The Old Station Nursery, Dollman Farm

Inclusion: Expected standard

Staff identify needs in children and take action to put support in place that helps them to make progress. Leaders make contact with external agencies at the earliest opportunity to ensure children receive their funding entitlements. Children have individual support plans that are shared with all staff and parents. Parents of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) comment that they meet regularly with staff and are kept up to date with children's development.

Leaders and staff make links with their area SEND team and welcome their input into support plans. Those responsible for coordinating support for children are well trained and knowledgeable about external processes. They have an oversight of each child and are confident about their individual needs. They ensure staff understand how to implement support plans, so that children learn to develop the skills they need to. This helps to get children the support they need at the right time. Staff generally understand children's needs, and ensure that any activities they plan can be accessed by all children.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders and staff understand the unique curriculum designed by the nursery group. The curriculum is generally implemented well across the nursery, although there are times when children are not engaged in purposeful activities. This is a consequence of staff workload and staff shortages. Staff work hard to maintain a stimulating and exciting environment where children are keen to learn. They generally interact well with children. They plan activities that are inclusive for all children and help them to learn new skills. There are opportunities for children to practise the skills they have learned, such as making marks with chalks, outdoors. Children repeat letter sounds and words they know and staff write them on outdoor surfaces. This helps children to make connections between letter sounds and written symbols.

Staff generally understand children's individual levels of development and use assessment to decide what they need to learn next. They understand children's interests and incorporate these into the activities they plan. Staff help children to discover a love of books. From babies through to pre-school, children have access to books. They freely choose stories that are familiar to them and listen as staff read. Children recall parts of stories and ask questions about characters in the books. Babies point to pictures and show their enjoyment, as staff use gestures and facial expressions to capture their interest.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children at the nursery generally make progress from their starting points. They sequentially learn the skills they need to prepare them for their move to school. Children are excited by the activities on offer, which helps them to engage in learning and play. They act out pretend scenarios, reliving experiences they have had. This helps them to make sense of the world around them. Children become skilled at communicating with one another. They learn to express their thoughts and ideas and start to negotiate with one another during play. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make progress in their communication and language development. They learn to verbally express their needs and start to make friends with others.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

The nursery environment is busy, but has a calm feel. Children display appropriate behaviour and demonstrate that they understand what is expected of them. They follow routines well and respond to staff's instructions. Staff gently remind children of nursery rules and expectations, when needed. Children learn to play well together and cooperate. They take turns and show understanding of how their behaviour affects others. Leaders understand the importance of children attending regularly. They apply flexibility where possible so that children who face barriers to their learning can develop healthy attendance patterns.

Children generally develop positive relationships with staff and their peers. They show that they feel safe as they go to staff for reassurance and comfort. Staff take time to give children cuddles and comfort when they need it. This supports children's emotional development.

Children typically develop positive attitudes to learning. Across the nursery, children are keen to participate in the learning opportunities on offer. They happily play with sand, pushing cars along to make tracks. They show interest in what others are doing and join in with different activities. Staff encourage children to join group play and help them to work together. For example, during mathematics activities, children take it in turns to use tweezers to move coloured balls onto boards to create patterns. Children maintain attention as they wait for their turn.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Needs attention

The pressures on staff at the nursery are having an impact on children's welfare and wellbeing. Staff struggle to complete routine tasks and to consistently implement high-quality learning opportunities for children. Temporary staff are given reduced responsibilities, which means that permanent staff experience increased workloads. Leaders have started to put measures in place to mitigate this. Children are happy at the nursery and develop relationships with staff. However, there are times when children's key persons are given other responsibilities or moved between rooms to cover staff shortages. This makes it difficult for staff to maintain the attachments they have developed with children and sometimes leaves children without a specific key person. Consequently, children's needs are not consistently-well supported. Additionally, there are times when staff do not notice children using the toilet, so important hygiene practices, such as handwashing, are not consistently promoted.

Children show that they feel safe at nursery, demonstrating enjoyment during their play. Staff adjust their approaches to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Children eat healthy meals and have daily opportunities to play outdoors and be physically active. Staff provide comfort to children when needed and ensure babies, in particular, are cuddled and nurtured. Staff understand children's individual routines, settle them to sleep calmly and ensure they check on them frequently.

Leadership and governance: Needs attention

Leaders have recently appointed a new manager to the nursery. They are working together to ensure practices in the nursery rapidly improve and standards for children's care and education meet the high expectations they have. Some parents and carers do not receive regular feedback about their child's day. They do not always know who their child's key person is, when this has changed, and they do not receive some important information about their child's care, in a timely way. Leaders understand this is a breach of registration requirements and have plans in place to ensure this improves. Those responsible for special educational needs and/or disabilities ensure they meet regularly with parents of the children they support and share important information with them.

Most staff are generally happy in their roles. They are aware of important nursery procedures such as what to do in the event of an emergency. However, some staff feel an increasing pressure to complete daily tasks and are not always supported effectively, to manage this well. Leaders recognise that arrangements for supervision of staff have not been implemented as intended. This has left staff without the support and mentoring they need to support their wellbeing. Leaders have started to address these weaknesses, and recognise that this will take time to improve and become established.