The Gateway Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly welcomed as they arrive at nursery. They are greeted by friendly staff, who know children and their families well. As a result, children are happy and settle quickly to their chosen activity. All children are allocated key persons. Children forge close relationships with their key person and often seek them out to join in their play or for a cuddle if they feel tired or a little unsure. Younger children's daily routines are strictly adhered to. Staff recognise when children need to sleep. They follow safer sleeping procedures as they monitor children and carry out regular checks to ensure their safety. Staff are kind and caring when carrying out nappy changing or care routines. They are respectful of children's individual needs.

Leaders and staff implement a curriculum throughout the nursery that is based on children's interests and their next steps for learning. As a result, all children make good progress. Children of all ages are engaged in their play and are eager to join in with activities. Younger children concentrate as they explore shaving foam. They carefully watch as staff show them how to paint the shaving foam onto bricks so that they will stick together when they build towers. Older children eagerly take part in a cheerleading activity. They move their bodies in different ways, including shaking pom-poms to music, and try challenging skills, such as completing a cartwheel with one-to-one support. Children's behaviour throughout the nursery is good. Staff introduce simple rules for children to follow, such as walking inside and being kind. Children learn to share and take turns as they play, and older children begin to understand how to manage their emotions.

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

• Leaders are passionate and knowledgeable in their roles. They provide staff with a programme of professional development, and access to a wide range of training opportunities that support them to upskill in varied areas. Staff's well-being is given high priority. Staff comment that they feel well supported and the leadership team are open and approachable.
• Leaders monitor staff practice and provide advice and support to help them continually reflect and improve. However, occasionally staff's teaching is not consistently of the highest quality across the provision.
• Leaders place good focus on school readiness. Staff teach older children to manage their own self-care, such as putting on their own coats, serving their own snacks and using the bathroom with minimal support. Staff throughout the nursery observe children, assess their progress and use the information to plan activities that support their individual learning.
• Children's communication and language is given the utmost priority throughout the nursery. Younger children choose their favourite books and take them to staff for them to read. They eagerly turn the pages and can repeat familiar phrases. Staff ask children questions about the stories and wait patiently for children to respond. Older children talk about what is happening in the book as they listen to a story, and can relate this to their experiences from home.
• Children enthusiastically join in singing sessions. They squeal with excitement as they wake up and hop after pretending to be sleeping bunnies. Staff competently extend the activity as they introduce different characters from the story children have listened to. Children have great fun as they pretend to be a robot and stomp around the room until staff tell them to stop and freeze. Staff follow children's interest in robots as they introduce a model-making activity later in the day for children to make a robot out of boxes.
• Younger children enjoy the time they spend outdoors, where they ride bikes, climb, run and balance on equipment. However, staff working with the older children do not consistently provide them with rich, imaginative and broad experiences outside. This is because this area is currently not well utilised and is undergoing some development.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported during their time at nursery. Early interventions are in place and staff provide lots of tailored support for these children. For example, staff make use of visual aids, objects of reference and now and next timetables to help SEND children participate in key routines and engage in the activities available. Leaders work well in partnership with both external professionals and parents to identify where there are gaps in children's learning and to seek additional support. This helps to ensure that no child is left behind.
• Leaders and staff build positive relationships with parents and share two-way information about children's care and learning in a range of ways. This helps to support continuity between the nursery and home. Parents are highly complimentary about their children's experiences at this nursery. They say that leaders and staff are approachable and that their children are happy and settled.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop further their already good teaching, to embed consistency and help achieve the highest quality across the provision
• enhance how staff plan for the outdoor provision, to help broaden the experiences available and extend children's learning outdoors.