The Folly Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are extremely confident and happy. The manager and staff plan a highly ambitious curriculum, planning step by step to prepare children extremely well for school. For example, babies enthusiastically join in with whole-group singing activities, and toddlers build their large-muscle skills and follow instructions as they dance with scarves. They remain impressively engaged and focused, excited to take part while developing essential skills, which underpins their future learning highly successfully. Staff skilfully build children's vocabulary as they play. For instance, children learn what a mechanic, optician and architect do. Older children plan and work together harmoniously to build their own playhouse for the garden. They work out what equipment they need and how to keep safe using a range of tools, such as a spirit level, electric drill and screwdriver.

The highly enthusiastic staff embed children's development and help them to make links across their learning. For example, babies enjoy exploring musical instruments and staff use words such as 'bang', 'shake' and 'pop'. When looking at a book later, staff expertly encourage them to find the instruments they can see in the book and use the associated words. Older toddlers then independently share books and, on seeing a character with an umbrella, spontaneously sing a song about rain.

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

• The manager provides excellent support and supervision for staff. She and the directors focus strongly on the well-being of their staff, ensuring a positive impact on children. Following their last inspection, the leadership team has implemented highly effective ways to ensure that staff provide consistently high-quality teaching.
• The management team ensures that staff continually update and extend their knowledge and skills through well-targeted training. For example, in the baby room, staff have skilfully implemented sign language to aid children's speech and understanding. Staff are having training to further enhance the experiences they can offer children in their forest school, as they recognise the major benefit this has on children's well-being and development.
• The manager recognises her staff's strengths and gives them appropriate responsibilities, enabling them to use their skills to support each other extremely successfully. For example, the highly experienced designated safeguarding lead regularly challenges staff with scenarios to ensure that children's safety is paramount.
• Staff use their extensive observations to know exactly what their key children need to be learning next. The manager closely monitors any gaps and works with the special educational needs coordinator and parents to quickly ensure that they close. Leaders target funding extremely well and, despite challenges, they are persistent in ensuring that children receive any additional outside support to make the best progress they can.
• Children become highly independent learners. Staff know their key children exceptionally well and understand how to motivate them and extend their knowledge and skills. For example, older children concentrate extremely well on cutting, measuring and extending their creativity as they make wrist and ankle bands. They make predictions and persevere when something does not work, solving problems by finding an alternative way.
• Staff provide a highly inclusive environment. They are excellent role models and support children extremely well in valuing other people's differences. Staff expertly enable children to lead their learning. For example, when toddlers showed an interest in wanting to join in an outdoor pre-school activity, staff facilitated this, assessing risks first. Toddlers then took turns, listened to instructions and engaged with others, extending their development very effectively.
• Children of all ages behave extremely well and have excellent relationships. Young children are very happy to have their nappy changed and feel secure to fall asleep because staff meet their individual needs very successfully. Older children show empathy to living things. For instance, they put a leaf over a slug to stop it drying out in the sun and move a pot of daffodils into the sunshine to help them grow.
• Parents cannot praise the staff highly enough. They confirm the excellent and comprehensive exchange of information and state that they are never rushed at drop off and collection. Parents comment on the excellent progress their children are making, particularly in their social and language skills, as well as their understanding of the world.