St Richard's Out of School Club

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are delighted to attend this friendly nursery. They run and skip in eagerly, greeted warmly by their special key member of staff at the door. Children separate from their parents with confidence. Staff help children to settle quickly. They invite children to join them on the carpet, to sing songs and talk about their exciting day ahead. This helps children to feel safe and secure and to know what is expected of them. Staff provide children with helpful reminders of the nursery's high expectations of their behaviour. Children recall the rules, such as to be kind to their friends. Staff model positive behaviour well. Children settle with ease and play in harmony with their many friends.

Staff have high expectations of what children need to learn. They provide skilful support for children's imagination. For instance, staff give children time to explore their own ideas in their pretend play. Staff engage children in interesting conversations about their learning. For example, when a bee visited the nursery garden, staff helped children to understand why the bee had pollen on its back. Children become curious about the world around them and learn much essential new knowledge.

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

• Leaders have designed a well-thought-out curriculum that is centred around children's communication and language. They make certain that staff gather important information about what children can do at the start of their time at the nursery. Staff build well on children's previous learning. They provide children with meaningful learning to extend their current interests. Children achieve well.
• Leaders value the skills and expertise of their staff team. They check on the quality of staff's work with children and identify some of the strengths and areas for improvement in staff's practice. However, they do not consider enough staff's wider training needs. Consequently, some staff do not improve their expertise in the areas of learning.
• Staff promote children's language skills successfully. They place high value on back-and-forth conversation with children. For instance, staff expertly join in children's play ideas with dolls, narrating and commenting on children's play. Children are so enthralled with this high-quality of interaction from staff, that they concentrate and learn language very well. Children learn how to talk in extended conversation. They build a wide knowledge of important words.
• Leaders have identified a set of core books that they want the children to learn well. However, they do not ensure that staff understand this part of the nursery's literacy curriculum. Staff share books with some of the children, but mainly when children request them. This means that some children do not have the opportunities that they need to listen to stories with staff and develop essential knowledge about books.
• Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. They have developed a set of 'golden rules' for behaviour in consultation with the children. This helps children to know and remember how to behave. For example, children know that they need to help each other and to aim to be best friends. Children behave sensibly and enjoy the company of each other.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. Leaders have provided training for staff to use symbols to support children's communication. Staff work well with outside experts to provide children with the extra help that they need. Children with SEND achieve well.
• Leaders ensure that children are active for a good proportion of the day, including during outdoor play. This helps them to build up a vigorous appetite to eat the healthy meals and snacks that the nursery provides. Children learn how to make healthy lifestyle choices.
• Mostly, staff implement leaders' curriculum for personal development well. However, on occasion, some staff are too eager to help children, for example when peeling fruit for them or over helping children with their coats. At these times, children do not learn to manage their own needs to become independent.
• Leaders work in strong partnership with the on-site school and with other people in the local community. For example, staff take children to visit a local residential care home to take gifts they have made, such as 'love bud biscuits' to celebrate Valentine's Day. Children learn to respect elderly people.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• align professional development for staff with their training needs so that they improve their knowledge of the areas of learning
• develop staff's understanding of leader's curriculum for literacy so that children learn essential knowledge about books
• strengthen the curriculum for personal development so that children learn to become independent, capable learners.