Westoe Village Kindergarten

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this welcoming, inviting and stimulating nursery. They arrive happily, and are eager to explore and learn. Staff plan a nurturing environment across the whole nursery. This enables children to feel safe and secure. Children settle quickly into the nursery life. The manager and staff promote a child-led approach, which supports each child to learn and achieve, including those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Children demonstrate a sense of belonging and feel comfortable in their surroundings. They form strong bonds with the staff that care for them. This helps children to have the confidence and desire to explore their environment independently. Children move very confidently between play areas. They make their own play choices from the interesting variety of experiences on offer. Children are curious and excited to explore the resources, and show high levels of engagement.

Children are extremely polite, show kindness and are respectful towards each other. They say please and thank you without being prompted when they ask for things, such as more fruit at snack time. Children explore and test out their ideas with their activities. They devise different ways and approaches as they work together. For example, when drawing around each other on the floor, they decide to create a bigger space to allow everyone to participate. Children enjoy each other's company as they sit together during mealtimes. They chat about their day and build friendships. Staff provide opportunities for older children to develop their independence. For example, children go to the trolley and make choices about their food.

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

• Support for children with SEND is superb. Staff quickly identify if children need extra support with their learning. They take swift action and account of information they exchange with other professionals and parents, to ensure that children receive targeted support. For example, staff have implemented language programmes in partnership with speech and language teams.
• The curriculum for children is highly ambitious and runs through the whole setting with seamless fluency. Staff plan excellent first-hand experiences to help children to learn about their local community and the wider world. For example, staff identity that children have not been on a bus and organise a bus ride. Afterwards, staff provide a range of boxes to facilitate children's imaginations. Children eagerly build their own bus with boxes, making wheels and tickets for their friends. Staff teach children about other cultures and festivals to broaden their understanding of faiths and religions within their community and beyond.
• Staff carefully plan and organise the rooms to boost children's physical skills. In all areas of the nursery, children are able to move independently from inside to outside. Cosy 'nooks' are available for children to snuggle up with staff. Staff plan the environment to support babies in their early walking. Babies hold onto furniture as they 'cruise' around the setting before walking independently.
• Staff support children to understand about healthy lifestyles. They facilitate discussions and provide activities focused on oral hygiene and healthy diets. Children discuss how they need calcium for healthy teeth and identity appropriate foods. Older children complete a 'daily mile' to support their understanding of exercise. Children feel their hearts before and after, and understand the impact on their bodies. They explain how they feel more awake and ready to learn.
• Staff are highly skilled at maximising spontaneous opportunities to extend children's learning. For example, when children discover a spider's web, staff encourage children to think how to they can make their own. They provide the resources and children build the web with tape, so that they are able to catch the 'bugs' which they draw.
• The management team and staff work in strong partnership with parents. Parents are kept fully informed of their child's learning. They meet with their child's key person every term, either online or face to face. This ensures that parents know that their children are making good progress. Staff share ideas with parents about how to support their children's learning at home.
• Staff support children to develop strong communication skills. They ask children thought-provoking questions, and encourage children to be inquisitive and problem solvers. They provide opportunities for children to develop their language. For example, during stories, children stand at the front of the group and confidently tell the story, predicting and changing the ending.
• The manager is dedicated to providing children and their families with the highest quality of care and learning. She has a very strong emphasis on enhancing staff's skills and knowledge, to support children to achieve the best possible outcomes. Staff are motivated and enthusiastic in their quest to improve. For example, they have accessed training to implement sign language, which has had a positive impact on children's communication skills.