Walton House Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a welcoming, friendly and stimulating environment for children. The play areas contain age-appropriate resources for children to explore and develop their skills effectively. Staff rotate the resources regularly to provide children with different experiences and for them to discover new interests. Staff provide good opportunities to develop all children's curiosity, independence, confidence, resilience and risk taking. For example, younger children take their time to fit the tracks together before driving the train. Older children explore with the soil and they use their imaginations as they pretend to bake. Children engage in art and crafts activities to create their own designs. All children make good progress.

Staff provide exciting outdoor activities, such as sand play, climbing, sliding, mark making and imaginative play. Children display confidence while walking on a balancing beam and they recognise when to adjust the beam and crate for their safety. Children develop good social skills and they learn to patiently wait for their turn. Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. They act as good role models and encourage them to be helpful to others.

Staff encourage parents to be involved when children are starting the nursery to help them settle easily. Children are happy and they form close attachments with their key person. Staff work closely with external professionals to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), and they put in place support plans to improve their learning and development.

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

• Staff complete observations and assessments of children's learning effectively. They use this information to plan what children should do next in their learning. All children, including those with SEND, make good progress with their development, in relation to their starting points.
• Staff provide good opportunities for children to develop their mathematical skills well. For instance, children explore with building blocks for problem-solving and counting. During water play, they learn to pour and they understand the concepts of big, small, less and more.
• Staff provide plenty of experiences to support children's understanding of the world. For example, children explore with role-play kitchen items, they visit places in the community and they engage in activities to learn about people.
• Staff use a variety of good resources to keep children active and to support their physical development effectively. For example, children use a rolling pin to explore with the dough to develop their smaller muscles and they do whole body movements during rigorous play to strengthen their larger muscles.
• Staff develop children's communication and language skills well. For instance, they ask them interesting questions and introduce new words to increase their vocabulary. Older children demonstrate good peer interactions while playing with each other and they express themselves confidently.
• Staff encourage children to engage in good activities that develop their literacy skills effectively. For example, they support their learning well as they look through books keenly, join group story time sessions and they practise making marks. Children develop their love for stories, and they talk about the images that they see in the books.
• Staff set clear boundaries for children to learn right from wrong. They use stories to teach children how to recognise and manage their emotions. Staff develop children's personal, social and emotional skills effectively. They provide healthy food and encourage them to wash their hands before eating.
• Staff develop strong partnerships with parents and encourage their involvement in their children's learning. Staff arrange for parents to take part in events, such as coffee mornings and pancake breakfasts, at the nursery. Written feedback from parents highlight that they are satisfied with the care and activities provided to children and they receive regular information from the nursery.
• Managers work closely with the staff to continuously evaluate and strengthen the provision. They complete regular supervision meetings with the employed staff, and arrange opportunities to maintain their professional development.
• Staff interact with children effectively. For example, they get down to younger children's level and use verbal and non-verbal communication to encourage their learning. At times, older children who keep themselves happily amused receive slightly less adult interaction during their play, to further extend their learning.
• Staff implement the provider's curriculum aims well. They plan a good variety of activities that meet all children's learning needs. Occasionally, staff interrupt children's play to follow care routines. When this happens, children are not given the time they need to finish their play or prepare for what comes next.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the adult interactions with the older children during their play to extend their learning further
• better manage how routine tasks are carried out to minimise interruptions in children's play.