Wendy House Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff provide a genuine and warm welcome to children on arrival at the nursery. Children demonstrate confidence and a strong sense of belonging. They bid their parents goodbye and independently find their own pegs to hang up coats and bags. Staff support children to settle quickly into a broad range of activities set up for them to develop and practise new skills. For example, children in pre-school show good attitudes to learning as they concentrate, using a variety of tools to manipulate play dough to their desired effect.

Leaders and staff are keen to provide rich opportunities for children to learn about people, communities and the wider world. For instance, staff make the most of being based on a hospital site. They take children to visit the ambulances as an extension activity to talk about people that help us. Furthermore, staff talk to children about what they notice on bus trips when they visit their other sister nursery. This provides opportunities for children to learn about life beyond the nursery. Staff speak to parents and take time to find out about family cultural heritage. This is used to inform age-appropriate activities to help children learn about what makes them unique.

Staff recognise the importance of forming strong attachments with children. Babies snuggle in for cuddles as staff share sensory books and look at family photos together. This contributes towards helping babies and very young children to settle well in the nursery.

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

• Leaders place strong emphasis on self-evaluation. They seek the views of parents and staff to reflect on the quality of the provision. Leaders use this information to identify what they do well and implement an action plan where they can improve. Leaders demonstrate a real commitment to strive towards driving continual improvement so that children receive good-quality care and education consistently.
• Staff recognise and value the importance of getting to know the children well. This gives them the vital information they need to identify what they need to teach children based on what they already know and can do. Occasionally, staff are not clear on how to implement what it is they want children to learn, and there are some minor inconsistencies in teaching practice. Nevertheless, children demonstrate that they are making steady progress in their learning and development.
• Leaders and staff work closely with children to identify their learning needs. When staff recognise children have delays in learning, they liaise with the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo). The SENCo is part of the leadership team and works with the manager to ensure referrals to external professionals are made in a timely manner. In the interim period, the SENCo and staff provide support plans to help children catch up. Plans tend to be generalised in places and would benefit from being more specific to help key persons know how to precisely implement the strategies required. Despite this, staff offer good levels of interaction and engagement through play experiences. This is to make sure that children who have delays in learning are given the support they need to help close the gap in attainment.
• Staff support children to develop their communication and language skills through regular story and song times. Children listen well to much-loved books at group times. Staff take momentary pauses while reading to allow children to contribute, by joining in with familiar words they know, to keep them engaged. This contributes to extending the children's range of vocabulary.
• Partnerships with parents are effective. Parents comment enthusiastically about how leaders and staff know their children well and provide continuity of care. They explain how staff take time to find out about their families and share information about the progress their children are making. Staff use information from parents to tailor the care they provide to meet the individual needs of their children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's teaching skills so curriculum planning is sequenced and implemented so children build on their knowledge step by step to help them learn well
• continue to extend plans for the outdoor provision so children receive exposure to experiences that develop their skills across all seven areas of learning
• review support plans for children with delays in their learning so they clearly show the precise strategies required to help children catch up.