The North London Forest School Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children flourish and excel in this exceptionally nurturing environment. They develop extremely strong bonds with staff and show that they feel happy and safe. Children are highly inquisitive and are strongly motivated to explore and learn. They have excellent opportunities to learn about nature and are taught to develop a great respect and appreciation for the natural world. Children are extremely imaginative. For example, they delight in acting out the stories of the 'Three Little Pigs' and 'We're going on a bear hunt' in the woods. They also show excellent collaboration skills as they make scented soup with herbs. There is a real sense of fun as children swing in hammocks in the trees and sing counting songs such as 'Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer'. During their play, staff skilfully extend the children's mathematical knowledge as they encourage them to count and make comparisons.

Children show wonder when searching for mini-beasts under logs using a magnifying glass. Staff are excellent at supporting children to make predictions about what they might find. Children's literacy skills are supported superbly. For instance, they participate in weekly phonics sessions that include songs, dancing and storytelling. Children also enjoy writing out stories and words in mud with sticks. Staff have extremely high expectations for children's learning and behaviour. They treat children with compassion and respect. As a result, children exude high levels of emotional well-being and behave impeccably.

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

• Children benefit from an exceptionally stimulating and varied curriculum. Staff are highly creative in planning exciting activities and experiences that successfully cover all the different areas of learning. Staff know children extremely well and have a deep knowledge of their interests, personal traits and what they need to learn next. It is evident that children are making extremely strong progress.
• All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language, receive extremely high levels of support. For instance, staff work in close partnership with other professionals and other settings that children attend to work on shared targets and to ensure high levels of consistency in children's learning.
• Staff foster children's language and communication skills extremely well. For instance, they are brilliant at asking lots of open questions to facilitate children's thinking skills. The environment is highly language rich. For example, staff talk to children about how their lungs and diaphragm expand when they run up the hill and how worms tunnel and burrow and have intestines. As a result, most children are confident and fluent speakers.
• Partnerships with parents are highly established and secure. Parents express exceptionally high levels of appreciation for the atmosphere the staff create. For instance, they state that staff are wonderful role models who are extremely kind, knowledgeable and emotionally intelligent. Many parents that say the change in their children has been transformational and they are highly confident, independent, curious and self-assured.
• Staff value all children as individuals. This is evident when they plan fun and vibrant celebrations to teach children about their similarities and differences. For instance, parents and grandparents come in to read stories and sing songs in their home language and discuss the origin of their names. This means children develop high levels of respect for each other and have a growing awareness of the importance of diversity.
• Children's social and emotional development is fostered extremely well. For instance, staff and children frequently acknowledge acts of kindness by placing a wooden heart in a jar. Staff also support children to self-regulate and manage their emotions by using a 'take a breath' bag which is full of sensory resources that can redirect and calm them in a positive way. As a result, the atmosphere is very loving and supportive, and children show an excellent awareness of the boundaries in place.
• Leaders and staff are highly reflective and constantly review their practice to make positive changes in the pursuit of excellence. Staff have superb opportunities to enhance their professional development and there is strong commitment to mentoring and coaching staff to ensure consistency in the quality of education.
• Children have wonderful first-hand opportunities to learn about animals, fruits and vegetables. For instance, children grow strawberries, pumpkins and other produce at a local allotment. They also experience the lifecycle of a frog when exploring spawn and tadpoles at the farm. This ignites children's curiosity and love of learning.