Sunflowers Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff carefully consider each child's needs to create thoughtfully planned activities. Children are highly motivated and eager to learn. Toddlers are full of wonder as they explore vegetables. Staff model how to use knives safely. Children are keen to copy and persevere as they cut peppers in half. They excitedly exclaim they are cutting potatoes and peppers. Toddlers notice other children's interest and readily offer them a turn. They show fascination while investigating the inside of vegetables. They listen intently to staff and recall from previous learning that seeds grow in the garden. They are bursting with enthusiasm as they show off their vegetables, saying they are slippery and shiny. Children are highly confident communicators.

Staff provide opportunity for children to spend considerable amounts of time outdoors. Children show agility and confidence while safely navigating large climbing apparatus. Staff encourage children to consider where to place their feet and which ropes to hold onto as they work out the best way across the beams. Children are learning to take appropriate risk as they decide which height to jump from. Babies crawl with confidence and pull themselves up on furniture. They are keen to do things themselves and help staff to gently push other babies in a swing. Babies giggle with delight, catching each other's hands while swinging back and forth. Staff offer consistent guidance to support children to behave exceptionally well. Children are highly respectful and show kindness towards others. For example, children ride tricycles around a track. Older children notice younger ones struggling and take time to model how to use the pedals. When this does not work, they offer to swap tricycles. They motivate younger children, shouting, 'You can do it!'

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

• Managers and staff strive to constantly improve their setting. They proactively seek feedback to ensure a robust evaluation of what they offer. For example, parents fed back that when their children started school, they were not prepared for the reduction in communication and pick-ups at the door. Staff now ensure that parents and children have a similar experience to school during the last term of nursery.
• Staff have expert knowledge of children's abilities and development, including children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The manager and special educational needs coordinator work closely with parents and external professionals. They monitor the individually targeted plans and use regular assessment to ensure children make the best progress from their starting points, in line with their peers.
• Parents are overwhelmingly positive. They state the numerous ways their children have grown in their development. Parents comment that staff have 'captured the heart' of their children. They feel their children are more than ready for school.
• Staff are excellent role models. Children, in turn, have learned how to positively manage their own behaviours and negotiate with others. For example, children build a tower. When one child wants to knock it down, children politely hold up their hand and ask them to wait until they have finished. In addition, children agree time limits with others when needing to share toys, while others take care to put resources back how they found them.
• Staff provide an abundance of activities to support children's small-muscle skills. This supports their readiness for early writing. For example, pre-school children enthusiastically create insects from dough. They roll and mould the dough as they use picture books of insects as a guide. They precisely place buttons on their ladybirds to create spots. Children eagerly repeat new vocabulary they have learned from staff, such as 'pollen' and 'nectar'.
• Children demonstrate a deep love of books, which staff have thoughtfully placed throughout the setting. Toddlers readily choose books and approach staff to read to them. Children cosy up to staff and listen intently to a story. Pre-school children thoroughly enjoy a story about visiting the dentist. They fully engage, confidently asking questions and sharing their own experiences.
• Children's emotional well-being is of the highest priority. Staff expertly model emotional language and use children's prior knowledge of a monster who changes colour according to how they are feeling to encourage them to say how they feel. Additionally, staff have created a well-being garden, which allows children time in the natural environment to explore their senses.
• Children's natural curiosity to learn is encouraged. Staff know exactly when to interact with children to build on what they already know and can do and when to allow them to explore. For example, children use squirt bottles to spray paint. Children pile up pebbles to see if spraying paint on them will leave a pattern underneath. Staff pose questions to encourage children to think further about how to change the patterns.