The Nest

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff welcome children warmly to this inclusive and nurturing setting. They provide sensitive support to meet children's individual needs and to nurture a sense of belonging. Children reflect these caring interactions as they greet and invite other children back into play after a nap. Children show secure attachments with their key persons, seeking their reassurance and support when needed, which staff readily provide.

Staff know the children well. They plan learning opportunities that build on children's interests and past experiences. Children explore the well-organised environment with interest and confidence. Staff give children time to decide what they want to do. They use warm interactions and good teaching skills to deepen children's understanding and support them in their choices. As a result, children feel motivated and engaged, and make good progress.

Children benefit from varied opportunities to develop their physical skills. Staff support children's gross-motor development by helping them to navigate beams, steps and ramps in the garden. Children delight in the adult's playful balancing demonstrations and celebrate each other's efforts. Children develop their fine-motor skills, when they keenly explore using flower heads to paint, and when they water and care for the flower garden they planted together. Staff support children to link new knowledge to their prior experiences and support their language skills by introducing new vocabulary during play.

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

• Staff work closely with families to support children to settle into the nursery. Parents report feeling welcomed by the staff, and children quickly feel at home in this inviting provision. Staff encourage and respect children's views and preferences and children learn that they belong and that they matter. Children engage eagerly in activities and staff sensitively support them to make good progress.
• Leaders have a clear vision for a well-sequenced curriculum. They work proactively with the staff team to support its implementation. Leaders and staff are reflective about what they do. They regularly collaborate to review and plan for improvements and to celebrate good practice. Leaders offer a range of support and training opportunities, both inside and outside the setting. On occasion, this is not targeted to the areas of professional development that leaders have identified, to help ensure that all staff consistently provide high-quality interactions that further promote children's learning and engagement.
• Staff share information about children's progress with parents and carers. They help families access appropriate support if there are concerns about learning and development. Staff's effective planning, and use of questioning during play, incorporates children's prior learning and experiences to help them build their skills and knowledge.
• Staff provide opportunities for children to develop independence through daily routines. Children collect their own water bottles from the trolley and choose where to sit for mealtimes, using their personalised flower photos. They show tenacity and growing confidence in putting on and taking off their coats and shoes as they move between indoor and outdoor spaces. Children understand the routines that help them become more independent.
• Children demonstrate confidence in their developing communication skills. They babble and talk happily with staff about what they are doing. Staff promote children's communication and language effectively. They expose children to purposefully modelled language and praise their communication efforts. Staff recognise children's non-verbal communication, and children benefit from sensitive one-to-one interactions that use touch, eye contact, tone and facial expressions. However, this good practice is not always consistent during routine aspects of the day.
• Leaders and staff keep children at the centre of their reflections and planning. Daily routines are designed to support children's relationships with key persons and to enhance the focus on language and communication. Staff encourage children's deep engagement in learning, identifying and encouraging children's interests and curiosity. For example, young babies take pleasure in energetic splashing in the water tray and feeling soft ribbons on their skin as they blow in the breeze.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• encourage the sharing of best practice within the setting and provide targeted training for staff to strengthen consistency in staff interactions with children to support children's engagement and learning during routines and play.