The Woodland Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very happy and eager to arrive at this welcoming setting. Those who are new to the nursery separate easily from their parents. They receive encouragement from staff to say farewells in their home language and quickly engage in challenging learning opportunities.

Children have superb opportunities to develop their physical skills from an early age. They climb trees and swing their bodies back and forth on ropes with confidence. Children respond extremely well to the high expectations of staff and behave exceptionally well. They show great care and consideration for each other. Older children check and gently stroke the hands of their younger friends, explain expectations, and introduce them to resources. Children are highly motivated, resilient, and keen to have a go. Those who speak languages other than English at home quickly acquire and develop their English-speaking skills.

Children benefit from excellent opportunities to learn about, and respect, nature. They know what to do if they are cold or become wet. Toddlers recognise and point to tree seeds that staff name. They pick up and count the seeds with staff and go on to express a desire to stick them onto paper. Children concentrate deeply and focus on their chosen tasks for some time.

Children show very high levels of determination and independence from an early age. They negotiate with and respect the views of others, show high levels of curiosity and exploration, and persist to solve problems. Children are exceptionally well prepared for future learning and moves to school.

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

• The provider is highly ambitious for children, staff, and families. Staff demonstrate their shared understanding of the nursery ethos. They complete training that helps them to skilfully target and sequence teaching. They implement an extremely effective curriculum that successfully helps all children to embed their learning and make rapid progress from their starting points.
• Staff accurately observe and assess children's learning from the start. They use language assessment programmes to carefully assess children's speaking skills. Staff work very effectively with parents and closely engage with specialists. This helps to rapidly close identified gaps in children's learning and improves the language and speaking skills of all children, including those who speak or hear a different language at home.
• Staff provide experiences that reflect children's backgrounds and different cultures. They help children to appreciate, respect and value the contributions of their own communities and those of others. Children and parents exchange information about their experiences, faith, culture and traditions. Children gasp with excitement and anticipation as they learn about dragons in advance of Chinese New Year celebrations.
• Staff expertly help to support children's mathematics. Children cast and count votes for their favourite songs and stories. They understand number sequences as they tell staff which way to count, up or down. Children show high levels of determination as they work out how to get leaves from the bottom of a tall water butt. Staff skilfully support children to explore size, length, and height as they do so.
• Staff carefully plan activities that help children to make good links with their learning. For example, children spontaneously sing about 'Incey Wincey' when they hear a story about spiders. Children go on to build strength in their small-hand muscles as they weave or handle tools, which also helps to prepare children for future writing.
• Staff recognise and keenly support the individual needs of children. On the rare occasions that children lose focus, staff give them close attention and direct them towards very good alternatives. Children understand and respect the differing needs of their friends.
• Staff take the time to learn and use languages that are familiar to children. They encourage most-able children to explain the meaning of new words, such as 'lasso', to their friends. Children tune in to environmental sounds and describe the changes that they notice. For example, they comment that it is windy, as the leaves and trees are moving.
• Children display exemplary behaviour. They show high levels of confidence and playfully bow, curtsey, twirl and wave their arms during welcome songs. They giggle as they put on 'magic glasses' before discussions about the weather. They eagerly help staff to drag trolleys, check lunch bags or assess whether trees are safe to climb.
• Parents speak about the information and strategies that staff share with them, to help their children's learning and progress at home. They greatly value staff's flexible and shared approach and the exceptional activities for their children, such as whittling wood. Parents write that this 'dream nursery' has 'exceeded their expectations'.