Woodlanders

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy in this friendly and nurturing nursery. Managers have created an ambitious curriculum that staff understand. They create interesting learning opportunities for children and adapt activities so every child can explore and learn. Children have lots of opportunities to explore nature and the wider world. They develop their understanding of other countries and languages during weekly French lessons. Staff further support children to understand other cultures by creating learning environments that are rich in images and books that provoke discussions about how different people live. They celebrate festivals such as Ramadan and Lunar New Year. Children learn about nature. For example, older children explore activities about sunflowers. They weigh sunflower seeds and draw the different stages of the plant's life. Children of all ages experience the life cycle of ducks as they help incubate duckling eggs in the nursery. Staff guide children to be curious and positive learners. They celebrate children's achievements, and children know they are valued.

Children enjoy lots of outdoor play and develop physical skills like balancing and climbing in well-equipped outdoor areas. They develop road safety awareness as they walk with staff to the local library. Children enjoy exchanging books and listen to the librarian read stories.

Children have many opportunities to role play. Parents visit and talk to the children about their work, such as being a vet or a builder, and then children role play these jobs. Older children develop social skills in the home area where they play with toy babies and make food for each other in the toy kitchen.

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

• Managers ensure that staff understand the curriculum. Staff confidently know what they want children to learn and plan interesting activities. Children engage and are curious learners. For example, children enjoy mathematics activities that are carefully planned, build on what children already know and develop their knowledge of weight, measure and counting. However, staff do not always develop activities further to engage and focus older children for longer and to extend their learning and development even more.
• Managers have good relationships with other early years professionals. They have strong links with local primary schools, and children's transitions to school are positive. However, managers do not contact other settings when a child attends another provision, to increase the support they can provide in children's learning and development.
• Staff have high expectations for children, and children's behaviour is good. Children are kind to each other, share and are polite. For example, at snack times, older children say 'please' and 'thank you' without prompting. Children recognise how their behaviour impacts on others. Younger children eagerly follow instructions. For example, they promptly get ready to go outdoors when asked. However, at mealtimes, staff pour older children's drinks and select and serve the snacks, missing these daily opportunities to increase older children's independence skills, particularly when they eat.
• Children are good communicators and hold interesting conversations with staff and their friends. The curriculum places a good emphasis on developing children's language and communication skills. Children enjoy explaining what they know and can do. They have free access to lots of interesting books, which they enjoy looking at. Staff often read books to children. Managers recognise the impact of COVID-19 on children's communication skills. They have provided staff with training to support children to increase their vocabulary. For example, during a project about dentists, staff guided children to learn new words like 'plaque' and 'decay'. Managers track children's progress and make effective changes in response to the results they find. For example, they coach staff to slow down and use simpler words during conversations with younger children.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress across the different areas of learning. The nursery's experienced special educational needs coordinator supports staff well to guide children in their learning and development. Parents of children with SEND feel well supported. Staff successfully use sign language to enable younger children to communicate.
• Parents recommend the nursery to others. They are happy with the care their children receive and comment that their children enjoy coming to the nursery. Parents are positive about the communication they receive from the nursery. They know what activities their children do and report that their children make good progress in their communication and physical development. Leaders and managers go above and beyond to support local families. They donate to the local food bank and have created a clothes swap shop in the nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more coaching for staff to build their skills to extend activities to consistently provide older children with further challenge
• develop the communication strategies when children attend other settings, to increase support in children's learning and development
• make the most of daily opportunities to increase older children's independence skills.