Castle nurseries at Montagu

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children are extremely settled, happy and secure at this very welcoming, friendly and inclusive setting. They benefit from highly stimulating and exciting activities. For example, the setting uses funding to provide weekly yoga sessions to help children feel calm and manage their emotions.

Children explored with ice and snow, helped to carve pumpkins and investigated outside in the well-equipped mud kitchen. They chose from a wide range of excellent resources for exploration and investigation. For example, everyday objects organised into metal, wood, and tactile materials that help stimulate children's interest and ignit...e their curiosity.

All staff are trained in sign language. This is used very successfully throughout the nursery to provide excellent support for children's developing communication skills.Support for children's well-being is outstanding.

Staff work very closely with parents and other professionals to support children's emotional development. The nursery has joined a new scheme working with specialist teachers to support children's mental health. It has also taken part in an initiative to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) with their move to school.

Extremely well-structured daily routines help children feel safe and secure. Staff actively use visual timetables to help reassure children and remind them what is expected of them next. Children's behaviour is excellent.

They enjoy superb relationships with the dedicated staff who want only the very best for them.

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

Partnerships with other professionals are outstanding. Children with SEND are extremely well supported.

Staff help ensure that agreed strategies for individual children are implemented consistently. They are trained to provide very meaningful one-to-one sessions for children, using a range of carefully selected equipment linked to their current interests. This is highly effective in terms of the impact on children's progress.

Children receive specific praise for their achievements. This supports them to know exactly what they have done well and helps raise their self-esteem. All staff consistently embed clear boundaries.

For example, they use visual prompts and signing to gently remind children how to sit, watch and behave before story time begins. Staff support children's growing sense of their own identity. For example, by encouraging young children to explore with mirrors during care routines.

There is an exceptionally strong focus throughout the nursery on children's well-being. Key persons often move with their key children on to the next room or school to support exemplary consistency of care. Staff are trained in mental health issues and know how to resolve conflict.

Partnerships with parents are extremely strong. Parents speak very highly of the nursery and of the support they receive. A focused and well-considered programme of training helps staff know how to support parents to make healthy choices.

For example, all staff are trained to support mothers to make informed choices about breastfeeding. Healthy lifestyles are promoted throughout the nursery and detailed information on toileting and healthy diets is made readily available to parents.Teaching is outstanding.

The highly qualified and experienced staff are very skilled and sensitive in their interactions with children. Children are fully engaged and play cooperatively together. They are enthusiastic, confident and motivated to learn.

Staff's knowledge of child development is excellent. There is a thorough understanding of the steps children need to go through to acquire new skills and embed learning. For example, children in the two-year-old room are provided with large white boards joined together at floor level.

These provide excellent opportunities for them to make marks through large-scale movements. This helps to support their future attempts at early writing.Support for children's developing communication and language is outstanding.

Staff repeat words, introduce new vocabulary and wait very patiently for children to respond. They use short, simple sentences and visual prompts to support children who speak English as an additional language. Staff take time to talk to children about the title of the book and the author, and explain patiently about the story's beginning and end.

Provision for physical development is outstanding. Very carefully considered provision of resources for all children provides excellent levels of challenge. Nursery gyms are provided in every room.

These include steps to help children learn how to keep themselves safe when using stairs. Staff are highly effective in helping children stay strong and healthy as they encourage them to climb, stretch, slide and crawl.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager has an excellent understanding of her responsibilities around safeguarding. Both she and her staff team keep themselves up to date with procedures to keep children safe. They know very well how to identify any concerns with children or staff, what procedures to take and who to contact.

The nursery is very secure and there are highly robust policies and routines in place to support safe practice. Staff have a high level of awareness of how to keep children safe. They encourage children to walk safely in line and tidy toys, so they do not trip.