Welcome House Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff offer children excellent support and teaching as they play. They provide children with a richly resourced and stimulating learning environment that inspires them to get actively involved and explore. Children are highly motivated and totally absorbed, demonstrating exceptional attitudes to their learning. For instance, children set themselves the challenge of reaching the branches of the tree outdoors. They show high levels of determination and resilience as they tie knots in ropes and climb safely to achieve their goal. Children play cooperatively and are excellent communicators, successfully negotiating with each other as they play.

Leaders plan an exceptionally well-thought-out curriculum for children. They have very high aspirations for all children to achieve. For instance, leaders very passionately describe how staff support children to develop a love of reading. Highly confident staff inspire children to learn about topics they may not come across naturally. For example, children learn about what weather snails like to live in and how the Titanic sank. They are extremely skilful at teaching children. Staff show their precise teaching offers superb support for children's learning. Children excel in all they do.

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

• Staff provide exceptional support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They very swiftly identify where children need support and quickly put this in to action. Staff work in partnership with external professionals to build a cohesive approach for children. Precise and highly individualised teaching by staff enables children with SEND to make excellent progress from their starting points.
• Staff know the children they care for exceptionally well. They readily adjust and adapt their teaching to finely tune what they offer to meet children's learning needs. For instance, older children benefit from targeted support for their emotional well-being. This has been so successful that children now support each other, such as by leading yoga sessions.
• Children benefit from very effective focused talking times with staff to develop their learning. Staff offer exceptional support for potentially difficult issues. For instance, staff talk to children about keeping themselves safe when it is most meaningful. Staff explore ideas with children sensitively, allowing them to ask questions and develop their understanding further.
• Communication is a very strong focus in the nursery. Staff are very skilled at encouraging all children to communicate competently, and their confidence to support this shines through. For instance, staff share a wide range of vocabulary with children, introduce new words and ask thought-provoking questions. Children delight in taking turns in retelling stories. They correctly sequence events and act out the story. When children need additional support to develop their speech, staff implement a very successful range of strategies to do this. Children make rapid progress to close gaps in their learning.
• Staff are excellent role models and have the highest aspirations for children. For example, younger children know to store their shoes and sun hats when they move indoors. They listen to their friends talking and patiently wait for their turn as they excitedly talk about recent holidays. Children demonstrate exemplary behaviour and attitudes in all they do.
• Children benefit from taking part in many and varied wider learning opportunities out of the nursery. For instance, they grow fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers at the allotment. Staff enable children to pick these to add to snacks and to enhance their play in the mud kitchen. Children very competently complete routine jobs, such as preparing snacks for their friends. They have exceptional support and encouragement from staff to be confident and independent.
• Parents are very complimentary about the care and education their children receive. Staff build highly effective partnerships with parents. For instance, they seek out their views to add to regular assessments of what children know and can do. This well-rounded approach is very beneficial to enable staff to plan precise teaching to meet children's individual needs.
• The use of additional funding is meticulously planned to have the maximum impact on children. Staff carefully consider what children need to excel at in their learning. For example, children have opportunities to take part in forest school and beach school sessions. They learn in very different and challenging environments. Staff successfully build on children's understanding of the world in which they live.
• Leaders provide exemplary support for their staff team. For instance, they offer regular, targeted training to support them to be highly confident and skilled in their roles. Staff offer children superb support. They are masters at teaching to meet children's individual needs. Leaders are constantly reflecting on their own knowledge and staff's practice. They continually develop and improve the already exceptionally high-quality care and education they provide for children.