Barley Wood Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and well cared for in the nursery. Babies and toddlers form close bonds with staff, who provide lots of comfort and reassurance and meet their care routines consistently. This helps children to feel safe and secure.

Children behave well and learn positive attitudes and good social skills. They listen politely when others talk, play kindly and follow instructions well. Staff have high expectations of what children can achieve.

They provide challenges and new experiences to build on children's interests and what they can do. Children benefit from a broad curriculum of activities to support all areas of... their learning. This includes regular activities in the surrounding gardens and woodland.

For example, older children find natural resources in the woods to make faces with clay, adding leaves, moss and twigs. They learn to identify plants and creatures and to respect the environment, for example only collecting leaves that have fallen and not those growing on the trees. Children of all ages are eager to join in activities.

They confidently make their own choices and engage well as they explore and learn. The nursery staff have adapted their practice to keep children and families safe throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, staff arrange flexible settling-in sessions before children start and use electronic systems to keep parents informed about their children's care and development.

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

The quality of teaching is good. Staff monitor and plan children's learning effectively from the start. Key persons know the children well and have efficient systems to ensure all staff understand what each child's focused next steps of learning are.

Staff adapt activities to support children's learning styles and needs. For example, they provide small-group sessions in the 'Zen room' to help children concentrate without distraction.Overall, staff encourage children's communication and language skills well.

They instigate lots of discussions with older children and talk through babies' actions and verbalise their babbles. Children learn new words regularly to build their vocabulary. Younger children enjoy naming things they see in picture books.

Older children learn more complex words and meanings, such as what 'nocturnal' means. However, staff do not always allow quieter children time to answer questions to encourage their thinking and language skills even further.Staff respond well to children's choices and ideas to build further on their learning and creativity.

For example, children create a pretend campfire in the wood where they thread leaves onto sticks to 'toast marshmallows'. Staff provide musical instruments for babies to join in singing games to keep them engaged.Staff work in partnership with parents and external professionals effectively.

This ensures they meet children's individual care and learning needs and include all children equally in the activities.Children develop some good skills to help them build their confidence and independence in readiness for school. Older children learn to change their clothes for outdoor play and serve themselves at mealtimes.

Children learn how to identify and manage risks well, such as how to behave safely near fires and by the pond.Staff provide lots of activities to encourage children's physical development. Overall, they support children in developing healthy lifestyles.

For example, children learn about dental care and good handwashing routines and enjoy fresh and nutritious meals together. However, on occasions, staff are not consistent in their approach to help children learn how to clean their own noses hygienically.The management team and staff evaluate the quality of provision successfully to make ongoing improvements.

For instance, they are currently developing the garden to provide more learning opportunities and making improvements to the building to ensure all areas remain safe and secure for children.The management team supports staff's professional development effectively. All staff either hold or are working towards early years qualifications.

They benefit from supervision sessions with the manager to help build their knowledge and skills. The management team values staff's welfare and well-being and provides services and special events to help support these.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The management team follows robust recruitment and vetting procedures to ensure staff and apprentices are suitable to care for children. Staff have a good understanding of their safeguarding roles and responsibilities. They attend training and have regular updates to help them understand the risks to children from a wide range of safeguarding issues.

Staff know what procedures to follow in the event of a concern about a child to safeguard their welfare. They use effective risk assessments to monitor the premises, environment and activities to help keep children safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: provide time for quieter children to think and answer questions to develop their language skills even further help older children to learn how to clean their noses hygienically themselves.