Willow Nursery and Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children build secure relationships with staff, coming to them for cuddles and reassurance throughout the day. Children seek out staff and initiate play. For example, they say 'chase me' as they run across the grass and ask staff to join them to play hide and seek.

Children enthusiastically get involved in the wide variety of activities on offer. Staff plan a varied curriculum that challenges children. They incorporate children's ideas and requests into the provision for the day. Children show their enjoyment of activities and become engrossed in their play, for example pretending to have a meal in the home corner area.

Parents speak very highly of the staff and the care their children receive. They feel confident leaving their children at the setting, knowing that they will be well cared for. Staff communicate well with parents. The setting supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and plans appropriate support for them in partnership with parents and other professionals.

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

• Staff introduce children to a wide range of vocabulary though play, encouraging children's thinking and extending their ideas. Children enthusiastically join in with familiar stories and are eager to talk about the books.
• Staff develop children's learning of mathematics by encouraging them to count and talking with them about size and shape. For example, staff ask children 'How many spoons have you got?' and children confidently identify that they have 'two.'
• Children behave well. Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour and communicate these clearly and positively. For example, staff support children to know and understand the setting's 'golden rules' by reminding them to use 'walking feet' inside. Staff begin group times by going over some of these key rules. Older children confidently take turns at activities without adults prompting them.
• At times, the planning of routines, such as when new children are settling into the nursery, does not support children as well as it could. For example, some babies who are new to the setting and are still settling in become upset. However, staff do not successfully comfort them to ensure that their first experiences at the setting are as positive as they might be.
• Older children respond promptly to requests, such as to tidy away. Staff give a five-minute warning that prepares children for the change of activity.
• Occasionally, activities are too advanced for the older children, resulting in them being reluctant to join in or to 'have a go'. For example, when asked today's date, children do not have the knowledge to be able to answer or to take a guess.
• Children learn about how to keep themselves safe and their bodies healthy. Older children independently wash their hands before eating and talk confidently about how they keep their teeth healthy.
• Leaders and staff meet regularly to review what they want children to learn. Staff know children well and plan their provision around children's interests to engage them in learning.
• Leaders identify training that will support staff in their role. They enable staff to implement changes to their practice as a result of what they have learned. For example, following training on outdoor provision, staff have made changes to the outside areas and introduced new themes. Children are enthusiastic to explore and join staff in digging in the garden and talking about what they find.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that all activities are age-appropriate for older children and build on their previous knowledge
• ensure that routines are planned so that they fully support younger children, especially those that are new to the setting.