Woodberry Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are highly settled, happy and busy. They thrive in the warm and welcoming environment of the setting. Children have warm relationships with staff, who they seek out to read stories, share ideas and tell them about important things happening in their lives. Children demonstrate high levels of engagement. They are inquisitive and make links to their past learning to help make sense of current experiences. For instance, during a woodwork activity, children explain that they need to wear goggles 'to keep their eyes safe'. Children show immense focus as they carefully hammer nails into wood. They predict if the nail will go through the wood, and they confidently measure and count the nails as they work.

Staff share consistently high expectations for every child. They establish exceptional partnerships with other professionals, such as occupational health and speech therapists. This helps them to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities superbly. For example, staff regularly ask parents to seek advice and review children's progress. All children make good progress.

Children's behaviour is outstanding. They demonstrate huge amounts of kindness towards others. For example, children ask the inspector her name when she arrives, offer her stickers and make her some 'raspberry milk' in the role-play area. Staff teach children to respect one another. They provide excellent opportunities for children to talk about their feelings and emotions and build their emotional resilience. The nursery is a very happy and harmonious one.

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

• Leaders have a clear vision for continued excellence and place children at the heart of everything they do. They reflect on and evaluate their provision consistently. Leaders use staff's extensive knowledge of children's learning experiences and progress to identify ways to further improve and ensure that each individual child's needs are met. They gather feedback from parents in a variety of ways to ensure that each family has a voice and can influence their plans. Leaders are genuinely passionate about the children, their families and the staff. This creates a nurturing, respectful atmosphere that is felt throughout the setting.
• Children explore books, writing opportunities and mathematics in all the areas in which they play. They take part in small-group activities with great enthusiasm. For example, children enjoy taking 'notes' on paper when they take the inspector's order in the 'café'. This helps to develop their literacy and creative skills. Children show a huge interest in books. Younger children snuggle in for a cuddle while staff read to them. Older children copy some of the actions they see on the pages. For example, they 'stomp' their feet just like the character does in the book. Children show pride when they successfully stack foam blocks on top of each other. They use mathematical language as they carefully count all the blocks with staff.
• Staff prioritise healthy lifestyles. The nursery's menu is healthy and nutritious. Children have countless opportunities to be independent. When they arrive, they find their own water bottle and fill it themselves. Children carefully serve themselves lunch, sharing with staff that they can see that they are having broccoli and fish to eat. Children show high levels of understanding about how to keep themselves safe. For example, children eagerly explain that it is important to keep the kitchen tidy, otherwise there will be 'hazards'.
• Leaders place great emphasis on staff's well-being. They work collaboratively with staff and are always available should staff have any concerns. This creates a positive working environment where staff enjoy coming to work and strive to help the children flourish. Staff have countless opportunities to develop their own professional development. For example, some staff have recently completed training in supporting babies' development. Staff feel this has given them a deeper understanding of the importance of facial communication and how to support children's emotional development.
• Partnerships with parents are outstanding. Parents are extremely happy with the high-quality service which they receive. They comment that their children show high levels of 'compassion and kindness' since starting at the nursery. Leaders place a huge focus on creating strong relationships with children's families. For example, parents have regular meetings with their child's key person, sharing ideas and working collaboratively.
• Leaders and staff create a culturally rich and diverse learning environment. Staff organise many cultural events and activities to celebrate each child's uniqueness and to help them learn about their differences. For example, parents recently spent time in the nursery, such as coming in to teach children about Diwali. Staff talk to children in their home languages at points throughout the day. The atmosphere and curriculum successfully help children to develop high self-esteem and highly respectful attitudes.