St Vincent's Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children build strong relationships with each other and staff, which helps them to feel safe in the setting. They arrive happy and greet staff pleasantly with smiles. Children who are new to the nursery settle quickly. They receive lots of attention from staff who offer cuddles and support, which helps them feel secure. There is a family atmosphere in the nursery where other siblings attend. Older children know the daily routines well and understand simple behavioural expectations. For example, they keenly stand in a line as they wait to wash their hands. Children are well behaved. They benefit from encouragement and praise from staff. This creates a calm and positive environment in which children thrive.

Children of all ages enjoy books and stories being read to them. Babies hand staff books and snuggle in while they listen, join in with babbles and point to pictures. Older children develop their literacy skills well. They show a positive interest in books, in particular their favourite, and use these independently. They also keenly listen to stories and enthusiastically participate with repetitive words and phrases. They develop good writing skills as they explore and make marks in a range of ways.

Children develop good physical skills while using play dough. They roll, squeeze and pinch the dough into the shape they want, such as a birthday cake. They learn how to use a range of handheld tools to cut the dough. As a result, children have lots of fun making shapes and sing 'happy birthday' as they add candles to their cake. Older children's physical skills are further enhanced while dancing around to music, while babies have lots of space to practise skills, such as crawling and toddling.

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

• Managers have ambitious visions for moving the nursery forward. They work very cooperatively with staff and as a team. Managers ensure the key-person system is effective so that children benefit from consistency of care. They ensure staff have regular supervision meetings and access a range of training. This enables them to reflect on their practice and improve outcomes for children. There is a strong emphasis on self-review. For instance, staff, parents and children all contribute their views to develop the nursery further.
• Parents highly praise the staff and comment that their children have made very good progress since starting the nursery. The children are happy to attend and staff share information about their child's day. They feel understood and very well supported, in particular how to help their children at home and meeting with other professionals. They say, 'the nursery is like leaving your child with extended family, a home from home'.
• Managers ensure effective support is in place for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities to help them make good progress. Children who speak English as an additional language are supported very well. Staff use visual prompts to help all children understand instructions. This provides both reassurance and support for them. The use of visual timetable also enables all children to gain confidence in understanding the daily routine. Staff take prompt action to support children. They work very closely with parents and other professionals involved to ensure children thrive and achieve.
• Staff engage children in conversations. However, at times, these opportunities are not well tailored to ensure children who are not yet confident in speaking up are effectively supported. For example, they are not given the opportunity to express their thoughts and views.
• Children participate in counting and staff use a range of mathematical language. However, opportunities to help older children understand numerals is not focused on as well as possible. Hence, children's mathematical knowledge is not fully extended.
• Staff help children develop their understanding of the world through activities relating to festivals and celebrations. They enhance the learning environment so that it fully reflects the rich cultural diversity of the children attending. This enables children to learn about their differences and similarities in a fun way. For instance, participating in creative activities and role play helps children learn about the community in which they live.
• Staff support children to develop good physical skills. They have opportunities to exercise outdoors daily. They learn about good oral health and healthy eating. Children's dietary needs are well supported. They develop good personal independence, such as pouring their own water, while older children serve themselves at lunchtime. Younger children feed themselves well.
• Staff know the children in their care well. They identify children's individual learning needs and interests. Staff design a curriculum that encompasses children's learning. Good systems are in place to monitor children's progress. As a result, all children are making good progress in their learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus more on children who are not yet confident to speak up and make their thoughts and views known, to further enhance their self-esteem
• provide further support for staff to use numbers more consistently, to help children understand the link between numerals and quantity, and extend their mathematical knowledge further.