The Avenue Private Day Care

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and practitioners utilise assessments and observations to ensure children make progress from their starting points. This allows them to recognise when development might not be typical and quickly intervene with support. Practitioners then use more targeted support, focusing on smaller steps, to support children's steady development. They share information and advice with parents, advocating for them with external professionals when appropriate. For example, because of the team's continued efforts, children have received diagnoses and the correct treatment to support their ongoing health and development.

Leaders take steps to ensure that the curriculum is accessible for all children. For example, practitioners across the nursery use signing alongside speech to support children's understanding and provide them with alternative ways to communicate. As a result, children follow instructions and routines more readily. Practitioners also pick up well on children's non-verbal cues, such as when little ones lean on practitioners when they are tired. This responsive approach supports practitioners to meet children's individual needs.

Leaders spend funding in a range of ways to support children with identified barriers to learning. For example, to support some children in receipt of funding who like to climb, they have bought an indoor climbing frame. Children now have an outlet to practise this skill in a safer way, and practitioners utilise the equipment to promote further learning. Leaders continue to assess the impact of how funding is spent, to ensure it is supportive of achieving positive outcomes for children.

Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention

Leaders have not designed a curriculum that is broad and builds on what children already know and can do. Practitioners provide some progressive opportunities for children's independence. For example, they support children to start pouring their own drinks and dressing themselves, to prepare them with the independence skills needed for school. However, they have not ensured all areas of learning allow children to build on their skills and development. For example, the curriculum for maths focuses on the same concepts throughout the nursery, rather than building on what children already know and can do. This does not support children to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Practitioners use a range of techniques to extend children's learning. For example, practitioners purposely say the wrong colour or number of items, and children excitedly correct them. This supports children's confidence and problem-solving skills. Practitioners are able to adapt their teaching and extend children's learning in the moment. They recognise the different ways in which children play, and plan and provide opportunities to support them. For example, noticing some children enjoy filling, emptying and transporting, practitioners provide vessels and resources to fill them with. Being responsive to children's interests and play patterns supports their engagement, and therefore, development.

Practitioners typically promote children's communication and language well, such as by narrating play, singing and introducing new vocabulary. For example, staff sensitively introduce new words like 'untangle' alongside play. Where some children face barriers to communicating verbally, such as identified special educational needs and/or disabilities or children who speak English as an additional language, practitioners utilise signing.

Achievement: Needs attention

Typically, children make progress from their starting points, including children with identified barriers to their learning, such as special educational needs and/or disabilities. Children progress well with their personal, social and emotional development. They build close bonds with practitioners, who are warm and affectionate. As a result, even children that have recently joined the nursery or moved rooms are confident to explore, returning to staff for comfort when needed.

Children have appropriate independence and physical skills to support them in their next stages of learning. For example, they engage in messy play opportunities to practise their scooping, to support using cutlery at lunchtimes. However, children do not consistently extend their skills and development across all areas of learning. This means, in areas such as maths, children are not as well prepared for the next stage of their learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Practitioners have embedded nursery routines and support children to manage the changes within it. For example, they support children to understand when there will be a change, such as mealtimes and care routines. Practitioners use instruments, to gain children's attention, and sing songs to indicate what is coming next. They use objects of reference, such as taking out a nappy and wipes when it is time to change nappies, and they encourage older children to guess what part of the routine is coming next. As a result, children transition through the routine with ease. They show positive attitudes towards tidy-up time, saying 'I'm helping you', to practitioners. They then check the area together and enjoy the praise they receive from practitioners for doing a good job.

Typically, practitioners support children's sustained attention. They understand and plan for their next steps in learning. They also praise children's efforts by providing them with plenty of praise and positive reinforcement. This supports children's resilience. For example, older children stay focussed on threading, and younger children show determination in climbing stairs on a slide. These skills are supportive of positive attitudes towards learning and lifelong success.

Practitioners make their expectations of children's behaviour known. They share these expectations with parents and the importance of attending the provision. As a result, children's behaviour is typically positive, and they attend the setting regularly.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Practitioners teach children how to keep themselves healthy, both physically and mentally. They discuss healthy foods and brush teeth to promote their oral hygiene, also providing support for parents. Practitioners act as positive role models in supporting their health, for example, saying aloud, 'I'm going to have a drink because I have been working hard this morning.' They also teach children how to use equipment, such as the climbing frame, safely. As a result, children have some knowledge around how to keep themselves healthy and safe.

Children's wellbeing is prioritised. Practitioners are passionate about equipping children with the tools to support themselves emotionally. Older children benefit from breathing sessions that help them calm down. As a result, when children become upset, they snuggle into staff and calm their breathing down with the techniques they have been taught. This equips children with the skills to support their ongoing health and wellbeing.

Practitioners promote children's freedom of choice. They give children opportunity to vote and choose how to shape different elements of their routine. For example, in the morning, children sing a welcome song. Alongside this, children can choose how they want to be greeted, such as a hug or a high-five. Recognising where some children may prefer a non-contact greeting, the team add a funny dance or a wave. This supports children's understanding of their right to choose and that their thinking may be different to their peers.

Leadership and governance: Needs attention

Whilst leaders have a broad awareness of the setting's strengths, they have not precisely identified some areas of development and considered how to bring about improvement. For example, leaders have not recognised that the curriculum is not broad or well sequenced.

Leaders provide support and advice for parents that enables them to continue their children's learning and development at home. The support and encouragement they provide empowers parents to advocate for their children with external professionals. They introduce diaries and systems to track and share developing symptoms, to work alongside parents and evidence their need for further support. As a result, children and their families receive the extended support they need. This inclusive approach ensures that all children make steady progress from their starting points. Leaders have created an environment in which practitioners enjoy their role. Senior leaders support the wellbeing of one another and the wider team. The team knows that leaders are on hand and available for support. As a result, morale in the setting is positive. Leaders carry out supervisions and identify some professional development opportunities. However, they have not ensured all staff consistently provide opportunities that build on what children know and can do, across all areas of learning.