Greenwood Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and have fun in this welcoming, safe and well-resourced nursery.

Children who are new to the nursery settle easily and quickly form close bonds with their key person. All children enjoy the exciting activities that staff plan for them. They are motivated and excited to explore and make good progress in relation to their starting points.

Children respond well to staff's high expectations for their behaviour. Children behave well. They are respectful of each other and the resources.

The golden rules remind children to share and take turns as they play. There is a strong focus on forest school ...activities. Children display a very keen interest in woodwork and they learn to make decisions about what they want to do.

For example, children spend time exploring and creating with the different types of wood. They expand their vocabulary while staff teach them the difference between pine and balsa wood. Children access child-size saws, hammers and drills.

They develop excellent small-muscle skills as they saw wood and hammers in nails. Younger children strengthen their bodies and learn coordination as they take part in weekly music and movement sessions.

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

The staff and the manager plan an exciting curriculum.

Children have ample opportunities to learn about the wider world and the local community. For example, they learn how to help people who are less fortunate than themselves as they collect and drop off food to the food bank. Children take part in exciting activities with their parents to successfully raise funds for local charities.

Staff organise enjoyable trips to places such as the local post office and parks.Children eat freshly cooked, healthy and nutritious meals, according to their specific dietary needs. They are developing a positive awareness of how to keep themselves healthy.

Staff provide children with good opportunities to develop practical skills and to be independent. For instance, staff encourage children to take off and put on their shoes and outdoor clothing. Children wash their hands before meals, brush their teeth and serve their own meals and drinks.

Staff teach children good early mathematical skills. Children independently use number, describe size and count as they play. Older children confidently count to 10 and above.

For example, they count the number of buttons on their work. Staff encourage children to solve problems. Children learn simple calculations, such as adding, and think about what number comes next.

Staff support and extend younger children's physical skills required for later writing. For example, children create works of art with colourful paints. Although children have good opportunities to develop their early writing skills, staff do not encourage the most able children to write for a purpose.

For instance, they do not encourage them to write their name on their work when they finish. During activities, staff do not extend children's growing interest in letters to learn that letters have sounds.During the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, staff continued to support children's learning online.

Key persons provided group and one-to-one sessions with children throughout the day. This helped to maintain children's strong bonds with friends and staff.Staff communicate well with children and are skilled at capturing their attention.

During group circle times they make effective use of props, such as flash cards and puppets, to encourage children's interactions. Children delight in joining in with repetitive action songs and stories. They learn about emotions as they sing along to 'If you're happy and you know it'.

However, bilingual children have limited opportunities to use their home language to strengthen their developing languages.The management team reflects and evaluates the provision. It actively seeks the views of children, parents and staff.

The team regularly identifies areas for development and makes positive changes that benefit children. For example, the recent revision for online software has improved the monitoring of children's development and parental access to information.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager and staff have a good understanding of the signs of abuse and wider safeguarding issues. They know where to report concerns about children's welfare. The manager understands her responsibility to work with other agencies to promote children's safety.

She uses robust recruitment procedures and provides supervision and regular training to ensure that staff are suitable for their roles. Staff assess risks constantly, making sure that children can play and explore safely. Children learn how to keep safe.

For example, they put on their safety glasses when doing woodwork. Children confidently recall the rules that they need to follow.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to develop the literacy curriculum, particularly for the most able children, to enhance writing for a purpose and to develop children's knowledge of letters and their sounds help children to build on and use their home languages in play and learning to strengthen their communication skills to the highest level.