Playhouse Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff greet children warmly on arrival. The cheerful and relaxed atmosphere ensures that children feel comfortable and settle in quickly. Children demonstrate that they feel happy, safe and secure.

They welcome the meaningful interactions from staff and invite the inspector to join them in their play. Staff recognise the utmost importance of gathering lots of initial and ongoing information from parents about their children's interests and needs. This means that staff plan a curriculum that prioritises children's own choices and changing fascinations.

Staff remind children of the expectations in place as needed, such a...s to remain seated while eating and to use good manners. Children and staff often celebrate each other's achievements with 'high fives', boosting children's self-esteem. Staff teach children to be independent individuals from a young age.

Children confidently manage their personal needs with minimal support and know to clear away their plate when they have finished eating. Children are curious learners who explore their environment with ease. They search for insects outdoors.

Staff support children to handle these with respect as they carefully place them in a magnifying pot to study them closer. Staff teach children about insects preferred habitats and challenge them to count the spots on the ladybugs. Children are excited to participate in experiments.

They make predictions of new colours they can create by mixing different coloured food colouring together. Children work out how to use pipettes to suck up vinegar and squirt it into a container containing bicarbonate of soda. They show high levels of awe and wonder as the liquids fizz together and creates a new colour.

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

Leaders and staff implement an ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum that helps all children make good progress. It embraces children's individual interests and encourages children to be in control of their own learning. Staff know children very well.

They build on children's prior knowledge and deepen their understanding to ensure that new skills and concepts are fully embedded.Children's behaviour is good and appropriate to their stage of development. Staff provide children with opportunities to learn about emotions through stories and activities.

They encourage children to take turns and be respectful towards each other. The use of a sand timer helps children to understand when it is time to share popular resources. However, staff do not consistently encourage children to consider their own and others' feelings during minor disagreements to help them develop self-regulation skills.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress from their starting points. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to help them make the best possible progress. Any additional funding the setting receives is used well to support children's individual needs.

Staff cultivate good hygiene habits and an understanding of healthy lifestyles. Children are fully involved in preparing their own snack and nutritious lunch. This motivates children to try new foods.

Outdoors, they joyfully develop their large-muscle skills, adeptly using the slide and persevere to walk on low level stilts. They develop good dexterity in their hands as they work out how to untangle a length of string that becomes tangled in apparatus.Overall, children are developing good communication and language skills.

Staff provide children with time to answer questions asked of them to build on their increasing vocabulary. Children express a strong love of books. They delight in snuggling up to staff to listen to their favourite books being read to them.

Staff skilfully use the contents of the story to encourage children to recall experiences. Children thoroughly enjoy circle time together and become excited as they sing songs linked to items in the song sack. However, staff do not fully support children who speak English as an additional language to use their home language during their play to enhance their speaking skills.

Leaders are pro-active in supporting staffs ongoing professional development. They frequently observe staff practice and provide guidance to consistently raise the quality of teaching. Strong partnerships with sister settings prove successful in sharing knowledge and skills.

Partnerships with parents is strong. There is a good two-way flow of communication. Parents speak with staff at drop-off and collection times.

They also have access to written information and photos about their child's development through an online platform. Parents are warmly invited in to the nursery to participate in regular events that help children learn about their own cultural backgrounds. They welcome the ideas that staff provide to support children's continuity of learning at home.

Parents speak very highly of the provision their children receive. They are particularly pleased with the 'phenomenal progress' children make. Parents describe the staff as 'amazing' and feel a strong sense of belonging to the nursery community.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: make better use of situations that arise during children's play to help prepare them to self-regulate their emotions nenhance opportunities for children to hear and use their home language.