First Steps Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents

This provision is good • The management team and staff evaluate the nursery well. They have made positive improvements to the environment that provide further opportunities for children to be independent.

Furthermore, the learning environment is clean and well maintained. • Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. They put targeted plans in place to support children's individual needs and share these with parents.

• All children, including those in receipt of funding, make good progress in their learning. This includes children who speak English as an additional language, who reach typical levels of development in their speaking ski...lls. • Staff actively encourage children's good behaviour and give them gentle reminders about the rules and boundaries in the nursery.

They give children regular praise and encouragement, helping to raise their self-esteem. Children behave well. • The management team and staff assign additional funding to help improve outcomes for children.

For example, they ensure that children have opportunities to develop their literacy skills outdoors as well as indoors. • Staff promote children's communication and language skills well. For example, they ask children a good range of questions that encourage them to develop their thinking skills.

Children talk about what they are doing. • Staff do not gather information consistently from parents to help them identify what children already know and can do when they first start. • Occasionally, staff do not make the most of opportunities that arise during activities to extend and challenge the quieter and less confident children.