Briar Dene Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are extremely well cared for in a safe, secure and welcoming environment.

Staff ensure that every child enjoys a broad and exciting range of activities that reflect their individual needs and learning styles. Resources are plentiful, well maintained and organised effectively to encourage children to make independent choices. Ratios of staff to children are exceeded and this helps to ensure that children receive high-quality interaction.

Routines run smoothly as staff are well deployed to support children in their play. Children are motivated and excited to explore activities. For example, they eagerly make lea...f prints with paint and sponges as staff talk to them about how leaves change colour and introduce the word 'autumn'.

Furthermore, children delight in participating in Spanish lessons, where they learn to say 'hello' and 'goodbye' and sing Spanish songs. A great emphasis is placed on children's physical well-being. Children enjoy 'Fit Fridays', eat healthy packed lunches and brush their teeth after meals.

They engage in energetic play as they skilfully operate wheeled toys, navigating the space available. Staff have high expectations for children and praise them for their efforts and achievements. Children concentrate well and are engaged and enthused in the learning opportunities available to them.

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

Children are highly valued as individuals. The exciting range of resources and activities allow them to thrive in their environment. The curriculum reflects children's needs and interests, and staff are skilled at providing differentiation to ensure that each child is appropriately challenged.

However, staff do not gather precise information about children's existing skills and abilities when they first start, in order to inform planning from the outset.Children enjoy looking at books and sharing their favourite stories. Staff read enthusiastically to children and encourage them to predict what might happen next.

Books are made available for each child to take home and enjoy with their family, cultivating children's early love of reading.Staff support children's developing language skills well. They introduce new words, ask questions, use repetition and help children to build sentences, encouraging them to explain and describe what they are doing.

Young children are becoming skilful communicators as they articulate their needs and feelings.Children's emotional well-being is paramount. A successful key-person system supports children to establish close attachments with staff.

Children are beginning to learn how to take turns and listen to others. However, occasionally staff are too quick to help children rather than encouraging them to solve their own problems. For example, as young children begin to learn to share toys, staff intervene too quickly, rather than supporting children to find a solution.

Staff work well as a team. They have regular meetings to evaluate the effectiveness of their provision and continuously reflect on their practice and the experiences they provide for children. Good use of training, coaching and supervision meetings to develop staff's knowledge and experience helps to improve practice and outcomes for children.

Parents are highly valued as partners and speak very positively about the provision, warmly describing the friendliness of the staff team and how happy their children are to attend. Staff provide parents with regular updates about their child's progress and utilise an online app to aid communication even further. This approach also affords parents frequent opportunities to contribute what their child is learning at home so that staff can build this into the curriculum that they offer.

Leaders successfully monitor and review the quality of their provision and the progress that children make. They capture the views of staff, children and parents and use this information to inform future developments. For example, leaders have plans in place to introduce home visits before children commence their placement and are exploring ideas for further opportunities for outdoor learning, for example visiting local farms.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.All staff understand their responsibilities to safeguard children and can capably describe procedures for working with relevant agencies to protect children from harm or neglect. Stringent recruitment and vetting arrangements are in place to ensure that those working with children are suitable to carry out their role.

Staff follow comprehensive procedures with regard to the recording of accidents. Detailed risk assessments are completed daily to cover all areas that children use and identify potential hazards and how risks are minimised.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: gather more precise information from parents when children first start at the setting, in order to inform the curriculum at the earliest opportunity support staff to develop their teaching skills so that they maximise opportunities for children to be able to think critically and solve their own problems.