Highbury Community Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are confident and motivated to learn. Staff ensure that they take time to get to know children well.

They link activities to children's interests, and children enjoy these greatly. Staff find out about home care routines for babies and include these in the nursery so babies settle well. Staff teach children to understand and manage their emotions.

For instance, they talk about how they feel and try to match their moods to a picture. Staff manage children's behaviour well. Staff are clear about their expectations and explain why certain behaviours are not acceptable.

Children behave well. Staff form wa...rm and caring relationships with children and value them highly as individuals. Children learn to share and to take turns well.

For instance, they share outdoor toys and take turns to speak and listen during group discussions. Staff support younger children to gain these skills. Staff encourage children to value healthy routines, such as enjoying nutritious meals and snacks, and undertaking daily physical challenges.

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

Staff provide a range of stimulating activities based on children's interests and the seven areas of learning. They carry out regular observations of children and use this information to ensure that they receive the right challenge. Children make good progress.

Children practise and develop a variety of physical skills in the interesting, spacious and well-developed outdoor area. They jump, run, balance and climb on different outdoor resources such as frames, planks, tyres and crates. Children use their imagination to create different kinds of interesting adventures, including expeditions.

They have ready access to the garden at all times, which supports those who need additional focus in this area of learning.Children gain good independence skills. For instance, they serve themselves food and water at meal and snack times.

Older children dress themselves, and staff support younger children to gain these skills. Children have good safety awareness. They understand why they need to walk indoors to avoid accidents and they use the outdoor environment with care and caution.

Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities effectively. They work closely with parents and health professionals to share information and identify bespoke plans for children, with appropriate targets. They review children's progress regularly and work well together to promote the best outcomes for children.

Staff have good partnerships with parents and others involved in children's care and learning. They give parents regular updates on children's progress, and provide effective ways for parents to support their children's learning. For instance, children take home a nursery bear and, with their parents, keep a diary of its activities to share with the nursery.

This supports their communication, language and literacy skills well. Parents are actively involved in the nursery, and their ideas are noted and acted upon by managers. The nursery managers and staff support the needs of families well.

For instance, parents have attended first-aid training to enhance their skills.The manager supports staff very effectively. For example, she models activities in the group rooms to act as a good guide for staff.

She provides feedback following regular observations of staff, and supervises staff regularly to identify work and training needs. For instance, staff attended a course on how to support children's communication and language skills. This led to improvements in this area.

The manager monitors the workload of staff closely, and offers appropriate support where needed.Staff teach children to respect themselves and each other. For example, they discuss and teach children about significant cultural or religious occasions.

Staff provide a wide range of toys and resources that reflect different backgrounds, such as books and dolls. These help children to learn about and accept differences.Staff have not fully developed the learning environment in the pre-school room, in particular for early literacy and mathematics.

Staff provide children with good healthy daily routines. However, opportunities to increase children's understanding of the value of taking regular physical exercise and how to stay safe on the internet are not fully developed.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff have a good understanding of the procedures to follow if they have concerns regarding a child's welfare. They are regularly trained to ensure that their skills and knowledge are kept up to date, including with regard to the 'Prevent' duty and other relevant wider issues. Staff carry out daily checks in all parts of the nursery to help prevent hazards.

The manager has a robust recruitment process to ensure that staff are suitable for their roles. She is aware of local safeguarding issues and how to identify and follow procedures to support any vulnerable children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop the learning environment in the pre-school room further to support children's development, particularly in early literacy and mathematics nincrease children's understanding of the value of a healthy and safe lifestyle, including by taking regular physical exercise and staying safe on the internet.