Natural Choice Nurseries Ltd - Charfield

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are excited to attend the nursery and are greeted warmly by a familiar adult. The nursery has a strong ethos of encouraging children to lead in their play.

Children access the activities and resources independently. Staff set up a variety of activities, such as water play, puzzles and construction, to provide children with choice.Staff have high expectations of children and provide them with challenging activities to support their development.

For example, pre-school children have the opportunity to learn about risk and challenge as they are supervised while they climb low-level trees. Children's communication... skills are well developed and they follow instructions well. For example, in the baby room, staff ask children to help tidy up before snack time.

The children start collecting toys and putting them away. Children learn to be kind and caring and show empathy towards their friends. For example, they stroke their friend's hair and ask how they are if they look sad.

Children learn about good hygiene and cleanliness through activities such as cleaning dolls. Staff use the activities to teach children about when and why they need to wash their hands.Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents do not enter the building.

Staff speak to parents at drop-off and collection times to share information about children.

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

Children make good progress in their learning and development. The leadership team has a clear ambition of what it wants children to learn.

Children self-select what they would like to do and staff extend children's learning through skilful interactions. For example, children choose to take part in a play dough activity. Staff check their understanding of colours and model how to use different utensils.

Children of all ages show a high level of interest in books. In each room, books are organised on low-level shelves so they are easily accessible to children. Children choose their favourite books and excitedly ask staff to read them.

They are familiar with the stories as they guess what happens next and repeat common words. Staff use the stories to support children with their communication and language.Children show good levels of independence.

Babies learn to crawl up stairs safely, and older children feed themselves using cutlery. However, at times, the routine does not allow children to develop their independence further. For example, at lunchtime, older children do not have the opportunity to learn about appropriate food portions, pouring own drinks or drinking from a cup.

Staff act as role models and demonstrate kindness and good manners. They speak to children politely and with respect. For example, they ask children for permission before they change their nappies.

The manager has assessed the impact of the pandemic on children and has identified strategies to support them. For example, she has recognised that babies who were born during the pandemic take longer to settle due to having limited interactions with people. The nursery offers new children unlimited settling-in sessions and works closely with parents to settle new babies.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported well and make good progress in their learning and development. Staff work closely with parents and direct them to early help, such as self-referral to speech and language specialists. The manager makes effective use of funding to ensure children's needs are met.

Children's behaviour is generally managed well. When children climb on chairs, staff ask them to get down and explain that they could fall and hurt themselves. This helps children to understand.

However, on occasion, staff fail to identify when children will benefit from alternative activities. For example, when children start building towers with beakers, they are told to stop instead of being offered alternative resources to explore different ways of building.The leadership team has good systems to evaluate and improve staff performance.

The manager carries out observations of practice and provides feedback to make improvements. Although this helps the setting to make some improvements, the leadership team does not obtain the views of parents to identify further strengths and areas for development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The nursery has an appropriate child protection policy in place. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of child protection issues. They recognise the signs of abuse and the steps to follow if they have concerns about a child, or an adult caring for children.

The leadership team follows robust recruitment procedures to ensure new staff are suitable to work with children and that all staff remain suitable. They carry out daily risk assessments, particularly in the yurt used by the pre-school children, to ensure potential risks are removed and children are kept safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to identify when children will benefit from alternative activities when they are displaying unwanted behaviour so that staff consistently implement the leadership team's ambition to teach through child-led play develop the self-evaluation process to include the views of parents, to identify strengths and areas for development.