Clerkenwell Mount Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Staff provide a safe and secure environment for children. Leaders have carefully considered the layout of each room. For example, they ensure that babies have space to crawl and different levels to pull themselves up and start cruising.

Children have access to a wealth of natural, open-ended resources to enable them to make choices about their play. However, staff sometimes fail to engage in this child-led play to enhance or extend the learning. Leaders broadly outline what they want children to learn.

However, they struggle to articulate a curriculum that is carefully sequenced over time to ensure progression for all chi...ldren. This cascades down to the staff team, as practitioners cannot identify the curriculum priorities for the children they work with. They show a lack of understanding about the learning intent behind activities.

This places limitations on the progress that children make. Leaders have introduced 'golden rules' across the setting and bought books to promote discussion around feelings. However, staff do not demonstrate a shared understanding of positive behaviour management.

Some staff offer praise and warmth that builds children's self-esteem, but other staff are repeatedly heard using negative language to manage behaviour. They fail to be specific about what children have done wrong or what they expect them to do instead. As such, children are not always supported to make positive choices.

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

Leaders aim for a child-centred approach to planned learning, based on individual children's needs and interests. However, there have been staffing challenges that have impacted on the key person system. Staff have not developed consistently warm and secure relationships with their key children.

As such, staff struggle to identify children's next steps to ensure they are tailoring the curriculum to meet individual needs.Staff do not have a shared understanding of what they want children to learn, and this leads to inconsistencies in practice. For example, leaders share that a curriculum priority is building children's independence skills.

While there are some examples of this, such as older children brushing their teeth together after lunch, other staff blow children's noses for them, or simply leave them with runny noses for far too long.Staff sometimes interact purposefully with children. For example, staff in the baby room warmly support the youngest children to build a tower.

They use Makaton to sign 'one more' and model counting as blocks are added. However, other staff fail to observe children which sometimes results in interrupting their play or redirecting them to activities they have not chosen. Despite this, children do engage with the activities available and show interest and enjoyment as they do so.

Some practitioners are strong models of spoken English and communicate with children with an enthusiastic, warm voice. For example, they encourage children to sing 'Five Little Speckled Frogs' and model mathematical language as toy frogs are taken away. However, there are instances when staff fail to engage with children to model language or promote conversation, or even fail to respond when children offer their thoughts and ideas.

This does not support children's language development but also fails to teach them that their voice is important.Staff are not working together to deliver consistent rules and routines, with notable weaknesses at transition points. For example, babies are upset when their familiar adults go upstairs and leave them with less familiar staff.

Staff sometimes promote positive behaviour, for example, encouraging children to take turns to go down the slide. However, strategies are not shared across the team to support more challenging behaviours. On occasion, this results in situations being escalated rather than calmly and appropriately managed.

Staff understand the importance of ensuring all children are included and represented in the setting. They have invested in books in different languages and arrange events to celebrate different cultures. For example, children enjoy dressing up in African fabrics as part of their ongoing learning following Black History Month.

Staff invite parents to join these celebrations and share their cultural backgrounds.Senior leaders with oversight of the nursery are aware of their roles and responsibilities. They have a clear vision for the nursery, and an action plan to ensure ongoing improvements.

They accurately identify their strengths and areas for improvement. As such, they show capacity to improve and are committed to building the staff team and securing better outcomes for all children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date strengthen the key person system to support settled relationships for children and to ensure staff understand children's individual needs, interests, and next steps in development 26/11/2024 develop a cohesive curriculum that is carefully sequenced to ensure children build on their learning over time 26/11/2024 provide staff with support and training to understand the curriculum intent and how this can be delivered in practice, including through skilful interactions with children 26/11/2024 build a shared approach to ensuring children's behaviour is managed in a consistently supportive and appropriate way.26/11/2024 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nensure that staff actively listen to children and respond appropriately when they share their thoughts and ideas nembed the rules and routines of the setting, including improving transitions to ensure the needs of all children are met at these times.