The Willow On The Farm Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff want the very best for the children in their care. They understand that young children have an impressive capacity to learn, so long as learning is pitched at exactly the right level and teaching is of a very high quality. Leaders plan a curriculum that is detailed, ambitious and designed to meet the needs of the children who attend. There is as strong a focus on children gaining lots of knowledge as there is on children gaining skills and positive attitudes to learning. The quality of teaching is consistently excellent. At the heart of the curriculum is a focus on children's social and language development. Staff treat children with courtesy and kindness at all times. They help children name, understand and manage their emotions through a focused programme of activities that introduce children to the words they need to describe their feelings and a range of strategies to manage them. Children learn from this to describe how they feel in different ways and show huge empathy towards the feelings of others.

Staff's expectations for children's behaviour are as high as those for children's learning. Staff consistently model good manners. They are hugely respectful in their interactions with children. For example, as children arrive, staff ensure that their first conversations are with them, rather than with parents. Children are greeted with a warm handshake, and staff ask the children how they are feeling and if there is anything they want to share with them. Behaviour throughout the nursery is excellent, and children show they feel totally at home in the nurturing and calm environment.

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

• Leaders work tirelessly to ensure that all aspects of nursery life are the best they can be. There is a highly effective programme of monitoring, training and support for all staff. For example, staff new to the setting work alongside experienced leaders to learn about the ethos of the nursery. They gain a deep understanding of how children learn and their role as educators. This strong grounding in child development is then used to deliver teaching of the highest quality.
• Leaders put considerable thought into how to use any additional funding to which children may be entitled. For example, leaders bring in other professionals to support children's language development and to help staff provide the precise support children need to catch up with their peers.
• Staff understand the links between children's learning and their sense of pride and self-confidence. Staff plan the curriculum so that children revisit learning often so that it is fully embedded. For example, children learn about different minibeasts through stories, group-time discussions and close examination of insects in their natural environment. Children are rightly proud to explain to visitors all that they know about snails and ladybirds. They then use this knowledge in their creative endeavours. For example, they make giant models of these creatures during forest school sessions, accurately remembering the different body parts and what they are used for. By ensuring that learning is fun and memorable, staff ensure that children are developing a thirst for knowledge and positive dispositions towards learning.
• As well as clearly identifying what they want children to learn next, staff also carefully consider how they will best teach these skills. For example, they carefully teach children to use a range of tools, through a programme of one-to-one activities. Children are then able to apply these skills well to their independent play and learning, further practising and embedding what they have been taught. For example, because staff have taught children how to pour accurately, children can apply this skill as they carefully mix mud and water outside to make a suitable consistency. Children can screw and unscrew bolts on construction toys because they have been taught how to hold and manoeuvre screwdrivers.
• Staff prepare children extremely well for life in modern Britain. They ensure that the learning environment represents people of different genders, nationalities and abilities contributing positively to society. They introduce children to different festivals and beliefs, using these opportunities to deliver detailed learning about different foods, cultures and celebrations.
• Threaded through nursery life are opportunities for children to learn to embrace an active and healthy lifestyle. Children explore farmland and enjoy navigating different terrains and experiencing different weather conditions. They learn a lot from first-hand experiences about the world around them.
• Parents are full of praise for the nursery and the dedicated staff. They explain how much staff care about the children and that they consider their children extremely lucky to attend this nursery. There is a very strong programme of support for parents to extend children's learning at home. For example, leaders put on regular workshops for parents to help parents understand how they teach early mathematics and literacy.