The Crown Nursery (St. Margaret's) Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff at this nursery are nurturing and caring. Children are happy and enjoy their time, eagerly greeting their friends. They feel safe, play well together and behave well. Babies settle quickly and take great pleasure in discovering exciting messy play activities with cereal in a calm environment.

Pre-school children are keen to go outside and solve problems through investigating the natural world. They grow their own herbs and vegetables, and learn where food comes from. Children show curiosity as they handle seeds. They describe what they can see and smell, and know what to do with them. Children learn how to care for plants and use tools safely. Staff enable children to understand risk and learn how to behave carefully in this environment.

Staff understand how to support every child's individual learning needs. Children make good progress and thrive. They make rapid improvements as staff have high expectations of what they can achieve. Children show a positive attitude to their learning. They are motivated to make choices and explore the stimulating learning environment. This includes children who speak English as an additional language and those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For example, staff encourage children to use interesting tactile resources to encourage them to explore in a sensory room.

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

• The manager and children's key persons work with new parents to obtain information about their children's interests and development. This helps to ease the settling-in transition for children and assists staff in planning for children's learning. Staff tailor settling-in arrangements for each child to support their emotional well-being. Children form close relationships with their key person.
• Staff have a very good knowledge and understanding of what they want children to learn and achieve. Improvements have been made as to how staff plan for, and support, children's learning. Staff now use children's emerging interests during all activities to successfully extend their learning and development. They continually observe and assess children's development and plan an effective curriculum, overall. Staff provide children with good learning opportunities, indoors and outdoors.
• Staff now regularly share children's developmental progress and next steps in learning with parents. They offer ideas to encourage children to continue their learning at home. Information about how parents can support their children's future learning are provided, such as through exciting theme-based activity bags. These have a range of recipe cards and props in the different areas of learning. For example, children learn how to make their own play dough with step-by-step instructions, ingredients and utensils, which are all provided in the bag.
• Staff have a good knowledge of developing children's communication and language skills. They consistently adapt their approach by using a range of different questioning techniques to support children's understanding. However, staff ask children to explain what they think will happen next in stories, but do not consistently give them enough time to respond.
• Overall, staff encourage children's independence. They support children to put on their own shoes and wash their hands. However, at mealtimes, staff do not support children to consistently develop their self-help skills. For instance, they do not enable children to make choices from the food on offer and provide opportunities for children to learn how to self-serve their own food.
• The manager is encouraging and supportive in the way she manages staff, including their workload. She offers staff targeted supervision sessions, which encourage them to reflect on their practice and consider how they can develop even further. This ensures that children receive good quality education and care.
• Staff attend a wealth of training events, including how to manage children's behaviour more effectively. As a result of this, children learn to use the language of emotions in a range of situations to express themselves.
• The manager continues to evaluate the nursery and identify further areas for development. They work closely with other professionals to share best practice and to give children the best possible learning experiences.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• give children more time to respond to questioning during activities and story time sessions
• support children to develop their self-care skills, such as by improving the organisation of mealtimes, so that all children can make choices and self-serve their own food.