Norfolk House Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is inadequate

Children's safety and welfare is not assured. Not all staff correctly follow the nursery safeguarding procedure when they are concerned about a child's welfare and safety. Concerns have not been reported to the nursery designated safeguarding lead and other professionals have not been notified, in line with the nursery safeguarding reporting procedures.

Promoting children's personal development is also significantly compromised due to this breach in the safeguarding requirements. In addition, leaders do not consistently select the most competent members of staff as key persons for the most vulnerable children. The quality... of teaching is good overall, and some staff demonstrate excellent practice.

The vast majority of staff provide good-quality teaching. They have high expectations for all children and know their interests and what excites them. For example, in the toddler room a favourite story book leads on to learning about bears, a teddy bears' picnic and a baking activity.

During the baking activity, staff skilfully introduce new words, such as scales and zero, and mathematical concepts, such as measuring. Staff working in baby room two consistently demonstrate an excellent quality of teaching. These staff provide an inspiring range of activities that motivate children to learn.

For example, children squeal with delight and are highly interactive as they smell and explore the peppers, onions and mushrooms they help to wash. Activities in this room are exceptionally well sequenced to continually build on and enhance children's learning. Despite their young ages, children show high levels of engagement during all activities.

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

Safeguarding arrangements are not always effective. There are clear policies and procedures in place to report any safeguarding concerns but, on occasions, they have not been followed. This significantly puts children at risk as other professionals working with children have not immediately been notified of welfare concerns.

That said, staff do have a good knowledge of the types of abuse and the possible signs of abuse. There are robust recruitment systems in place to ensure staff are vetted and suitable, and the premises are inviting, clean and safe.The breach in the safeguarding arrangements has a significant impact on children's welfare and, therefore, the quality of leadership and management is inadequate.

Despite this, the leadership team place a high focus on implementing an ambitious curriculum for children to help them acquire the skills they need for school. Staff share this vision and provide motivating learning experiences based around children's interests, which successfully incorporate all areas of learning.Leaders prioritise the bond a child develops with staff when designating their key person.

However, on occasions this can lead to staff who are less knowledgeable working with vulnerable children, and this compromises their welfare and well-being.The experienced management team regularly review the care and education they provide for children, and seek the views of parents to help improve their practice. Staff benefit from supervision sessions and are positive about the support they receive from the leadership team.

The management team carry out regular observations on staff. However, it does not precisely identify with each member of staff how they can develop their good practice even further.Staff value each parents' views and opinions, and this inclusive approach results in excellent relationships with parents.

Staff constantly work with parents to find out about their children's experiences at home, their achievements and interests. They diligently incorporate these in their daily planning to inspire children to learn. Parents report extremely high levels of satisfaction about the care their children receive and the advice they are given about continuing their children's learning at home.

For example, parents report they find the monthly stay-and-play sessions invaluable and highly informative in helping them support their children.Staff use their observations of learning and systematic assessments of children's progress to swiftly identify any children who may benefit from additional support. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well and they make good progress from their starting points.

Staff work closely with parents and are trained by health professionals to meet the medical needs of children.Staff place a strong focus on increasing children's language development through their interactions and during conversations. For example, staff caring for babies use songs during routine tasks, and story sessions are popular with all children.

Children who speak English as an additional language are supported well to learn English. Staff make good use of children's home languages to help them understand and build on their understanding of the English language.Staff help children to respect each other and recognise the impact that their behaviour has on others.

They use a positive range of strategies to teach children about emotions and how to regulate their behaviour. For example, staff in the pre-school room creatively use the colour monsters for children to identify their emotions and talk about how they are feeling and why.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.

There is not 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 any concerns about children's safety or welfare are immediately reported to the appropriate professionals in line with the nursery safeguarding procedures 29/06/2024 ensure all staff are alert to any issues of concern in a child's life, at home or elsewhere, and understand the procedures to follow to report these concerns in a timely way 05/07/2024 ensure all staff assigned as key persons to children have the competencies and knowledge to meet their individual needs.28/07/2024 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: build on professional development opportunities for all staff, to further enhance the good quality of teaching.

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