Ivy League Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Children show they are happy and enjoy their time at the nursery. Staff are kind and frequently give children encouragement and comment on their new achievements.

This helps children to build their confidence. Staff provide children with clear messages about expected behaviour. As a result, children behave very well.

Pre-school children are confident communicators. Staff are skilled at supporting their learning and encourage them to think for themselves and make links to their prior knowledge. Children show good creativity and mathematical knowledge as they engage in threading activities.

Staff support them effec...tively to name different colours and make comparisons about the different beads.Toddlers have fun experimenting with play dough. Staff help children to discuss their ideas and learn about shapes effectively.

This positively supports children's language development and awareness of new mathematical concepts. Older babies show good interest as they happily play with trains. Staff enthusiastically play on their level and introduce new words and provide encouragement for them to develop their imaginations.

Younger babies enjoy exploring musical instruments and playing in a ball pond. Although they have a positive bond with staff, they do not receive good enough support to hear new language and extend their learning. Furthermore, staff do not plan a broad and well-designed curriculum to fully support their overall development.

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

The quality of education is inconsistent. Staff working with older babies, toddlers and pre-school children plan a wide range of activities to foster children's development across the different areas of learning. As a result, these children show positive attitudes towards learning, and pre-school children are well prepared for their move on to school.

However, staff working with younger babies do not plan a wide enough variety of activities to help them make the progress of which they are capable.Leaders speak passionately about building a culture of ongoing improvement across the nursery. They have improved many aspects of practice and have strengthened the information they gain from parents when new children first join.

Despite this and their ongoing hard work, self-evaluation processes are not fully effective. For instance, when issues are identified, these are not always prioritised appropriately to ensure that swift enough action is taken.Overall, staff support children to learn about healthy lifestyles.

For instance, children benefit from eating a range of healthy and nutritious foods. In addition, older children and toddlers have good opportunities to be active and develop their physical skills in the spacious garden. However, staff working with babies do not always prioritise the health benefits of daily outdoor play.

Staff provide positive levels of support for children who speak English as an additional language. For instance, they plan activities accompanied with visual aids to help children to hear and understand new vocabulary. This helps children to make good progress in relation to their starting points.

Staff working with babies implement a positive settling-in procedure. They are always close by to give new babies encouragement and reassurance. This helps them to settle in well and build trusting relationships with staff.

The other children also benefit from kind and respectful interactions. This helps to build their self-esteem and develop their interest in learning.The nursery is highly inclusive.

Staff teach children about diversity in a successful way. For instance, staff organise different events, such as 'Culture Week'. This provides children and families with opportunities to dress up in traditional clothes and share foods that they enjoy at home.

This supports children's knowledge of the wider world and helps them to develop respectful attitudes about the diverse backgrounds and lives of others.Leaders and staff have worked hard to make targeted improvements since their last inspection. It is evident that partnership working with parents is now a real strength of the setting.

Many parents comment that communication has significantly improved and that they feel much more involved in their children's learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff understand their roles to keep children safe.

They know how to identify when a child may be at risk of harm. Furthermore, they understand their responsibilities to report any concerns in order to protect children's welfare. Leaders follow appropriate recruitment procedures and vetting checks to help to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children.

Staff are well deployed, and children receive good levels of supervision to help to keep them safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date ensure younger babies benefit from a rich and broad curriculum, and improve the interaction skills of staff working with this age group to help to extend babies' language development and overall learning 29/11/2023 ensure babies have daily opportunities to play outdoors to improve their opportunities to develop their physical skills and overall well-being.29/11/2023 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimprove self-evaluation systems to swiftly identify and address further areas for improvement to raise the overall quality of the nursery.