Westfield Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are well cared for by staff, who know them well. Children are happy, settled and secure. They form close bonds with staff, who are caring and kind. Settling-in sessions for new children and parents are flexible to meet their individual needs. Staff work closely with parents to tailor settling-in visits to meet the different emotional needs of children. Staff find out information about children as soon as possible, including what they like and dislike.

Staff share the vision for promoting children's knowledge through high quality experiences. They plan activities which extend children's knowledge and skills. For example, staff teach younger children to count animals in the water. Older children learn mathematical language, as staff encourage them to add 'one more' as they play dominoes. Toddlers giggle as they experiment with torches and make shadows.

Staff place a strong focus on children's communication and language development. They regularly introduce new words to increase children's vocabulary. Children join in with stories, songs and conversations. Staff support children who speak English as an additional language effectively. Children hear their home languages at the nursery and staff use other supportive techniques, such as the use of visuals prompts. This leads to children becoming confident communicators.

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

• Managers and staff understand what it is that children need to learn next and how to support and encourage them. They carry out assessments of children's progress, including the progress check at age two. This helps them to identify if there are any delays or gaps in children's development that they can work on. This helps children to make good progress.
• Children relish being physically active. Babies have lots of space to crawl around and enjoy pulling themselves up to standing on low-level furniture and steps. While outside they giggle as they jump in puddles. Toddlers spend time outdoors searching for characters from a favourite book as they explore trees and the equipment. Children are confident in their physical abilities.
• Staff help children develop a love of books from an early age. For example, babies sit on staff member's laps, and they look at simple board books together. Older children sit in small groups to listen to staff reading stories. Books are accessible in all rooms for children to choose freely. This supports children's early literacy skills well.
• Managers and staff are committed to providing the best care for children and their families. Self-evaluation plays a key role in helping to identify areas of strength within the nursery and areas they wish to improve. They strive to build good partnerships with parents and carers.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported and make good progress. Staff implement individual educational plans that help to close gaps in learning. They use advice and guidance from external professionals effectively. Managers use funding well to provide a stimulating and inclusive learning environment. The special educational needs coordinator uses her experience and knowledge to act quickly and puts appropriate support in place.
• Overall, staff support children to regulate their behaviour. For example they remind them to 'use their words' when they are upset. However, in the pre-school room staff deployment is not always effective in enabling staff to manage more challenging aspects of children's behaviour. In addition, some staff are not always consistent in reinforcing behaviour expectations to children. For example, they do not always help children to understand why they should listen to each other and how to sit at the table when eating. This results in children not always being sure of socially acceptable ways to behave.
• Parents are very happy with the service provided by the nursery. They say their children enjoy attending and talk excitedly about what they do at the nursery. Parents value the information staff share with them, such as daily updates about their child's care routines. However, not all parents are aware of the plans for their children's next steps in learning to enable them to continue to support their learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen how more challenging aspects of children's behaviour are managed and help children to develop a deeper understanding of how to act and behave.
• extend the information sharing with parents further so that all parents know their child's individual next steps and can support their learning at home.