Woodlands Early Learning

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily into the nursery and are greeted warmly by staff. Babies and younger children develop strong, nurturing relationships with their key staff. They settle confidently into the new nursery routines and demonstrate that they feel safe and well cared for. Children behave well. Pre-schoolers listen well to staff. They understand and respond to the rules that are in place to keep them safe. All children enjoy being independent and are keen to manage some age-appropriate routines for themselves. For instance, babies learn how to tip and drink from their water bottles, to support their good physical skills. Toddlers take great pride in feeding themselves using spoons. They develop good hand-to-eye coordination skills as they carefully scoop and transfer foods to their mouths.

Staff are deployed effectively and provide an exciting environment in which children can make independent choices and become active learners. Children are very inquisitive, and staff enable them to become engrossed in the activities and explore their own ideas. For example, older children notice the marks they make in flour. They trace shapes and identify letters that represent those found in their names. Children's speaking and listening skills are good, as they are immersed in experiences that broaden their language skills. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress from their starting points.

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

• The management team works well together. Leadership within the nursery is good. There is a strong culture of mutual respect and a shared vision of enabling children to make the best possible progress. Recent changes to the curriculum are still in their infancy. The management team recognises that there is yet more that can be done to embed this, to enable staff to have a more precise understanding of what they want children to achieve next.
• Staff promote children's communication and language skills well. From the outset, staff model language and provide clear explanations of what new words mean. For instance, as staff talk to babies, they introduce words such as 'reflection' as they share picture books. Older children talk confidently to staff, and to each other. Staff teach them new words and help children to use these in their conversations with their friends. For example, as staff talk about 'camouflage', children test ideas about what can be seen and what is hidden as they use this new language confidently in their discussions.
• Children behave well. Staff are highly respectful in their interactions with children. Consequently, children learn how to play cooperatively with their peers. For instance, toddlers take turns to choose favourite songs to sing at rhyme time. They wait patiently for their turn and join in with songs that their friends choose. Children learn about the unique qualities they have, as staff value and celebrate these. This helps all children to learn about tolerance and respect and enables them to be prepared well for life in modern Britain.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff share a range of information with parents to ensure they are kept updated with children's daily activities and achievements. For all children, including those with SEND, these partnerships support a shared approach to children's care and learning. These strong partnerships contribute to the good progress children make.
• Staff support children's physical skills well. Children enjoy active play and are confident and coordinated in their movements. For example, staff help younger children to develop their fine-motor skills as they use spray bottles to paint paper. They skilfully teach and enable children to persist at more difficult tasks. Children learn to use the trigger to spray in their creative play. Babies develop core muscles. They gain confidence as they are encouraged to stretch and reach for toys. Toddlers climb steps to the slide, practising their new skills with growing confidence.
• The nursery has recently seen changes in staff, including some who are new to senior roles. Staff teaching is good. This has a positive impact on the progress that children make. Staff benefit from supervision and coaching opportunities to continue to build good-quality teaching. However, this does not focus on enabling all staff to gain skills and knowledge that can be used to enhance the support for individual children's learning, based on their particular needs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• embed the curriculum more securely and enhance the intent behind planned activities to help extend children's learning even further
• focus staff professional development more precisely on gaining skills and knowledge that can be used to enhance the support for individual children's learning, based on their particular needs.