The Manor Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly greet children and parents at the door on arrival and welcome them into the nursery. Staff are genuinely interested in children and their families. As a result, all children, including those who are very new to the nursery, arrive happy and ready to learn.

Leaders have created an ambitious curriculum for all children. This is based on their excellent knowledge of children's current skills and takes account of what they want children to learn next. Indoors, staff provide children with additional resources that help spark their imagination and extend their own ideas. Children are making good progress and demonstrate an eagerness to explore and learn more.

Staff have very high expectations for children's behaviour. They provide constant reminders about the nursery's rules and boundaries. Additionally, they give children clear explanations about how their actions may affect others. As a result, all children display high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem and behave impeccably well.

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

• On the whole, interactions between staff and children are positive and support their learning. For example, staff encourage toddlers to explore a mixture of flour and glitter with their hands. They offer support so toddlers can successfully use tools to dig and find hidden objects. Pre-school children are challenged to make birthday cakes out of play dough and add the correct number of candles to match their ages. However, interactions outdoors are more concerned with supervising children, rather than extending their learning. As a result, children's learning is not as well supported while playing outside. That, said, there are many opportunities outdoors for children to develop their large physical skills.
• Staff skilfully extend children's communication and language skills. They engage in lots of back-and-forth discussions with the children and allow them plenty of time to think and respond to questions. When children encounter difficulties in their speech and language, staff swiftly seek help and support. This includes working closely with parents and other professionals. As a result, children quickly catch up and all children are becoming confident communicators
• The supportive manager provides some appropriate training and support for the staff. For example, staff have recently completed training to help them to further support children's language and social skills. As a result, the input of this training is making a difference to the progress children make in these areas. However, monitoring of staff's practice is not yet robust enough to help them further improve all areas of their educational practice across the curriculum, and particularly, the outdoor curriculum.
• Children behave with maturity beyond their young years. Older children share their ideas with one another and play cooperatively without adult support. Staff help younger children to share and take turns with the resources. As a result, children are tolerant and patient and show respect for the staff and their friends.
• The provider, who is also the cook, is a trained chef. He uses his good knowledge of food and cooking to provide children with nutritious home-cooked meals. These are tailored to ensure that they meet children's unique dietary requirements. Recipe ideas are shared with parents. This helps children to develop a positive attitude to eating healthily and making healthy food choices.
• Partnership with parents is positive. Staff regularly share children's next steps with parents and keep them informed about their child's progress via the online app. Leaders work closely with parents to ensure that children receive their full entitlement to early years funding. As a result, all children make the progress they are capable of.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to implement the intended curriculum outdoors, to ensure that children have consistent opportunities to extend their play and learning
• strengthen current arrangements for the monitoring of staff's practice, so staff receive even more incisive feedback and improve their educational practice even further.