Oakengates Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children enjoy their time at the nursery.

They are safe, happy and form close bonds with staff, who are nurturing and attentive to children's needs. Many children continued to attend the nursery throughout the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. This helped to provide them with familiar routines and learning experiences during the lockdown.

Children enjoy learning and are well motivated to make new discoveries. Babies are very settled and eagerly explore the well-planned learning environment. Two-year-old children have good levels of self-confidence and independence.

They persevere as they remove waterproof trous...ers and shoes. They enjoy helping with lunchtime routines, such as scraping their plates. Children enjoy nutritious meals and snacks.

They learn about the importance of washing their hands regularly and thoroughly. Children make good progress and are prepared well for their future learning. This includes their eventual move on to school.

Babies and two-year-old children enjoy handling books. They listen attentively as staff read to them. Parents do not currently enter the nursery due to a COVID-19 risk assessment.

Staff make every effort to keep parents informed about their children's progress and activities through regular discussions. Staff help children to gain confidence in a range of situations. For example, when children returned to nursery after lockdown they could choose to relax in quieter areas as they adjusted to the busy environment.

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

Leaders have a strong vision for the nursery's future and continully look for ways to improve. For instance, to keep children engaged, they change resources that children use in the creative area, such as paint, collage materials and mark-making tools. As the children progress from babies' rooms to rooms for two-year-olds, staff find ways to make tasks more challenging.

Leaders have taken effective steps in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the provider did not notify Ofsted of a confirmed case of COVID-19 (coronavirus) and the temporary closure at the setting on 18 January 2021 until 29 January 2021. This is a requirement of their registration.

Leaders check the quality of teaching and children's learning. In the main, staff receive targeted training that helps them to extend their knowledge and skills. Most staff have a strong understanding of the stages of child development.

They know how to use this knowledge to assess, plan and shape children's targeted learning, to help them make good progress. However, leaders do not always consider personalising training for those staff who are less knowledgeable.Staff know about children's individual needs and interests.

However, current arrangements for key persons to exchange information about children when they move rooms are not as thorough as possible. This means that some information about children's prior learning is not shared fully.Staff identify any gaps in children's learning and development and, when necessary, contact specialist support teams to identify how to best support the child.

Leaders work with other agencies and ensure they use the funding to enrich children's lives.Teaching is good. Staff in the baby room respond very well to children's interests.

They skilfully adjust their teaching to extend and make full use of learning opportunities. Babies eagerly solve problems. They keep trying to remove an object stuck inside a container.

Staff offer timely guidance to help them to explore different ways to remove the object and achieve success.Staff support children's communication and language development well. For example, they know how to adjust how they speak to children who are at different stages in their language development.

Parents of children who speak English as an additional language say how well their children have progressed with their speaking. Babies relish the opportunity to use new words. They talk about what they can see in a moving underwater scene and use adventurous words, such as 'tentacles' and 'enormous' to describe what they see.

Younger two-year-olds listen attentively to staff and show they understand a range of words by linking them to their actions as they make marks in paint. Older two-year-olds clearly explain how to mix paint to make a new colour.Children behave well.

Staff help them learn how to be friendly to others, such as asking for a toy rather than taking it.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Leaders and staff have a good understanding of how to protect children and understand the procedures to follow if they identify any concerns about a child's welfare.

They follow robust recruitment procedures to ensure staff suitability. Leaders keep up to date with their knowledge of local safeguarding concerns and train their staff on a regular basis. Staff know what to do should they have concerns about the conduct of a colleague.

They are vigilant about children's safety and supervise them well as they play and sleep. For example, they check sleeping babies more frequently depending on their sleeping position.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: focus staff professional development more precisely, to help raise the quality of teaching to the highest level across the nursery review the key-person system to identify how to fully exchange information about children when they move rooms.

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