Tadpoles Nursery School, Kensington

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle exceptionally well in this very nurturing nursery. Staff take great care to ensure that children feel happy in the nursery. For instance, when children first arrive, staff observe children and place them into groups with their friends to support their well-being. Staff value each child highly and create individual displays of pictures featuring each child's favourite things, places and songs. Staff are careful to reflect children's interests fully in activities and children thoroughly enjoy activities. Children behave in very positive ways. They show kindness to each other, and older children act as role models to younger children. Staff encourage children to bring in donations, which they then take to their local church each month, to support families in need.

The curriculum is broad, rich and imaginative, and all children make good progress. Children are highly motivated, eager learners who concentrate well. Staff support children's mathematical development effectively. Children confidently count lolly sticks to match written numerals. This helps to secure their counting and number recognition skills. Staff teach children about volume and use words, such as 'full' and 'empty', as children scoop rice grains into pots. Staff support children's creative development successfully. For instance, they encourage children to use open-ended, flexible and recyclable resources to create their own toys. Children enjoy using a range of textures and materials to create decorative crowns and have good creative abilities.

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

• Children are well able to do things for themselves. They confidently peel their own fruit and pour their own drinks. Children put on their coats and shoes and concentrate well as they skilfully pull on outdoor trousers without any adult assistance. Staff support younger children to gain these skills very effectively.
• Children have good turn-taking and sharing skills. They use sand timers independently to wait their turn to use toys and resources, such as outdoor toys. Older children act as excellent role models to support younger children to learn turn-taking skills.
• Staff teach children about the importance of eating well in excellent ways. For instance, children show what they have eaten by completing colour-coded rainbow drawings linked to different food groups. Staff display these in the nursery to act as a reference point for children to support their learning. An external caterer provides nutritious meals for children, which meet their special dietary needs. All meals are carefully balanced and appetising.
• Leaders reflect on all areas of the nursery and have a good insight into its strengths and weaknesses. For instance, they plan to continue to enhance the outdoor area to promote best outcomes for children.
• Children gain a good understanding of the world. Staff arrange for visits from zookeepers to bring reptiles into the nursery to teach children about reptilian life. They teach children about different seasons and about animals that hibernate in winter. Staff plant seeds with children and teach them how things grow.
• Leaders monitor and support staff well. They observe staff in group rooms regularly and provide feedback to build ongoing improvements. Leaders have regular meetings with staff to review and support their work. They are committed to staff's professional development and provide a variety of training opportunities. For example, staff have attended a course on exploring music with children, which has led to improved outcomes in this area.
• Staff support children's physical development successfully. They organise a range of interesting challenges in the spacious outdoor area. Children carefully balance along low planks and jump safely from low heights. They steer wheeled toys skilfully and learn to throw and catch balls. A gymnastics teacher visits the nursery each week to promote a wide range of skills.
• Staff have strong partnerships with parents and carers. They give parents daily updates on children's progress. Staff provide good ways for parents to support children's development. For instance, they provide workshops for parents to offer advice on how to manage children's behaviour to support children's personal and social development. Comments from parents express high levels of satisfaction with care and learning. One comment from a parent stated, 'Children go in happy and come out even happier!'
• Overall, children have effective communication, language and literacy skills. Staff read a wide variety of stories which they link to activities to support children's language and literacy skills. For instance, children talk about the main character in the book 'The Smartest Giant in Town' as they make crowns for the giant. However, at times, some staff do not ask questions that promote full answers from children during activities, such as role play and cooking, to promote their conversational skills further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to enhance children's communication and language skills, particularly in relation to consistent effective questioning.