The Willows Nursery School Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and their families are afforded a warm welcome on arriving at this friendly and inclusive nursery. Children are greeted and quickly become engaged in a wide range of activities and opportunities based upon their interests. They eagerly share their experiences with staff and welcome them into their play. Children are developing firm attachments to the relatively new staff team. Staff gather detailed information about children when they first begin to attend. They use this information well to help children to settle and to build their confidence and sense of belonging.

Managers and staff recognise the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had upon children's learning and development. As a result, they give high priority to children's personal, social and emotional development and communication skills within the curriculum offered.

Children are very well behaved. They respond well to gentle reminders about their behaviour from staff and play harmoniously together. Toddlers learn to share toys and negotiate as they play with toy cars and building blocks. Older children recognise when to wait and take turns when playing group games. Children respond well to the abundance of praise and reassurance afforded to them by staff.

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

• Leaders and managers are determined in their drive to offer early years provision of the highest quality. A recent detailed review of the ways in which staff ensure that children's routines, particularly those around mealtimes, are adhered to has been undertaken. This helps to ensure that children's care needs are consistently met.
• Overall, staff extend children's learning well. They have a good understanding of what children need to learn next. Staff talk to children and introduce new words during conversations to extend their growing vocabularies. For example, when talking with older children, staff introduce words, such as 'ferocious', when describing the wind outside. However, new and less-experienced staff do not consistently ask questions that help children to develop their critical thinking skills and extend their learning further.
• Children enjoy participating in storytelling. Younger children eagerly point to the pictures in their favourite books. Older children talk about what they think will happen next in a story. Children are confident, willingly engage with visitors and share their imaginative ideas. For example, they talk about their favourite dinosaurs and how they share similarities and differences. Children learn to recognise their own names and staff encourage them to sound letters out as they play. Toddlers enjoy making marks and develop a love for practising their early writing skills, while babies delight in exploring shredded paper, tossing it in the air as they develop strength in their arm muscles.
• Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, managers have recruited a number of staff who are new to the team. The rigorous recruitment and induction of new staff is ongoing. Established staff feel well supported in their role, due to the supervision and training opportunities offered by managers. However, opportunities for newer and less-experienced staff to observe and learn from their more experienced colleagues are in their infancy. This has yet to be embedded fully in order to raise the quality of teaching to the highest level.
• Staff work well with other professionals to provide appropriate support and continuity in learning for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They carefully monitor the progress of individual children and respond swiftly should they identify any emerging gaps in a child's learning and development. This helps to ensure that all children, including those who are in receipt of additional funding, make good progress in preparation for the next steps in their learning and development.
• Partnerships with parents are a strength of the nursery. Staff work hard to ensure that communication with parents has not been affected during the pandemic. Parents speak very highly of the staff and the nursery managers. They discuss how staff care deeply for their children and also offer parents support should they need it. One parent describes the nursery as a 'big, happy family'.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support new and less-experienced staff to consistently ask questions that encourage children to think and share their ideas and understanding to fully challenge children in their learning
• provide greater opportunities for more experienced staff to share their knowledge and expertise with newer staff to help them to raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high level.