West Byfleet Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nursery has lots of links within the local community and embraces families at the very heart of its values and vision. Children are settled and happy, and this includes new children to the setting. Through a well-thought-out and robust settling-in process, all families and children settle quickly into the nursery routines. Children build strong attachments with staff members who are very attentive and kind. They are highly responsive to children's needs and requirements to help them to feel safe and secure. Staff place an importance on helping all children to feel respected for their individual characters and personalities. For instance, a new initiative has been introduced around supporting children's emotional literacy, and this has helped them to build a deeper understanding of their own emotions. Children behave well and are starting to recognise and respond to the differing emotions of others around them.

Children quickly develop high levels of self-care and a positive attitude to try to achieve things by themselves. For instance, they dress themselves for outside play and persevere to open items from their lunch boxes. This helps to support children to gain the important skills they need for their future learning. Staff plan an exciting curriculum that keeps children highly motivated in their play and learning. Children feel valued and respected for their own ideas and suggestions through the effective interactions and role modelling of the staff team.

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

• The managers form a strong leadership team. Retention of the staff at the setting remains high and staff share the same high aspirations for all children who attend the nursery. An effective supervision process is used to help staff to remain highly confident and fully supported. Staff training has helped them to be more reflective in supporting the communication and language of children. The leadership team has worked well towards the recommendations set at the last inspection. Children have more opportunities to learn about healthy eating and making good choices.
• Children make good progress. Staff carefully watch their development and plan challenging next steps for children's learning in line with their interests. Children who are funded and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive targeted support from a dedicated team. As such, important information is shared with other professionals to support children to make the best possible progress.
• The leadership team has been very proactive in identifying the changing needs of children since the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, there is a very firm focus on supporting the emotional development, confidence and resilience in children. Staff plan lots of sensory activities for children, and this helps them to be fully immersed in their investigative play and exploration. For instance, staff provide a range of textures such as shaving foam, coloured water and pipettes, which helps to support children's imagination and creativity.
• Children have opportunities to use early mathematics and literacy in their play. For example, they are learning about direction and spatial awareness as they draw with large chalks on the ground in the garden area. Staff introduce more challenging concepts for children, such as speed and calculations as children use different items to roll down an elevated plank. This also helps children to problem-solve and find their own solutions to challenges they may be presented with.
• Staff recognise the importance of children having access to the outdoors to build on their well-being and physical development. For example, children have lots of space to run and jump and take calculated risks in their play. They have the freedom to explore independently. However, the current planning for this area is not as strong as the indoors and does not consistently provide highly stimulating learning experiences to enhance children's play.
• Partnerships with parents are a particular strength of the setting and continue to be reviewed and built on. Parents value the individual attention and high level of care each child receives. There is a constant two-way flow of communication and, as such, parents feel included in their child's development and the next steps that are planned for their learning. Parents speak of the seamless drop-off sessions each day through the dedication of the staff to ensure the happiness of each child.
• Children are developing good levels of communication and language. They are given time to answer questions asked of them to build on their increasing vocabulary. Staff introduce more complex words and phrases, such as 'perfect storm' and 'lightning bolt' when discussing a range of resources in a planned activity around changing weather patterns. This also helps children to build an awareness of the world around them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make better use of the popular outdoor play times to enhance children's learning.