Pippa’s House Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children develop secure attachments with staff and have a strong sense of belonging in the nursery. All children happily engage with staff and interact with each other. They enjoy cuddling up close to staff, either when being fed, having a story or during their play.

Children gain good communication, social and physical skills as they progress through the nursery. They learn how to share and take turns with their friends. Children problem-solve and negotiate with each other, for example when they want to use the same toy or ride-on vehicle.

From an early age, children receive encouragement to explore with their senses ...and experiment with different materials. Staff share how important this is, especially for the younger children, to encourage them to try new things and be comfortable with having 'messy hands'. As children progress through the nursery, they learn to do more complex tasks and build on the skills they need for their future learning.

They learn to problem-solve as they try to fit train track pieces together, and express their imagination and creativity as they use a range of different materials and tools. For example, children eagerly share how they have made a glittery monster on their paper plate. The older children confidently seek out the resources they would like to play with and display good personal independence skills.

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

The special educational needs and disability coordinators work closely with staff and other professionals, such as speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, Portage advisors and paediatricians. They help children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or medical conditions to meet their full developmental potential. Parents appreciate the support staff give to them and their children, and comment how staff have gone above and beyond in some cases to achieve this.

Management and staff are sensitive to the needs of children and acknowledge the changes they have experienced during the pandemic. They identify the best way for children to settle back into the nursery and liaise with parents to implement this.Staff know the children well and help them build on their self-confidence.

They use children's interests to provide a range of activities to build on what they already know and understand. For example, staff use children's love of dinosaurs to encourage their number and letter skills.Managers have a clear focus on the quality of provision they want children to receive.

There are new systems in place to record children's achievements and share information with parents. Managers respond to complaints within the required timescale and ensure that attendance and incidents are accurately recorded and shared.Pre-school children receive encouragement to build on their interests, such as naming and counting dinosaurs, reading books and being creative.

At times, the noise level in the upstairs rooms, particularly in the pre-school room, gets high. At these times, children and staff have to talk louder to be heard and cannot focus as much on their learning. Staff share how they usually act to reduce the noise levels.

However, this was not implemented without management input at the inspection.Children receive several sessions to support their transfer from one room to another. In some rooms this is working well and it enables children, and staff, to get the most from this process.

However, at inspection, it took a while for staff upstairs to engage children during their transition session. At times, some children were left to wander until they engaged with the inspector and the manager.Management and staff identify how children, particularly those with SEND or medical needs, really benefit from sensory stimulation.

They use the available funding to purchase additional resources and incorporate these in children's learning opportunities to support their ongoing developmental progress.Staff continually monitor children's progress and identify how this enables them to see emerging gaps in children's learning. They use children's likes and interests to plan activities that will engage children and target their next steps in learning.

For example, children enjoy looking at insects so staff set up an ant farm inside and encourage them to look for insects in the garden. Children enjoy trying to catch bubbles as they fly in the wind, and staff encourage them to share what else can fly.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Management and staff have a secure understanding of their responsibilities to safeguard children. Designated safeguarding lead staff keep their knowledge of the local safeguarding partnership procedures up to date. They ensure all staff have undertaken safeguarding training to enable them to refer concerns about children's welfare appropriately.

Risk assessments are robustly implemented to ensure that children have a safe environment to play in. All staff undergo in-depth recruitment, induction and supervision processes to ensure that they are suitable to work with children, and remain suitable to do so.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nensure staff consistently minimise noise levels in the upstairs rooms to enable older children to remain fully focused on their learning review and improve the planning and implementation of transition sessions, particularly when children move on to the pre-school room, to ensure children and staff gain the most benefit from these settling-in sessions.