Wembley Central Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children's emotional well-being is promoted well in this nursery. Children are happy, settled and develop well within the inclusive environment. A well-established key-person system helps children to form secure attachments and positive relationships with staff and each other. Children are confident to ask for assistance if they need it. Staff respond to children who need comfort and reassurance and give them cuddles. The manager and staff team are passionate about enabling every child to have access to high-quality experiences. They understand that children come to the nursery with different skills. Staff seek to provide activities to enable all children to make good progress in their learning and development. Children freely explore the stimulating activities and numerous resources that staff provide.

Children are confident and independent learners. They happily leave their parents on arrival at the nursery and quickly engage in their play. Children begin to identify their own names as they place their name cards on the registration display. Most children behave very well in the nursery. For example, they know the rules and follow them well. Children can share and are polite to one another. Parents speak with confidence about the quality of care which their children receive. Staff listen to parents and this, in turn, benefits the children who attend. There is a sense of community at this setting. Staff, parents and children work together in a harmonious way.

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

• Staff know the children well. The manager monitors the quality of staff's observations and assessments. All children make good progress, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, children who speak English as an additional language and children who are in receipt of funded early education. Staff take swift action to address any gaps in children's learning.
• Staff place a strong focus on developing children's communication and language skills. For example, they talk constantly to children, emphasising key words to help to enhance children's understanding and speaking skills.
• Staff improve children's mathematical skills effectively throughout their experiences. For instance, they encourage children's counting skills as well as inspire children to explore and compare sizes. For example, children learn to identify 'bigger', 'smaller', 'shorter' and 'longer'.
• Staff promote children's early literacy skills using a wide range of techniques. Children of all ages have access to a good variety of books and listen to familiar stories. They enjoy a wide range of opportunities to explore making marks and develop confidence in writing. For instance, children learn to write numerals and the letters in their name.
• Children's imaginations are fostered well. They have lots of opportunities to explore their own ideas and initiate their own play. Staff support children effectively to create their own physical challenges. However, on occasion, staff do not challenge the older children effectively to help them make even greater progress in their learning.
• Staff teach children about the importance of being physically active and leading healthy lifestyles. For example, children of all ages enjoy playing in the well-resourced garden. They use apparatus with confidence and complete planned football sessions. Children notice the changes to their breathing and heartbeat after running. During snack and mealtimes, staff hold conversations with children about the food which they have and why it is important for their good health.
• Partnerships with parents are very strong. Parents state that they are very impressed with the communication and support which they receive from staff. They comment that they are actively involved in all aspects of their child's development.
• Children who are new to the nursery settle in very quickly, and parents compliment staff on their warm approach. Staff make use of daily discussions, parents' meetings and stay-and-play sessions to help to keep parents informed about their children's progress. In addition, staff provide parents with guidance on how to support their child's learning at home, such as how to build on their children's speech and language development.
• Staff skilfully support children who speak English as an additional language. They use picture prompts and speak in clear, short sentences. This helps children to begin to understand English. Staff who speak other languages talk about how it settles children when they speak to them in their home language.
• At times, some staff do not consistently use the planned strategies with children to deal with any unwanted behaviour. As a result, some children are not always clear on the behaviour that is expected of them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide even more learning experiences to challenge older children to further help them to make greater progress in their learning and development
• ensure that all staff consistently use the successful behaviour strategies so that children clearly understand the type of behaviour that is expected of them.