Shildon Early Years

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are enthusiastic on arrival and are clearly happy to attend. They form warm and secure relationships with their key person and other staff. This has a positive impact on children's emotional well-being.

The nursery environment is stimulating and interesting. The garden is spacious and well resourced, with exciting opportunities for children to explore and discover, as well as engage in physical play and exercise. Children are given plenty of time to test the equipment and experiment with the resources.

For instance, they spend a lot of time concentrating as they master how to use a large bubble wand to create ...giant bubbles. Staff prioritise children's emotional development and support them successfully through times of change. For example, staff prepare children well as they change rooms and when they move on to school.

Staff are positive role models and manage children's behaviour well. This includes teaching good manners, sharing, taking turns and playing cooperatively. The promotion of communication and language is a strong focus within the nursery curriculum.

Staff establish good partnerships with parents to promote continuity in learning between home and nursery. For example, they share ideas so that parents can continue their child's learning at home and invite them to participate in stay-and-play sessions.

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

The leadership and management of the nursery is strong.

Staff are enthusiastic about what they do and want the best for all children. They demonstrate a strong commitment to improving the quality of care and teaching by reflecting on their practice and putting in place plans for improvement.The quality of teaching is good, overall.

Staff combine their expertise and generally good teaching strategies to provide a wide range of purposeful play and learning opportunities to engage and motivate children. Staff assess children's development accurately and the manager monitors the overall progress of children closely. Together, they quickly identify any gaps in learning.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are very well supported. This is because of the attention to individual needs, good quality teaching and close monitoring by the special educational needs coordinator. She shares her excellent understanding in this area with staff and parents.

This means those children with more complex needs are very well cared for and make good progress.Children respond well to the opportunities to explore and investigate. The well-resourced outdoor area provides children with many opportunities to learn about their environment.

For example, a group of older children eagerly dig in the soil looking for worms. They are clearly fascinated by the worms and become absorbed in their play and exploration. Staff are actively involved in the children's activities and generally ask questions that encourage children to think.

However, they do not consistently challenge children to extend their knowledge and build on what they already know.Staff support language development successfully across all ages. They encourage interesting conversation with older children, who excitedly talk about their families and recent experiences.

Staff use stories and songs particularly well during children's play. Children of all ages delight in singing songs, joining in with actions and listening intently to their favourite stories.Children benefit from many opportunities to learn about shape, colour and size.

However, teaching is less focused on supporting older children to practise and strengthen their knowledge of counting and calculation.Children are busy, interested and excited by their play, which results in them behaving well. They know what is expected of them and the daily routine helps them understand these expectations.

For example, very young children are familiar with mealtime routines. They know that they need to sit down to eat and recognise when their hands are sticky and need cleaning. Children enjoy playing with others and being independent.

A culture of sustained staff development and sharing of good practice is embedded in the nursery. This results in staff increasing their qualifications, continually developing their knowledge and experience, sharing good practice and individual skills and supporting each other. Parents and carers are very complimentary about the nursery staff.

They are happy with the care and education their children receive.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff demonstrate a clear and comprehensive understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities.

They know the procedures to follow if concerns regarding children's welfare arise. Staff understand the nursery's whistleblowing procedures if they have concerns regarding a colleague. All staff have attended safeguarding training and the manager encourages them to develop confidence in this area.

There is a secure knowledge of the families who attend and a clear understanding of how engagement with outside agencies can keep children safe. The premises are secure, staff are well deployed, and they supervise children well.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: build further on what children already know, to embed new concepts in their learning nextend opportunities for older children to practise their counting and early calculation skills.

Also at this postcode