Laindon Neighbourhood Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Children arrive happily and separate from their parents quickly as they are dropped off. Overall, children behave well. Leaders expect staff to use appropriate strategies to support children who struggle, for instance modelling how to share and interact with other children.

However, staff are often busy completing other tasks and cannot do this effectively when needed. This does not fully promote children's learning across all areas of the early years foundation stage curriculum. Leaders have a clear vision for the nursery.

Learning opportunities are planned in relation to children's interests, experiences and their stage...s of development. For instance, non-mobile babies receive support to build their core muscles as they start to sit independently. Older children enjoy exploring the doctor's role-play equipment, as this is something they are particularly interested in.

However, the quality of staff interactions to support children's learning varies. Some staff are more successful at building on children's learning than others. Opportunities for parents to help build on children's learning at home are strong.

Parents send in photos of what children have achieved at home so that staff can speak to children about this. Parents access resources to take home, including books, to help prepare children for significant events such as visiting the dentist.

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

Appropriate action has been taken to ensure that risk assessments are effective.

All children have access to suitable toilet facilities and are monitored and supported effectively when accessing these. Leaders recognise the importance of keeping Ofsted informed of any relevant information that may affect how the nursery operates.Staff invite children to participate in activities and routine parts of the day such as snack time.

Children willingly participate and concentrate well. Staff provide children with instructions and ask them some questions about what they are doing during activities. However, they do not make the most of these interactions to build on children's conversation skills further or encourage children to speak about what they have created to check their knowledge and understanding.

Methods for sharing and reviewing children's progress and development are not fully effective. For example, at times, staff find themselves duplicating records and they do not consistently have information to hand. This does not always support their workload effectively.

Staff have access to display boards that show children's next steps in learning and targets. However, staff do not consistently consider this information when planning activities or before they sit down with children at adult-led activities. This does not fully promote children's individual learning outcomes.

Staffing arrangements ensure that children are safe. However, staff are frequently focused on completing routine tasks and supporting children's care needs. This takes them away from interacting with children to build on their learning.

As a result, children are often left to play, with little adult input. This does not support them to make the most of their time at nursery.Overall, parents are happy with the nursery.

They feel that their children enjoy attending. However, a number of parents are unsure about who their child's key person is and have not been informed of recent changes. Some parents feel that this has resulted in their children feeling unsettled.

There has been a range of staff changes recently. The staff team and leaders meet to discuss progress and identify training needs. However, the impact of any training identified has not yet been fully embedded.

Due to the current staffing challenges, opportunities for staff to share and model strong practice are not consistently available. These challenges contribute to inconsistencies in staff practice and lead to varied learning experiences for children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

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 that the key-person system is fully embedded and that professional relationships between parents and their child's key person are fully established 16/12/2024 ensure all staff share and use information about children to successfully build on their existing knowledge and learning 16/12/2024 support staff to develop their professional knowledge and strengthen their practice to provide children with consistently high-quality, purposeful interactions that challenge them and build on their existing learning 16/12/2024 ensure those with oversight help all staff manage their workload to maximise the time they spend supporting children's learning and development so that all children make good progress overall.16/12/2024 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support children to develop their conversation skills and share their knowledge and ideas to help staff accurately assess what children know and can do.

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