Castle House Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and settled at this happy and friendly nursery. They confidently separate from their parents at the gate and enter the nursery with excitement, greeting their friends and quickly settling to an activity of their choice. Children have access to a wide range of activities and opportunities indoors and outdoors.

They show perseverance in their learning and stay focused and engaged. All children make good progress in their learning. They are learning the skills they need to help prepare them for their eventual move to school.

Children demonstrate good bonds with staff, who are kind, caring and attentive ...to their needs. Children behave well and show kindness and consideration to each other. They share and take turns when using the toys and help each other to find the right piece of puzzle to fit into their jigsaw.

Children of all ages thoroughly enjoy the time they spend at forest school. They eagerly search for living creatures and show great excitement when they find frogs, newts and worms. Staff remind children to show kindness and respect for these creatures.

This helps children to learn how to care for living things and the natural world around them.

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

Staff are knowledgeable about how children learn. They get to know children well.

They use their observations and assessments to plan for children's future learning needs. However, staff do not always involve parents in the initial assessments when children first start at the nursery. This means that staff do not always plan as precisely as possible for children's learning from the very beginning.

Parents are very happy with the service provided by the nursery. They say their children enjoy attending and talk excitedly about what they do at the nursery. Parents appreciate how much their children have progressed in their learning since attending.

They value the information staff share with them, such as photos and daily updates about their child's day. However, not all parents are aware of the plans for their children's next steps in learning to enable them to continue to support their learning at home.Staff promote children's communication and language skills well.

Staff engage children in frequent conversations and discussions throughout the day. They babble with babies and introduce new words for them to listen to and repeat. Toddlers enjoy listening to well-read stories and join in with songs and rhymes.

Pre-school children are beginning to form complex sentences to express their needs and wants.Staff help children to develop healthy lifestyles. Children enjoy practising their gross motor skills as they climb on the indoor climbing frame and negotiate the slopes in the forest school area.

Children follow good hygiene routines. They understand the importance of washing their hands before eating and after using the toilet.Staff feel well supported in their roles.

They benefit from regular training and opportunities for supervision sessions from leaders. This helps to build on staff's already good practice and improves the outcomes for all children.Staff act as good role models for children's behaviour.

They remind children of the rules of the nursery and give children gentle age-appropriate reminders. Consequently, children behave well and play cooperatively with each other.Staff help children to develop their independence skills.

They encourage children to carry out manageable tasks for themselves, such as putting on their own wellies before going outside to play and serving their own food at mealtimes. Children readily help to tidy away their plates after mealtimes.Staff place a strong focus on promoting children's personal, social and emotional development.

Children approach staff with confidence. For example, they politely ask staff for help with putting on an apron before they join in with a painting activity. This shows that children are settled and have developed positive relationships with staff.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a good understanding of child protection issues. They can identify signs and symptoms which may indicate that a child is at risk of harm.

Staff understand the procedure to follow should they have concerns about a child's welfare. Staff supervise children well and maintain a safe environment for them. The nominated individual has failed to notify Ofsted of a recent significant event.

However, this has had no impact on children's safety and welfare because the nominated individual reported this to other agencies and appropriate action was taken to investigate the concern.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date improve knowledge and understanding of when it is required to notify Ofsted of a significant event.01/09/2023 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: gather more detailed information from parents about what children already know and can do, to further inform the plans for children's learning from the very beginning nextend the information-sharing with parents further so that all parents know their child's individual next steps and can support their learning at home.

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