The Nursery School Company Worthing

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children benefit from the extensive range of experiences that staff plan for their learning. Staff consider what is relevant to children who attend their setting, and they use this to build on what children already know and can do. For instance, when children showed an interest in learning about the sea, staff arranged for them to visit the fishmongers to learn about different types of fish. Staff extended this back in the nursery by giving children real fish to touch, observe and smell. This enables children to use their senses to strengthen their understanding of the natural world.

Children are well behaved and show a good attitude to learning. Staff implement effective strategies to support children to manage their behaviour, such as talking to them about sharing, or using sand timers to help children to take turns. Staff also remind children of the rules, which helps children to know what is expected of them. Staff plan activities for children to learn about different emotions. This further promotes positive behaviour by enabling children to describe their own feelings and to begin to learn about how others are feeling.

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

• The manager has a good understanding of what she wants children to learn while they are at nursery, and this is shared with all staff. She has identified that not all children are making the expected progress in their communication and language. As such, she has placed a strong focus on strengthening these skills in the curriculum. Staff implement this effectively into their daily practice. For instance, as children make play dough together, staff encourage them to talk about their observations of what happens as they add ingredients to the mixture. This helps to promote children's conversation skills.
• Staff have good knowledge of their key children. They ask parents to share information about their child's home life. This helps staff to plan for children's care, which promotes their well-being. For instance, when staff become aware of changes to children's circumstances, they sensitively consider ways to support children to adjust. Although information-sharing with parents is strong overall, on occasion, details of specific care routines for babies are not explained as precisely as possible.
• The manager and the special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator (SENDCo) work with other agencies to implement effective support for children. They seek advice from special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) specialists to ensure that the environment meets the needs of children. This included creating a sensory room to support children with their progress. Children with SEND explore their surroundings with fascination and interest. For instance, they spend time filling containers with objects. Staff enhance children's experiences by offering them other containers which make different sounds. This successfully extends children's enjoyment and learning.
• Children are supported to develop their independence skills. Staff provide opportunities for children to experiment with making play dough. They enjoy pouring the ingredients into a bowl and adding their chosen herbs and spices. Staff ask children to think about if their play dough needs more water or flour to make the right consistency. This strengthens children's problem-solving skills.
• Staff sing regularly with children throughout the day, including during care routines and circle times. This helps children to recognise familiar songs and begin to join in. The one-year-old children enjoy several good opportunities to hear and take part in singing. However, staff provide a lively song time directly before they settle children to sleep. Children are too tired to join in, and do not engage in the singing activity. This does not support children to settle as they prepare to go to sleep.
• Staff are happy working at the setting and are well supported by leaders. Leaders have implemented an effective induction programme which helps new staff to understand their roles and responsibilities. They support staff to improve the quality of their teaching by providing training opportunities during staff meetings and inset days. Leaders also have regular one-to-one meetings with each staff member. This enables them to provide effective feedback to promote staff practice and professional development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen information-sharing with parents to provide more precise details of the care arrangements for babies
• support staff to more effectively prepare children for sleep time.