Your Co-Op Little Pioneers Nursery and Pre-School Emersons Green

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders know children and families well. They provide an inclusive level of support for parents and carers and wider families. For instance, parents can take a variety of resource bags to use at home, such as cookery kits. The ingredients are supplied so that all families have equal access to this experience. Leaders ensure that children, parents and staff are all valued as central partners in the nursery community, creating an inclusive environment. Leaders and staff monitor children's progress and typically identify potential barriers to learning, and they take action to reduce these. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive clear support and adaptations in the setting and help from other specialists from within the organisation. However, referrals to local authority partners do not consistently happen at sufficient speed. This means that children do not consistently benefit from all potential support routes.

Staff receive suitable training to support them in adapting their practice to ensure that all children are included. For instance, they recently completed specialist training in a speech and language programme. This was in response to leaders identifying a growing need in this area within their community. Staff typically make considered changes to meet children's needs, such as using visual images to help them to communicate. Leaders ensure that additional funding is carefully spent to benefit children. They have a clear knowledge of supporting children who are known to children's social care.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders have embedded a clear curriculum which is well understood by staff. Typically, staff know children well and adapt their interactions to meet children's needs. This ensures that all children are included. For instance, when children are developing their speaking skills, staff carefully model and repeat key words and short sentences for them to copy. Throughout the setting, children develop a real love of books. Babies confidently pass books to staff to read with them and older children spend time looking at books independently.

Mathematical knowledge is carefully woven through the curriculum. Staff embed mathematical language in play, such as discussing children's birth months, supporting a developing understanding of time. Babies join in increasingly with number rhymes and staff support older children to extend their knowledge. For instance, staff help children to explore early addition and record number sentences. Where teaching is best, staff deliberately ask children lots of broad questions. This helps children to explore their thinking and develop their communication skills. However, not all interactions are consistently of this quality. At times, staff are more supervisory in their roles and do not use all interactions as a chance to move children's learning forward.

Achievement: Expected standard

Typically, children make secure progress across the curriculum. Children develop their imagination and creativity. For instance, they create images from paper cuttings and glue. They explain what they create to staff, developing their communication skills. Some children start to use adventurous language, such as 'gigantic'.

Generally, children become increasingly independent. Babies learn to feed themselves with spoons and pre-school children serve their own food with tongs. Children are typically well prepared for their next stage in learning. For instance, toddlers start to drink from open cups and eat without bibs to prepare them for their move on to the next room. Children become increasingly confident, curious explorers. For instance, they ask staff to find out more information about things that they notice, such as which species of fish they are looking at. Their confidence grows as they become competent in sharing their needs and feelings. For example, they tell staff when they have finished eating or would like more fruit.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Leaders have established a positive and purposeful atmosphere in the setting. At all stages, songs are used to signal times of change in routine and children generally respond well to these. For instance, toddlers join in with a 'jumping bean' song, and know to wash their hands once it finishes. These clear, embedded routines help children to know what is expected of them. Children build warm and secure relationships with staff, and the key-person system is effective.

Staff generally have high expectations for children's behaviour, and children typically behave well. However, on occasion, there are some inconsistencies in how staff manage children's behaviour. Generally, staff match their expectations to children's age and stage of development. For instance, they help toddlers to scrape their plates at the table, before they learn to scrape into the bins in pre-school.

Children learn to collaborate, such as by making sandcastles together. When they struggle to find solutions to problems, staff typically help them to negotiate and share. Staff encourage children to consider their friends' needs. For instance, they remind them to take care with other children's sandcastles when they have spent time making them. Leaders have embedded a culture where attendance is important. Children typically attend well.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders and staff give children's welfare and wellbeing the very highest priority. Staff are wholly attentive to children's care needs. Leaders and staff have a comprehensive knowledge of children and they use this to inform their care. For instance, they update weaning plans for children each week. Leaders ensure that policies and procedures are developed with children's welfare at the heart. For example, they have created individual sleep risk assessments for each child in response to recent national findings. Staff implement secure routines which enable children to eat well, sleep well and thrive. For instance, children learn about healthy foods as they grow their own vegetables and identify them in their meals. Children eat more healthily as a result, and they build lifelong healthy habits. Mealtimes are positive, social occasions and staff encourage children to try new things.

Children learn to keep themselves safe. For example, they remind peers to turn to face the table while eating. Children benefit from the high level of support their families receive. This creates a positive, holistic experience. The children replicate this sense of community as they learn to share responsibility for their environment, such as by clearing their plates when they finish lunch. Children learn to understand and manage their emotions effectively. For instance, they choose to use a dark den to take time to calm themselves when needed.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders typically have clear oversight of the setting. They continually take action to improve children's experiences and have made considerable improvements in recent months. Leaders have a very clear knowledge of the local community that they serve. They regularly collect and analyse data about their local area and use this to inform their provision. This enables them to consistently make decisions that are in the best interests of the children who attend.

Leaders typically prioritise staff's wellbeing and job satisfaction. For instance, they complete staff satisfaction surveys regularly. Leaders keep staff updated on their actions with regular 'you said, we did' feedback, and staff appreciate leaders' support. They feel that they are valued members of their community and benefit from regular, tailored training. However, staff have not yet received all the training that they need to ensure that teaching and behaviour management is consistent. Leaders also regularly conduct feedback surveys and meetings with parents and carers. Parents also typically feel that they are welcomed as members of the community. Parents value the support that they receive from leaders and staff, especially with parenting challenges, such as potty training. This support enables them to get their children potty trained early. They recognise the progress that their children make, especially with their communication, as a result of their experiences in the nursery. Leaders provide a wealth of guidance for families, such as specialist advice for parents with twins and triplets.

At times, leaders have not pursued all potential avenues to support all children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, at pace. This is because staffing challenges have taken them away from some leadership tasks and they have not consistently had time for all elements of their roles to further develop high standards across the setting.