Three Gables Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide an exceptionally calm and supportive environment in which all children thrive. They are extremely caring, nurturing and responsive to children's needs and know them all incredibly well. As a result, children are particularly happy, safe and secure. Staff support children to develop an excellent understanding of rules and boundaries. Children show high levels of self-regulation and build strong relationships. For example, they share resources, have excellent manners and behave exceptionally well.

Children are articulate and communicate extremely well. They learn new vocabulary through sharply focused interactions planned by staff. Children develop a love of reading through staff's inspiring and engaging storytelling and skilled use of props. Children rub their hands together in anticipation of another story. Staff offer an abundance of praise and encourage children skilfully. Because of this, children build their self-esteem and self-confidence to very high levels. Children have a can-do attitude and show extremely high levels of concentration. For example, during group activities, all children are engaged and listen intently with anticipation.

The curriculum is highly effective in helping children to develop their balance, coordination and spatial awareness skills. Children ably explore the garden on trikes and climb in the baby gym. They enjoy moving in new ways through the routine yoga sessions.

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

• The leadership and management team is exceptional. Staff are incredibly well supported and prepared for their roles and their well-being is prioritised. Training is expertly tailored to meet the needs of children and interests of staff and to have the highest impact on staff's practice with the children. Staff speak passionately about training they have undertaken and how they have used this to improve their practice. This ensures children receive the best possible teaching and learning.
• Staff provide an ambitious and well-designed curriculum that keeps children wonderfully engaged and enthusiastic in their play and learning. Interactions with children are of a consistently high quality and staff maximise every opportunity to extend children's learning. As a result, children make progress in all areas of the curriculum. The setting's exemplary practice provides a strong foundation for children's future learning and ensures that they are well prepared for the next steps in their education.
• Leaders and managers are extremely reflective and work hard to continually improve the setting. For example, they have added an all-weather polytunnel in the garden so children can harvest vegetables to eat at snack time. They seek the views of children, staff and parents to ensure that they meet their needs. Leaders and managers say that they want 'every day to be a special day' for children at the nursery. Their commitment and dedication to achieving this are unwavering.
• Children with special educational needs are incredibly well supported. The special educational needs coordinator is extremely passionate, experienced and knowledgeable. She works very closely with children's parents, other staff and external agencies to ensure children get the support they need. Funding is sharply focused to meet the needs of the most disadvantaged children and ensure they are well prepared for school.
• The setting has exceptionally strong partnerships for sharing information with parents. Parents say that staff are 'incredible' and that they treat children as though they 'are part of their family'. Staff communicate with parents in a range of ways, for example through parents' evenings, newsletters, video calls and online journals. They provide information for parents to extend children's learning at home.
• Robust systems are in place to help staff get to know children when they join the setting. There is a highly effective key-person system. Therefore, staff identify children's starting points extremely well and any gaps in learning are swiftly noted and acted upon. Staff plan personalised learning opportunities to close any gaps and ensure all children make excellent progress.
• Staff work exceptionally hard to ensure that children develop the British values needed to help them become effective future citizens. Golden rules such as 'kindness' and 'sharing' are actively encouraged and embedded in practice. Staff are remarkably focused on supporting children to recognise and communicate their feelings. As a result, children demonstrate very high levels of respect for others and can manage their own behaviour extremely well.