Discovery Nursery School (Portsmouth)

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children confidently enter the setting and seek out cuddles from their key person. They know the routine well and quickly hang their coats on pegs before excitedly greeting friends. Children happily explore in this welcoming and friendly setting.

They demonstrate that they feel safe and secure. For example, they involve staff in their play and laugh as they join in with them waving flags to celebrate the King's coronation.Children benefit from an interesting curriculum that is designed to meet their individual needs.

The curriculum that staff deliver offers challenge and encourages children to develop their confidence ...and independence skills. For instance, children decide to make a cake for a 'coronation picnic'. They work together cooperatively to add ingredients to a bowl.

Children use a sand timer to check when the cake is ready to be taken out of the oven and make a 'Ching, Ching' sound to indicate the cake is cooked. Children speak to each other with respect as they pass each other cooking tools to achieve the desired result.Children are confident communicators.

They enjoy listening to stories that staff read to them and excitedly repeat the words, showing they know it well. Children enthusiastically sing a welcome song to their friends and smile and wave to each other. They finish the song and jump up quickly before heading off to play with toys together.

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

The manager leads her team well. She values staff well-being, and they speak of the positive support they receive. Effective staff supervision sessions are in place.

The manager holds regular discussions with staff to identify their strengths and areas for improvement. This enables staff to access appropriate training to support children in their care. For example, staff have completed training on behaviour management and implemented new strategies to support children with how to manage their emotions.

Staff provide an engaging curriculum. They take into account children's ideas and their previous learning. Staff have a good understanding of what children need to learn next.

They assess children's progress and plan interesting and engaging activities. The manager and her staff have a clear vision for the setting and are passionate about encouraging children to be confident and kind to each other. Children behave well and show determination as they work together to move coloured rice from one area to another.

They discuss the different coloured rice, and staff support this by telling children that the colours represent the coronation.Children demonstrate a love of creative activities. For instance, they join in with group activities, such as potato printing, and choose their preferred colour of paint.

Different-aged children explore with the paint and mix colours to create new ones. However, staff are not fully effective at adapting the activity to maximise the involvement of younger children. For example, they do not consider beforehand the amount of resources needed to fully promote their involvement and attention.

This impacts children's enjoyment of their learning.Staff support children to develop effective communication skills. They tailor their interactions with children well, such as by using different types of questioning techniques to check children's understanding and encourage them to use new words.

For example, when children find a feather, staff encourage them to describe it. Children successfully use words such as 'soft', 'white' and 'fluffy' to describe it accurately. This demonstrates their growing vocabulary.

Parents speak very positively about the setting. They comment that they are happy with the care their children are receiving and talk about the warm and supportive staff. Parents appreciate the regular communication they receive and state that their children are making good progress with their learning and development.

They speak of the support they have received when the manager has involved other professionals, such as speech and language therapists.Additional funding is used appropriately to enrich the curriculum, and this has a positive impact on children's development. For example, children have recently learned about the life cycle of animals through real-life experiences that they otherwise would not have had.

This helps them to learn about living things and how to care for them.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.All staff have a clear understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities.

The manager ensures that all staff have regular safeguarding training to keep their knowledge up to date. All staff demonstrate a clear understanding of what to do if they are concerned about a child or a member of staff. They are aware of the possible signs and symptoms that may indicate that a child is at risk of harm.

The manager follows safer recruitment procedures to ensure that the staff who directly work with children are suitable to do so. Detailed risk assessments are in place to promote children's safety.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: review the organisation of group activities to promote the involvement of younger children.