Table Hall Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and separate from their parents with ease. They behave well and develop positive attitudes to their learning. The well-organised environment promotes their natural curiosity and eagerness to learn. Children are confident and interact well with staff. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress. Children's emotional well-being is significantly enhanced by the caring staff, with whom they form close relationships. Staff are highly responsive to children's needs. For example, they instantly follow children's fascination, such as messy play.

There is a strong focus on communication and language. Staff respond to children's attempts at communication and name physical objects to support early language development. Staff use positive language and are good role models. In turn, children interact and play positively. Children are encouraged to be proud of their achievements, which is reinforced by staff. Children behave well. For example, they are given a 'high five' and smile as they relish in this. Children benefit from lots of fresh air and exercise. Children learn about the world around them. They enthusiastically explore the spacious and well-resourced outdoor area.

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

• Management and staff have a clear understanding of what children need to learn across all areas of the curriculum. There is a strong emphasis on communication and language development. For example, staff frequently check children's progress with careful questioning. They use visual aids to support the development of their spoken language.
• The manager has put in place strategies to improve behaviour management. Staff have been given training on strategies to support children to talk about their feelings and articulate their wants. For example, they use emotion cards to describe feelings. Children are, therefore, beginning to manage their own behaviour and understand how this can have an impact on others.
• Children are learning the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle. They enjoy healthy and nutritious snacks and engage in outdoor energetic play. Children are beginning to understand the importance of handwashing. For example, children know to wash their hands after playing in the garden. Staff explain to the children how cleaning can help to get rid of germs.
• Partnerships with parents are highly effective. Parents are actively involved in all aspects of their child's learning and development. Staff keep them well informed of their child's progress through regular progress meetings and the sharing of the children's learning journals. Parents are encouraged to share their children's achievements from home. These collaborative partnerships help to greatly enhance children's emotional well-being and confidence.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) helps staff to support children with SEND. The SENCo communicates with key persons and parents to provide updates and share agreed targets. This builds on the strong partnerships to support children's learning.
• The management team completes peer observations and supervisions with staff and supports them to grow in confidence. However, areas of improvement and key training areas for staff are not always clearly identified. As a result, not all staff are clear on their next steps in their professional development.
• Staff provides a personalised approach to learning, where they consult children and follow their interests. Key persons use their ongoing assessments to identify children's next steps in learning. Each day, the key persons have a small group of focus children. They use this opportunity to observe, teach and record any key learning for these children. Staff involve parents before the focus week by asking them to share information about their children's interests at home, including any significant events.
• Staff encourage children to make free choices in their play from the range of activities on offer. For example, in the garden, children jump from a large climbing frame. As a result, children learn to be independent at a young age and take risks in their play, while in a safe environment.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance supervisions for staff to focus professional development opportunities more sharply on providing them with clear targets, that will enable them to provide the highest level of education to children.