Woodstock Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this homely, welcoming nursery. Some are so excited to greet the staff and meet their friends that they need reminding about saying goodbye to parents when they arrive. Children benefit from good-quality teaching which supports their learning and the good progress they make. Each child's personal qualities are planned for. Staff work hard to make sure all children, including those who need extra help and support, achieve to the best of their abilities.

Children behave well. They make friends easily and form close attachments to the staff. These relationships continued during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions as staff kept in touch with children and parents regularly to check on their well-being and to offer support. For example, staff recorded stories so that children could enjoy these at home with their families. They also provided additional resources so parents could continue to support children's learning at home. When children returned to nursery, they settled back in easily.

Children demonstrate that they feel safe at nursery. They approach staff readily for reassurance and comfort, knowing their needs will be met and staff will respond accordingly. Children move from room to room confidently as staff prepare them for change and new routines. This supports children well for starting school.

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

• The nursery's leadership team is effective in driving improvement. Since the last inspection, many improvements have been made. The quality of teaching is now good overall. Leaders recognise where further developments can be made to provide the highest quality experiences. For example, very occasionally, staff miss opportunities to allow children's learning to reach its natural conclusion because they change activities before children are ready to move on or do not always fully respond to children's ideas.
• Leaders use funding well to support children who need extra help with their learning. Good partnerships are formed with parents, schools and any other agencies involved to make sure every child's learning and development needs are clearly understood and planned for. The curriculum is enriched well as leaders use funding to pay for additional specialist teachers and experiences that children may not have had before. For example, a resident artist visits monthly and provides an extensive range of creative activities for children to enjoy.
• The curriculum is planned well. Extra activities are used effectively to extend children's learning. For example, children enjoy regular visits to the beach, park, town and railway station. These outings support children's interests and their desire to learn. For instance, when older children visit the beach, they delight in finding out from the local fishermen what fish have been caught each day.
• Children make friends easily and are kind and respectful of one another. Staff teach them well about the importance of inclusion. Children actively celebrate the differences and similarities between each other. For example, each family's cultural background is respected and staff plan activities to reflect these backgrounds in the curriculum. However, staff are not yet using the additional languages children speak at home to help support all children's learning about different linguistic backgrounds.
• Parents praise the nursery staff highly and describe them as 'brilliant' and 'fabulous'.
• There is good support for children's language and mathematical development. Babies develop a good range of vocabulary as staff model language well. As a result, babies regularly use words such as 'more', 'help', 'please' and 'thank you'. Older children build on their language and communication skills. They begin to develop a good understanding of mathematical concepts, for example, as they sing number rhymes and learn to add on and take numbers away.
• Children develop a love of learning as staff engage positively in activities with them. For example, babies delight in developing their exploratory skills as they experience different textures and find out new ways to do things. For example, older babies concentrate and focus for extended periods as they attempt to poke shiny beads into narrow bottles. The delight when they achieve this is evident as they beam with pride and clap their hands to celebrate.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make better provision to incorporate children's home languages and cultures into the nursery curriculum
• improve teaching further to the highest level by making sure that every unplanned opportunity to enrich children's learning is captured and children are always allowed to explore their own ideas in full before adults end activities.