Warlingham Park Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with a warm welcome on arrival and support them to settle in. Older children and toddlers join the school's breakfast club before being taken to their dedicated classroom. Babies are dropped off in their own separate unit, where they receive a friendly greeting and settle in well.

Staff organise the environment to support children's interests and their next steps in learning. For example, staff arrange sensory bags on a low-level table to encourage babies to pull themselves up to stand. Outside, children engage in imaginative play as they mix sand and water together, and pretend to make tea. Staff support children to take turns to pour water from the water dispenser and encourage them to share the teacups.

Children behave very well and are keen to take part in a variety of learning opportunities. For example, pre-school children join the Reception class at the school to learn about insects, reptiles and animals. They are engaged as they patiently wait their turn to touch a beetle, and comment that it tickles when it walks on their hands. These experiences help older children to prepare for when they transition to school, as well as supporting their understanding of the world.

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

• Leaders provide staff with regular supervision sessions. They observe staff practice and provide feedback on how they can improve. Staff feel able to discuss any concerns they may have about children and any training needs they may have. Staff feel well supported in their roles and leaders work well together to ensure the smooth running of the provision.
• Leaders plan an appropriate curriculum to support children to progress on to their next stage of learning. Staff organise a range of activities based on children's current interests, such as learning about different animals. However, when staff cover in other rooms, they are not always fully aware of the curriculum intent for that room. This means they do not focus their teaching specifically on the skills children need to learn next, in order to fully support their development.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well. Leaders work with other professionals so that interventions can be implemented promptly. Targeted plans and funding are put in place to help staff consistently promote children's learning.
• Children are confident communicators from an early age. Babies copy the actions staff make to various nursery rhymes. For example, they repeat the words 'beep, beep, beep' and 'sh, sh, sh' when staff sing to them. Older children confidently talk about the things they have learned, such as how plants grow.
• Staff provide children with new vocabulary, such as 'photosynthesis', and ask children if they remember what this is. Children confidently share their knowledge that plants need water and sunlight to grow.
• Children engage in the activities staff organise and play well together during child-led play. For example, children pretend to make soup in the water tray while others practise rolling out dough and imagine they are making sausages. Staff ask questions about what they are doing and comment on their play. However, they do not always identify when they can extend children's learning further during self-chosen play, or when children might benefit from more time to process what they have learned.
• Overall, parents are happy with the care their children receive. Most parents know what their children are learning about and the activities they have been involved in. However, some parents do not know about the specific skills staff are supporting their children to learn or how they can promote their learning further at home. Staff use an online platform to update parents on their children's progress. However, they do not check if parents have understood the progress their children are making. In addition, some parents have not been kept informed of staff changes.
• Staff support children's literacy development well. Older children are learning to write their names as they copy letters printed on name cards. Staff encourage them to try to identify their friends' names and practise writing the letters in other words. This supports their early reading skills.
• Children enjoy a healthy diet and their independence is promoted well. For instance, older children are encouraged to peel their own fruit at snack time and pour their own drinks. Babies are encouraged to wipe their own hands and face before and after mealtimes.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to identify when to enhance their interactions and extend children's learning opportunities further
• strengthen staff's understanding of the curriculum intent, so that they can precisely target children's next steps in learning
• review and improve how information is shared with parents, so that they are kept up to date on any changes and fully understand their child's learning intentions.