Field House Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children thrive and make exceptional progress in this excellent child-centred, language-rich environment. They adore attending this all-inclusive, nurturing nursery.

Children create close bonds with staff, who offer excellent support and warmth. They are encouraged from a young age to develop independence. Children as young as one year wash their hands and feed themselves.

Older children confidently help themselves to plates and cutlery and confidently self-serve food and clear away. Children take great pride in helping others. Older children, when asked, 'What gets the job done,' recite together 'teamwork'.
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Staff act as fantastic role models for sharing, turn-taking and respecting others. They have high aspirations for children and treat them with the utmost respect. Children behave exceptionally well and respond positively to the high expectations of staff.

The curriculum for babies is nurturing and celebrates individuality. Staff provide babies with a healthy mix of emotional support and secure attachments. The learning environment is calm and restful and offers freedom for babies to make choices in their play.

All children are extremely happy, as they feel highly valued and safe. Children demonstrate high levels of resilience in their play and learning and show great sensitivity to each other.

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

The manager has an extremely clear overview of how the curriculum is implemented in practice.

Staff embed the curriculum intent through the wealth of stimulating activities provided. Staff have a clear understanding of what they want children to learn throughout their time in the setting. Children's transitions on to the next phase of their education are effective and well planned.

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make exceptional progress. This is because of the brilliantly sequenced and child-focused curriculum. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works closely with the local authority, staff, parents and external professionals, using detailed assessments of children's individual needs.

Staff skilfully implement children's individual education plans to close any gaps in children's learning.Books and stories are expertly used throughout the setting to support children's language and literacy development. Group reading is enthusiastic and interactive.

When staff and children read 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', they link this story with children learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. Children keenly observe the changes that occur from egg to butterfly and provide food and shelter before releasing butterflies in their nursery garden.Teaching standards are outstanding.

Children benefit from the carefully planned use of resources and equipment and exceptionally sensitive interactions with adults. Staff use thought-provoking questions to help develop strong communication skills. They encourage responses by giving children the time to think.

This helps children to work through problems and test out ideas.Children benefit from inspiring experiences, such as growing and harvesting a huge range of fruit and vegetables throughout the year. These are collected by children and prepared by the nursery cook for them to eat.

Simple recipes are shared for families to try at home. Children eat healthy meals and can identify types of healthy foods. For example, children learn that rice contains carbohydrates, which give you energy.

They explain that vegetables contain vitamins and eating these daily will help them to grow strong and healthy.Outdoors, staff carefully consider what skills they want children to acquire and provide suitably challenging opportunities for all children. The outdoor area provides excellent opportunities for children to negotiate space, climb and investigate.

For instance, children excitedly dig in the soil to discover the creatures and comment on the worms and spiders they find and confidently handle. Children care for the nursery's African land snail 'Matilda'. They learn to bathe and feed her and hold her gently.

The management team has a clear vision and focuses sharply on continually developing the outstanding facilities available. In addition, the high priority on supporting staff's professional development continuously maintains the high quality of education children receive. The manager's supervision of her staff contributes to their exceptional understanding of the nursery curriculum.

Staff benefit from regular, individual supervision meetings, where they reflect on their work and identify their own targets for continuous improvement.Parent partnerships are extraordinary. Staff go beyond expectations to include and support families.

For example, menus, advice for healthy living and the setting's ethos and visions for recycling are shared. They provide parents with a food bank, clothes and other resources to ensure children and families are valued during difficult times. Parents comment that staff go 'above and beyond' to help children.

They comment on how well staff know their children and provide plenty of information about what and how their children are learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff always prioritise children's well-being and safety.

Staff receive regular training about child protection and safeguarding issues. The manager encourages staff to discuss safeguarding scenarios frequently. This helps staff to keep their knowledge updated.

Staff are confident in identifying signs that may indicate a child is at risk of harm and the procedures they would follow should they have any concerns. The manager fully checks staff's suitability to work with children. Robust risk assessments are carried out by competent staff throughout the day, to ensure that children's safety is of the highest priority.