The Brambles Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy in this nursery. They confidently enter the building, say goodbye to their parents and eagerly join their friends. They have strong relationships with staff and key persons and feel secure in the environment. They have access to lots of interesting toys and activities. For example, children enjoy role play in the 'Red Dragon Chinese restaurant'. Children develop skills in numeracy through various activities. They enjoy weighing ingredients, matching items and developing their understanding around calculating, such as the concept of 'more and less' and counting foods items.

Outdoors, older children balance on wobble boards, develop their hand to eye coordination by throwing balls into a net and extend their gross motor skills while climbing and sliding on the toy castle.

Children enjoy opportunities to develop independence. They hang up their bags, pour their drinks and put on their coats to go outdoors. They choose the activities they like to play with and for how long for.

Toddlers and babies freely explore a warm and inviting indoor environment. They enjoy making 'gingerbread' cookies to go in the toy oven. They listen to the story of 'The Gingerbread Man'. Outdoors, they delight in finding insects, playing with toy animals and digging and building in the sand area.

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

• The manager and staff have created an ambitious curriculum. Staff know children and their stages of development well. Planning is sequential and next steps are relevant. Children make good progress in their learning and develop skills to enable them to move on to the next stage of learning. For example, children in the 'Rising Three's' group are well supported and develop skills such as cutting, gluing and painting. Older children enjoy playing together and share toys well. For example, they build and play together with a toy train set. However, at times the environment can be loud and busy, with lots of movement. Staff do not consistently support children to develop their concentration levels further.
• The manager has created an environment where staff enjoy coming to work. Staff feel well supported in their role. They are knowledgeable in how children learn and develop. Staff sometimes need to cover absences and move between the younger and older children's rooms. They receive information from children's key persons and know where to find children's progress information. However, the regular changes in staffing sometimes impacts the children's routine. For example, not all staff are confident in the planning and expectations for group activities like 'circle time' and registration. It is not always clear to children what is expected of them in these moments.
• Staff support children's personal, social and emotional development well. There is a strong focus on guiding children to be confident and happy. Staff speak to children in supportive voices and celebrate their achievements. Children explore their feelings with 'emotion cards' and supporting books. Staff hold thoughtful conversations with children and give them time to think and respond. They quickly support children who are in need and help them overcome difficulty.
• The nursery supports children to celebrate other cultures and religious celebrations. For example, during Chinese New Year celebrations they explore Chinese food, read traditional stories and learn how to write the letters of their name in Mandarin. Staff support children to celebrate equality and diversity with small toys and figures which provoke discussion. They guide children to celebrate similarities and differences.
• The staff support children in their language and communication. Management have recognised the extra support that some children need in speaking and communicating since the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff speak with clear voices to role model good speech and support children to hear and understand what they are saying. They provide children with a rich variety of words to extend their vocabulary and repeat difficult words so children can learn these more successfully. Well planned small group sessions support children with targeted activities to improve language and communication skills further. Staff often read books to children, like 'The Magic Porridge Pot'. Children develop a love of stories and reading to support their early literacy skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the indoor learning environment to help all children develop their concentration levels further
• support all staff to plan effectively for the needs of older children, particularly during whole group times, to support their overall development.