Lovel End Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are safe in the nursery.

Staff have strong arrangements in place to minimise risks to children. They manage their environment well and organise toys and resources to enable all children, including those with allergies, to be fully included in all activities. This is demonstrated when staff source ingredients for cooking and for making play dough which do not contain allergens which may affect children's good health.

Children are happy and enthusiastic learners. They enjoy a wide range of activities which enrich their curriculum. For instance, children enjoy music sessions with their friends.

They sing... enthusiastically, bouncing and clapping to the music as they learn to sing songs to a 'faster' and 'slower' beat. Children behave well. They have a strong understanding of rules and boundaries.

This is demonstrated at the start of the day as they talk confidently about the nursery rules. Staff use picture prompts to support children's understanding, and they are positive role models. Staff have high expectations for children's learning and development.

However, at times, they are not deployed as effectively as they could be. On occasion, their interactions with children are not of a consistently high quality. This does not promote fully effective opportunities for children to develop the knowledge and skills they need for their learning.

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

Managers have a positive attitude to further improvement. They ensure that staff complete a range of activities to enhance their knowledge, such as online training and visits to other settings. Managers identify patterns in children's learning needs and organise strong professional development opportunities to support these.

For example, staff complete speech and language training. They implement strategies well, such as giving children time to respond during conversations and teaching them to use sign language. This helps children to begin to confidently express their thoughts and ideas.

There are strong links in place to support smooth transitions to school.Staff are very proud of the extensive work they do with children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They develop positive links with a range of professionals.

Staff have a strong understanding of how to access advice and funding to support vulnerable children. For example, they liaise closely with speech and language therapists. This helps them to provide early and successful interventions to help children make good progress in their learning.

This is supported by strong partnerships with parents, who are very positive about the care children receive.Staff use their observations of what children know and can do to help them plan the curriculum for children well. They share a common understanding of how they can promote children's development across the seven areas of learning.

For instance, through discussion with the inspector, staff demonstrate a secure awareness of how they promote children's physical skills. This is illustrated when they teach children how to use construction tools, such as hammers, with control during their activities.On occasion, staff are not deployed as well as they could be to promote higher level interactions with children.

For instance, during group times, staff do not fully consider how to share their time and attention between the children in the group. This means that some children do not benefit fully from learning experiences.Children have positive attitudes to their learning.

This is demonstrated as they concentrate intently when scooping and tipping soil into cake trays in the mud kitchen. Staff support children effectively to learn to play with others. As other children approach, staff demonstrate how to interact during imaginary play, such as by showing children how to sell cakes to their friends.

Children watch and listen intently, then copy what adults do. They excitedly begin to call out to others that they have cakes to sell from their mud kitchen.Staff promote positive opportunities for children to learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others.

For instance, they invite parents into the nursery to share their culture and traditions. Children enjoy learning about the Bulgarian celebration Baba Marta. They make traditional bracelets and learn about why and when these are worn.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Managers have a secure understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities. They have a strong awareness of local safeguarding issues and of local multi-agency partner arrangements.

Managers ensure that staff keep their safeguarding knowledge up to date. For instance, they complete regular training. The manager checks that staff have understood what they have learned through random questioning about how they would deal with safeguarding concerns.

Staff share a strong understanding of signs and symptoms of abuse, including of radical or extreme views. They know what to do should they have concerns about children's welfare or staff practice.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimprove opportunities for all children to develop the essential knowledge and skills that they need to make even better progress in their learning, in particular during group activities deploy staff more effectively to help to ensure that interactions with children are of a consistently high quality.

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