The Old Station Nursery – Tressillian Road

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders have worked hard to improve the quality of learning experiences and staff's interactions with children. They have revised the curriculum and introduced cooking and planting activities to help children gain essential skills for future education and life. All children, including those identified as needing extra support with their learning, make good progress across all areas of learning. Children are motivated to explore and learn through play.

Staff work extremely well with parents to help identify and meet children's individual needs. Children separate from their parents with ease once they arrive at the setting, eager and ready to play and learn. Staff build secure and trusting relationships with children. They create a calm and nurturing environment where children demonstrate that they feel happy and content. For example, babies remain calm in their learning environment, seek out familiar adults when they need reassurance, and staff respond to their needs attentively.

Children excitedly make independent choices in their play. Staff set high expectations for children's learning and behaviour. They organise the learning areas well and plan activities that capture children's interest and imagination. Staff working with babies report that recent training on how to stimulate babies' learning has helped them to alter the activities and environment to meet the babies' needs. Babies maintain a high level of curiosity while exploring paint and water. Toddlers maintain focus and concentration while listening to a story. Pre-school children skilfully re-enact their favourite story, 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', and competently explain the sequence of events in the story.

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

• Since the last inspection, leaders have improved the way information is shared with parents to ensure that parents are aware of what their children are learning and what they need to learn next. Leaders have also ensured that information about the key-person arrangements is consistently shared with parents to support the effective care and education of children. Parents' feedback is extremely positive about the recent changes and improvements, such as those related to the curriculum to help ensure better outcomes for children.
• Arrangements for the supervision and training of staff are good. The management team carries out regular room observations and supervision sessions to help identify strengths and areas to improve. The team has worked tirelessly to ensure the quality of education is good. Despite these efforts, some staff are still not clear about what exactly that they want children to learn, and others do not ensure that planned activities are delivered effectively. Leaders are keen to implement clear targeted plans to support individual staff to help ensure consistently high-quality education across the setting.
• Staff support children's independence well. They encourage and support babies to wash their hands and feed themselves independently. In the toddler room, children independently serve their meals, dispose of used tissues and wash their hands. Three-years-olds who have mastered the concept of cutting use scissors and knives competently to cut different herbs during a planned activity. They learn to manage age-appropriate risks successfully. Children have high levels of confidence in their own abilities.
• Managers and staff prioritise children's communication and language development across the age groups. They introduce children to new words and sentences through everyday conversations, songs and stories. Staff working with babies teach the children basic sign language to help them communicate their needs. Children who speak other languages are able to hear and use their home language in the setting. Children develop good communication and language skills to help prepare them for the next stage in their learning.
• Staff support children to understand the expected behavioural boundaries. They encourage children to share, take turns and talk about how their feel. Staff form positive relationships with children and offer lots of praise to boost children self-esteem. Overall, children behave well and know what is expected of them. However, in the pre-school room, some children occasionally become easily upset when minor disagreements arise, which disrupts their play and learning.
• The curriculum intent for physical development is implemented well. Children have regular access to the nursery's garden to take part in vigorous physical activity. Staff support children to develop their fine motor skills through filling and pouring activities. Children enjoy ice painting, using different paintbrushes and exploring the mud kitchen in the garden. Staff extend children's understanding of healthy eating and healthy bodies through cooking and planting activities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve oversight of the teaching and learning across the nursery to ensure that all staff are confident to deliver planned learning activities as intended
• enhance staff's understanding of how to help older children to learn to self-regulate and successfully manage minor disagreements that arise during their play to help minimise disruptions to their learning.