Meadows Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children of all ages thrive in this extremely nurturing, stimulating and engaging nursery environment. Leaders are highly ambitious and dedicated. Together with their passionate staff team, they provide a broad and ambitious curriculum, based on expanding children's experiences.

Due to this, children are busy, highly motivated and eager learners, who quickly gain the skills needed for the next stage in their education.Leaders have identified outdoor learning as a key focus for their curriculum and the large adventure garden is at the heart of the nursery. Children delight in exploring, investigating and discovering outdoors..../>
They are very physically active and show a keen interest in the world around them. For example, during exciting forest school sessions, children investigate wildlife, collect natural objects and navigate the challenging terrain.Children are exceedingly happy, safe and secure and develop a strong sense of belonging.

They form wonderfully close and trusting bonds with the dedicated staff, with whom children feel cherished, and their uniqueness is celebrated. Staff have high expectations for children overall and support their learning very well. Babies learn to crawl, walk and talk from an early age and show great confidence in their explorations.

Toddlers particularly enjoy creative activities and pre-school children show a keen interest in literacy. They very confidently know the sounds of each letter and quickly develop the skills needed for early reading.

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

The dynamic leadership team is committed to giving children the best start in life and has high standards for the quality of the nursery.

Leaders work closely with parents to find out about children's lives and any potential differences in children's experiences, to help them deliver personal and meaningful teaching. They have recently focused on creating awe and wonder of the world, adding a diverse range of exciting experiences as part of their 'enrichment curriculum'. This includes tennis, yoga, music and dance sessions led by trained instructors and teaches children valuable skills to help in lifelong learning.

Leaders and staff are keen to incorporate activities that give children special experiences outside of their everyday lives. There is a strong focus on empowering children to understand their own emotions and manage their behaviour. For example, staff use a therapy dog to help children when they need to calm down, and teach mindfulness to enable children to control their breathing and thoughts.

Children are extremely well behaved, thoughtful and considerate for their age. They show great empathy towards others and are learning how to become a valuable part of society. For example, children use 'voting stations' in their room, where they vote for their choice of story that day, supporting their understanding of fairness and democracy exceptionally well.

Staff observe, assess and plan for children's learning precisely. They use their in-depth understanding of what children know and can do to guide their experiences. Staff join in with children's play enthusiastically and encourage strong progress in all areas of learning.

Pre-school children show excellent perseverance and enjoy challenges, for example, when building large structures in the garden, matching quantities to written numbers and writing their names. Two-year-olds are very imaginative and delight in building rockets, hunting for fossils in sand and exploring musical instruments. Babies love joining in with songs and show strong motivation as they attempt to fit balls through different-sized holes, using early trial and error.

All staff are good teachers and some in senior positions are exceptional. However, some staff do not make full use of their questioning to support children's thinking and problem-solving skills. For example, at times, they do not give children the time they need to think and respond to questions asked.

Occasionally, some questions are not closely linked to children's involvement in play and therefore interrupt their concentration.There is an extremely strong focus on supporting healthy lifestyles and children benefit from an inspiring range of experiences to instil this. The nursery has recently become 'sugar free' and all menus are extremely nutritious.

To build on this further, staff run regular healthy cooking and baking activities with children to delve more deeply into the importance of a good diet. They share these recipes with parents to help promote healthy eating further at home. Parents value the personal care their children receive and are very complimentary about the nursery.

They appreciate taking home recommended books to read to their children and guidance on milestones such as toilet training. Staff give extensive guidance on how to support further learning at home and communication is strong.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and staff continually update their safeguarding knowledge through thorough training, discussion and staff meetings. They regularly discuss wider safeguarding issues and complete challenging quizzes to build their knowledge further. Staff confidently know the signs to look out for that children's welfare may be at risk from abuse, including from neglect and extreme views.

They know who to contact should they have a concern about a child and understand the importance of working together to monitor children's attendance and changes in their behaviour. They vigilantly provide a safe and secure environment for all children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nenhance the use of questioning so that all staff are highly skilled at encouraging and challenging children's problem-solving and thinking skills.