Robins Nest Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive happily at the nursery and settle quickly into their play and learning. Babies benefit from the nurturing care and attention from staff with whom they have formed close bonds. Pre-school children are very sociable and warmly welcome visitors into their room.

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are all well supported for their future learning and school.The managers and staff place a strong emphasis on helping children to develop inquiring minds, to make new discoveries and solve problems for themselves. Two-year-old children investigate what happens to ice as ...it warms up and notice that it melts.

They concentrate as they scoop jelly into various containers. Pre-school children explore how sweets release their colours when water is added to them. They talk about the colourful patterns created.

Staff support children's emotional security well and help them to develop a sense of belonging. Babies are fascinated with their reflection in the mirrors. They enjoy seeing pictures of their families and their homes in their play environment.

Staff fully support children's needs and routines from home. They are flexible with routines, so that babies and young children can eat and sleep at times that suit them best.

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

The managers and staff have taken effective action to successfully raise the quality of the service they provide.

This has had a positive impact on children's experiences at the nursery. The managers monitor staff practice well and provide them with effective supervision, coaching and training. Recent training has helped staff to improve their interactions with children to ensure they engage well in their learning.

Overall, parent partnerships are good. Parents say that the service provided is 'amazing' and how they love to see the joy on their children's faces when they collect them. Staff provide children with information about children's day.

Parents of children with SEND receive thorough communication and support regarding their child's progress. However, staff working with older children do not provide comprehensive information to parents about their children's current learning targets. This means that staff do not fully support all parents with their child's learning at home.

The managers have designed an effective curriculum that reflects the needs of the children who attend the nursery. For example, due to the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on children's experiences, they place a strong focus on supporting children's communication and language skills as well as their personal development. However, the curriculum for older children is not as well developed to precisely identify the skills and knowledge that children need to gain to build on their previous learning.

The special educational needs coordinator provides staff with strong leadership and guidance to ensure that children with SEND are fully supported to work towards their development milestones. She monitors children's progress closely and works well with outside agencies to provide children with targeted support. Staff implement the targeted support skilfully.

For example, children enjoy their focused daily one-to-one interventions with their key person.Staff support children's behaviour consistently across the nursery. Children behave well and understand the staff's expectations of them.

Babies are familiar with the changes throughout the day and help with moving chairs in preparation for lunch. Pre-school children explain how they receive a raffle ticket when they have been helpful and followed the rules, such as tidying up.Children progress well with their communication skills.

Staff provide them with good language models and skilfully use opportunities that arise to extend children's vocabulary. Babies learn words to label objects around them and actions, such as push and pull. Pre-school children join in with repeated refrains from familiar books.

Staff plan well for children's physical development, particularly for the younger children. Babies access a well-planned learning environment that encourages them to stand, kneel and crouch. Two-year-old children concentrate as they use long tweezers to carefully transport pasta between containers that have narrow openings.

The managers ensure that staff implement effective cleaning routines to support children's good health and help to stop the spread of infection. Children learn about the importance of regular handwashing.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The managers and staff complete effective risk assessment to minimise risks to children. This includes implementing effective procedures for administering medication and to check that children are safe when they sleep. Staff supervise children closely as they play.

The managers and staff have a good understanding of safeguarding children. They know potential signs and symptoms that may indicate that a child is at risk of harm and how to report these. This includes monitoring children's attendance and concerns related to the 'Prevent' duty.

Staff understand their duty to report concerns about the conduct of a colleague. The managers complete thorough recruitment checks to verify the suitability of new staff.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nincrease the information provided to parents of older children about their learning targets to further support their development at home nenhance the curriculum for older children, so this is fully ambitious and supports staff even further in their planning for children's learning.