Truly Scrumptious Early Years Nursery (Ongar)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy exploring this inviting and interesting learning environment. A successful key-person system means that staff get to know them well and support their welfare. Children are happy and safe at this warm and inviting nursery. They show positive attitudes towards their learning. Children learn how to manage their behaviour and feelings in an age-appropriate way. Staff provide gentle reminders to children about turn taking and they respond well to this. Children are learning to value and celebrate similarities and differences between themselves and others, such as the way that they look and the languages that they speak.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has altered their experiences, children show resilience as they adapt to change. They move around the nursery inside and outdoors, making choices about what to play with or explore. Babies are encouraged to develop the core muscles they need to give them strength to stand, toddle and gain control over their physical development. They thoroughly enjoy pulling themselves to standing to reach the water tray and wash dolls with bubbly water. Babies interact with each other and staff, babbling and making specific sounds in response to staff chatting with them. Older children communicate their needs and interests well. They are confident to talk with staff and each other as they share ideas and organise games or choose a story book to listen to. Children throughout the nursery are encouraged to become good communicators.

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

• Outdoors, children thoroughly enjoy searching for worms and other tiny creatures. They show their developing understanding as they remember looking under stones or in the compost last time they searched. Children use equipment such as magnifying glasses, which they confidently explain will help them to see 'closer'. Others enjoy team games, throwing and catching balls with increasing coordination.
• The support in place for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is strong. Managers and staff know how to support children's learning and care needs. They monitor interventions closely to ensure that children with SEND make good progress.
• Children enjoy a broad curriculum that follows their interests and current events, such as the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Staff design the curriculum to include focus on the knowledge and skills that children need to build on. They also include opportunities for children to practise and share what they already know and can do, to ensure this knowledge is secure. All children are making good progress and developing the skills they need in readiness for school.
• Children learn good manners and are confident to interact with visitors. For example, they are keen to point out their names and are interested to learn the inspector's name and why they are visiting their nursery. Care practices are good. Staff foster children's growing independence. For instance, during snack time, children learn to serve themselves and take turns politely. Discussions about foods that are healthy, and those that are not so good, enable children to learn about healthy lifestyles. Talking about the effects of brushing teeth provides further support for children to learn about personal hygiene and self-care.
• Staff work extremely hard to develop positive partnerships with parents. This includes providing ongoing feedback in a variety of ways. Parents are aware of their children's next steps for learning and how they settle day to day. They know about the experiences their children enjoy in the nursery. Parents say that feedback from staff helps them to further support their children's learning at home.
• Partnership working is effective. Staff engage well with external professionals, such as local speech and language specialists. This helps staff to provide tailored support in the nursery and provide further information for parents.
• Staff report that they enjoy their work and feel very supported by the provider and manager. Staff follow a comprehensive induction process, after which they have opportunities to develop their professional skills and knowledge, and keep up to date with mandatory training. However, the provider and manager acknowledge that the current programme of professional development is not yet sharply focused on strengthening the quality of teaching to the highest level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on current practice and seek further ways to help all staff develop first-rate teaching skills.