Wavertree Christian Fellowship Nursery And Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children who attend the nursery receive a fantastic start to their early years education. Dedicated and highly skilled staff place children and their families at the heart of everything they do. Staff gather an abundance of information when children first start to attend. This wealth of information is used with precision to help settle children quickly and engage them in learning that reflects their current stage of development precisely.

Leaders work tirelessly alongside staff to create a unique, ambitious and meticulously sequenced curriculum. Daily discussions between staff about children's progress help to shape and evolve the curriculum. This helps to ensure that the needs of all children, especially those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are consistently well met. All children make superb progress from their individual starting points.

Staff are excellent role models and treat children with kindness and respect. Children of all ages have a clear understanding of the high expectations staff have for them. Older children play well with their younger friends. They model how to share and take turns. Staff teach children how to recognise and regulate their emotions. Daily yoga sessions help children to explore their feelings. This contributes greatly towards children's engagement and enjoyment in the productive and harmonious learning environment.

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

• Leaders are exceptionally skilled and have a deep understanding of the children, families and local community they support. They have a clear vision for the nursery that is eagerly shared and embedded by the whole staff team. Everyone involved at the nursery, children, staff and parents, are enriched by the wonderful learning community created.
• Staff's knowledge of each child is superb. Every member of the team has an excellent knowledge of each child's next steps in learning. This means that every moment becomes an opportunity to enthuse and engage children in learning. Staff skilfully grasp children's emerging interests and precisely extend their learning. For example, children's love of literacy and thirst to share stories is seized by staff who introduce and explain new words such as 'reflection'. They effortlessly support children to make links in their learning when asking if children can remember seeing their reflection at home. The quality of teaching is consistently exceptional.
• Staff have an excellent understanding of how to sequence children's learning. This enables them to adapt activities to meet the needs of children at different stages of their development. For example, younger children are supported to build their hand muscles and strength before beginning to make marks with tools like their older friends. Staff carefully consider the skills children must achieve before moving on in their learning. Children build on very firm foundations as they progress.
• Staff enrich the curriculum and provide opportunities for children to experience things they otherwise may not encounter. For example, when raising money for charity, children were tasked with exploring how many modes of transport they could travel on. This resulted in exciting experiences such as travelling by train and speedboat. Children eagerly recall opportunities such as meeting police horses in the nursery garden. Opportunities such as these enrich children's experiences within the local community.
• Support for children with SEND is inspirational. Meticulous monitoring of children's progress enables staff to swiftly identify any emerging gaps. Staff advocate for children in a determined manner. They are relentless in their quest to secure the support that some children need to make the very best progress. Collaborative partnership working with a wide range of outside agencies helps to ensure that every child is best supported to excel.
• Children are independent, confident and self-assured learners. Staff understand children's preferred ways of learning. For example, staff recognise that some children need more practise to pour their drink at snack time successfully. They therefore provide opportunities for children to refine this skill using different containers in the water tray. Children practise pouring water from one container to another, refining their accuracy before being asked to pour from a jug to a cup. This successfully builds children's positive 'can-do' attitude to learning.
• Parents speak incredibly highly of the support they receive. They value daily discussions with staff about their child's progress. Staff provide a wealth of advice and support parents to contribute consistently to their child's learning at home. Parents remark that it is 'rare to find a setting that provides such a holistic approach to children's development'. This shared understanding helps to provide a highly consistent approach to children's learning and development.
• Staff are incredibly well supported. Leaders work alongside staff, coaching and mentoring them. The long-standing, experienced team of staff are encouraged to support and learn from each other. Professional development is identified for each member of the team. Staff disseminate their learning to the whole team. For example, the successful sharing of strategies from specialist speech and language training has positively impacted on the communication skills of all children. This support helps to ensure that the quality of teaching is consistently outstanding across the whole team.