The Old School House Day Nursery, Whittington

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a warm and nurturing approach that enables children to flourish in the nursery. They emphasise support for children's emotional well-being and build positive, strong relationships with them. Staff use soft and gentle voices to soothe and comfort children when they are feeling a little unsure or are newly settling into the nursery. This helps children to feel safe and secure.

Children explore their environments with determination. Staff plan experiences based around current projects they implement into each of the rooms. For example, younger children explore activities about their favourite nursery rhymes. They discover how the wheels move on the bus and roll these in the paint. Staff talk to children about the different marks the wheels make, helping to bring meaning to these.

Children demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning during a singing session. They eagerly participate in the session and use Makaton sign language alongside singing to express the various emotions they may feel. Children show a 'can-do' attitude as they copy these enthusiastically with staff. They relish their time in the garden as they carefully think about how to make different-sized balls fit into a tube, developing their problem-solving skills. Staff build on children's confidence and resilience by praising them for having a go and when they successfully complete the task.

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

• Management place a strong focus on supporting staff to understand the expectations of their roles and responsibilities. Staff attend a range of training to upskill their professional knowledge. They work well as a team, and morale is extremely high. Staff value the support they receive from their colleagues and management. Management take time to recognise individual staff's achievements. They celebrate these through in-house recognition and annual award events. This promotes positive relationships.
• Staff plan stimulating and safe environments that encourage children to freely explore. They effectively assess the risk to ensure environments meet the needs of the children. Any risks are swiftly removed to keep children safe. Staff deploy themselves to assist children, when needed, while they climb on their own on the balance beams in the garden. This helps to keep children safe during risky play.
• During activities, staff use different teaching techniques to assess children's knowledge and understanding. However, there are times when staff do not always consider ways to adapt their teaching to deepen and extend children's knowledge beyond what they already know. This means not all children are making the progress they are capable of.
• Children learn about how to keep themselves healthy and well. They follow self-care routines such as washing their hands before mealtimes. Staff sing a handwashing song to embed children's understanding of the importance of this routine. Staff respond to children's personal care routines with respect. For example, they ask children's permission to wipe their noses or take them to the bathroom to change their nappy.
• Staff implement daily routines with children. Most of the time, these are well managed. However, there are occasional times when staff do not plan and organise these well enough. For instance, after mealtimes, children sit ready to listen to a story. Staff position themselves in an area where not all children can see the book. As a result, these children lose their focus and begin to disrupt others. This means that not all children engage and focus as well as they could in their learning.
• Management and staff value contributions from parents and other professionals. This helps to build positive relationships to support all children attending. They promote an inclusive environment for all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Parents comment how their children settle superbly at nursery and how well each of the staff know their children. They value the regular updates on their children's learning and development. Staff implement early intervention and make prompt referrals. This ensures they act swiftly to concerns or delays to enable all children to make expected progress.
• Staff work closely with parents to prepare all children for the next transition in their developmental journey. Children develop their confidence and independence in preparation for the next stage. For instance, they are encouraged to dress themselves and shown how to hold their cutlery to feed themselves during mealtimes.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further develop the organisation and planning of daily routines so that all children can focus and gain the most from their learning
• strengthen staff confidence with teaching techniques to help them extend children's learning beyond what they already know and can do.