Downham Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children enjoy their time at this welcoming and homely nursery. Staff greet children and their families with a friendly smile and support their transitions into the building. They strive to ensure every child feels safe and secure within their care.

Staff implement individualised settling-in sessions and gather a wealth of information from parents about their child. These are highly effective in helping staff get to know the children well from the start. As a result, children quickly develop strong bonds with staff, including those children who have only been at the setting for a very short amount of time.

Staff plan a... wide range of experiences that children are keen to take part in. Babies happily explore musical toys and dance excitedly as staff sing songs to them. Toddlers build on their understanding of vocabulary as staff introduce new words during role-play activities.

Older children fully immerse themselves in storytelling sessions where they develop an understanding of early reading skills. They turn the pages of their own book and excitedly join in with the actions to match what is happening in the text. Children make good progress in their learning and development.

Staff have high expectations of children. Well-implemented rules and routines help them to understand what is happening now and next. Staff are positive role models and are consistent with expected behaviours.

They offer children lots of praise to boost their self-esteem. This has a positive impact on children's confidence, behaviour and attitudes towards learning. Subsequently, children behave well.

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

The leadership team has a clear drive to provide the best possible care for children and create a curriculum with children's interests and experiences at the centre. Staff use their knowledge of children's individual needs and development to plan activities which ignite children's curiosity. However, some staff's knowledge of the curriculum is not always clear.

They sometimes focus on moving children on in their learning before fully building on the prime areas of learning.Staff implement a range of opportunities and strategies to develop children's love of books. They promote reading by providing cosy book areas, sharing story sacks and encouraging children to bring in their favourite book from home.

Staff provide a lending library to support parents to read with their children at home. During group activities, children join in with repeated phrases of their favourite text and discuss how characters might be feeling. This builds on children's growing vocabulary and develops their understanding of feelings and emotions.

Children engage in conversations with staff throughout the day. As they bake in the mud kitchen, staff encourage them to think about why they need to wash their hands before and after any baking activities. Children confidently comment that they need to wash the 'germs' away.

During snack time, children talk about the different foods on offer. They discuss where the foods may have come from, how they are grown and why they are good for you. Overall, staff use opportunities during discussions to enhance and extend children's knowledge.

However, they do not consistently use these interactions to challenge children's understanding and skills.Staff provide children with opportunities to support their independence and develop their sense of responsibility. Children help to set the table and prepare the snacks.

They learn to wash their plates and put them away. Staff teach children about taking care of animals. After discovering a hedgehog in the nursery garden, children built a hedgehog home.

Through discussion with a local hedgehog expert, they learned what hedgehogs need to survive. Activities such as these help children develop a good understanding of the world around them.Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well.

Staff know the children well and successfully plan to meet their needs. They work with other agencies and parents to ensure consistency and sharing of information so that all children make good progress.The leadership team is highly supportive of the staff and is committed to ensuring staff's well-being.

Staff report feeling valued and well supported in their professional development. Parents also comment on the support and help they receive from the whole team. They value the regular updates they receive about their children's learning and appreciate the ideas staff share about ways to continue children's learning at home.

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 further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: build on staff's knowledge of the curriculum intent so that they are clear about the skills and knowledge they want children to acquire during their time at the nursery help staff to develop their teaching skills so that they confidently embrace opportunities to strengthen children's knowledge and understanding even further.