the different parts of a real sunflower, staff ask them how it feels. This motivates children to use words such as 'sticky' and 'furry'. Staff regularly sing to children and understand the importance of introducing them to rhythm. This encourages children to join in with the words and actions to songs. Additionally, staff frequently use simple sign language. This helps all children to express their thoughts and ideas.
• Leaders have created an ambitious curriculum that supports children to develop a diverse range of skills and knowledge in readiness for school. An overarching theme is to support children's interests and implement engaging activities effectively. Staff collect some important information from parents to understand children's preferences and needs. They also use their initial observations to assess what children already know and can do. However, they have not yet explored gathering more detailed information from parents to precisely inform early planning or provide parents with ideas to support children's continuity of learning at home.
• Staff promote healthy lifestyles for children effectively. They provide nutritious snacks and teach children to manage their personal care and hygiene. Children learn that there are lots of fun ways to be physically active. They thoroughly enjoy exploring the inviting outdoor area, particularly the sensory wagon. Children rise to the challenge of pedalling their vehicles backwards and forwards and persevere to stay within the designated area.
• Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Children make the best possible progress from their starting points. Any additional funding the setting receives is used well to support children's individual needs.
• Staff use group times to share the nursery's golden rules with children, such as walking indoors and using 'kind hands'. During their interactions with children, they remind them to be gentle and respectful of toy animals, which helps them to learn how to treat real animals appropriately. However, there are occasions when children do not follow staff's clear instructions. This is particularly evident during routine activities, such as washing their hands or lining up outdoors when it is time to return indoors. This means that effective strategies to support all children to understand what is expected of them are not in place.
• Parents are kept informed of their children's achievements. They are warmly invited into the nursery to attend stay-and-play sessions with their children. Parents comment how their children are eager to attend and describe the staff as 'friendly' and that they provide a 'nurturing and vibrant' environment.
• The leaders work in very close partnership and have a clear oversight of the nursery. They are highly reflective of the provision they provide and ensure that staff well-being is a priority. Staff receive a varied range of opportunities to continue to develop their knowledge and skills. They share what they learn with the whole staff team to support a consistent approach.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend the information gathered from parents when children first start to inform children's unique next steps in learning from the outset and provide ideas to aid learning at home
• develop effective strategies to help children to understand the behavioural expectations in place.