The Garden House Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children positively thrive and flourish at this warm and welcoming nursery. The kind and caring staff form strong bonds with babies and children. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Children become deeply immersed in their learning and are incredibly settled. Older children play harmoniously together. They share stories and act out role play in the home corner, while happy babies sing and dance. Children demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning through high levels of curiosity and concentration. Well-qualified and experienced staff help children to make good progress with their learning.

Children benefit from a wide variety of educational opportunities. Leaders consider the diverse range of families they serve. For example, children learn about Chinese New Year and numbers in Mandarin, and the importance of the colour red. Staff provide music and dancing classes, and help children to develop their physical skills during yoga and tennis lessons. Children learn about how to become responsible members of society. For example, they host bake sales to raise money for the local children's hospital. This helps children to develop the skills that they need to succeed in life, and celebrate uniqueness and diversity.

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

• Staff have a good understanding of how children learn. They know children well and use children's interests to plan learning. For example, staff use children's love of dinosaurs to teach them to recognise and form numbers. Babies engage in sensory play based on the seaside. However, although staff consider children's interests, some staff are not always clear about exactly what they want younger children to learn during planned activities.
• Older children make excellent progress. Staff consider the skills which children need for moving on to school or their next stage of education. Children write their name independently and count objects as they play. They develop independence by practising tasks, such as putting on coats and preparing snack.
• Children benefit from quality conversations with staff, who comment on what they are doing. Staff introduce new vocabulary, such as 'respect', while reading stories. They point to objects in books and encourage babies to repeat words. Babies join in with the actions of nursery rhymes sung by enthusiastic and passionate staff. This helps to develop children's language skills well.
• Children get plenty of fresh air and exercise outdoors. They work in teams to complete a bug hunt and count how many they see. Children discuss life cycles and habitats for insects. They tend to the garden where they grow vegetables, which they eat at mealtimes. This helps them to learn about the world around them.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported.
• Staff use additional funding well to benefit children. For example, staff purchase equipment to help children to develop their physical skills. They communicate well with each other and specialist professionals to help children have equal opportunities to succeed.
• Staff use mealtime routines to help children to socialise and develop their independence. Babies spoon feed themselves and use signs to express their needs. Older children self-serve healthy and nutritious meals, and use knives and forks. They learn about the importance of healthy eating, and how to keep themselves safe and healthy.
• Staff provide Spanish lessons and children sing interactive songs with 'Maria the puppet'. This helps to widen children's experiences. However, they do not always consider how to help children to develop additional languages which they speak at home during their play and learning. This means that children who speak two languages are not as well supported with their language development.
• Children's behaviour is good. Staff treat children with the utmost respect and are impeccable role models. They use a kindness box to reward children's behaviour. Children are involved in setting rules and understand how to behave. This helps to make the nursery a genuinely lovely place for children and staff.
• The manager's dedication to the setting is admirable. She is well liked by parents who describe her as 'consistently brilliant'. The manager spends time investing in staff's teaching skills and meets regularly with staff, who feel well supported and motivated.
• Parents and carers are happy with the nursery. They feel well informed and are provided with ideas on how they can support their children's learning at home. This helps to further improve outcomes for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• plan activities more carefully to help all children to build on their specific skills and develop their learning over time
• provide children with greater opportunities to develop their home languages during their play and learning.