Single Steps Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children enjoy coming to this inclusive and nurturing nursery. Children happily enter and they are greeted by the highly attentive staff, who know the children and families well.

Children have a wide choice of activities to choose from that incorporate their interests. Children demonstrate excellent manners and behave exceptionally well throughout the session. They have extremely positive attitudes to learning.

Children confidently communicate with each other and staff. Children are highly respectful and caring towards each other while they happily play, chat, take turns and help each other to problem solve. Children d...emonstrate a high level of engagement towards their learning.

For example, children are given time to enjoy discovering and exploring flowers and insects on their walk to the forest-school area. Children take time to listen to birds and other sounds. They feel the grass and find dandelion flowers.

Children use water spray bottles to create shapes on wooden gates and plants, and joyfully share their achievements with staff. For example, children discover more about a spider web after spraying water on it, and talk with staff and each other about the shapes they observe together. They learn about the dangers of prickles on plants and staying safe in the woods.

Children climb fallen trees and swing on tyre swings. They enjoy sensory play with flour and dough. Children participate in daily 'sing and sign', and staff use these sessions to continue developing their communication.

Younger children benefit from the nurturing care of staff, who provide stimulating activities with songs and rhymes.

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

The manager, who is the owner, has a clear vision for the nursery and is passionate about developing a strong inclusive culture. She ensures that staff have effective support and training to be confident to teach children about ethnicity and inclusion.

Children learn to discuss their similarities and differences alongside supportive staff, who promote equality and diversity in discussions. Children make observations during activities, such as remarking on different skin colours and characteristics to each other and staff. The manager and staff positively encourage children to do this.

The leadership team is strong, and the manager and deputy work well together. They provide a stimulating curriculum to enable staff to build on children's interests. Staff provide a variety of activities to develop children's communication skills.

For example, during sensory exploration, staff encourage children to use words that rhyme. Staff communicate well, hold regular staff meetings and share positive practice.The manager has a strong emphasis on staff well-being, providing effective support to her staff.

Effective systems are in place to keep children safe, and staff manage routine transitions well. Staff communicate effectively during the day to ensure children's needs are met quickly and efficiently.The manager supervises staff well.

She values her staff team and provides regular training to develop their knowledge and practice. For example, apprentice staff are given really good support and confidently lead 'sing and sign' sessions. Staff display a keen desire to do well and improve their knowledge.

The manager has a keen vision for staff to develop their skills, such developing their skills in implementing forest-school activities.Children display extremely high levels of respect towards each other and staff. They are seen as unique individuals and staff value their contributions equally.

Children have exceptionally high levels of self-esteem. They happily share their 'special moment books' with adults and eagerly recall and talk about previous learning, past activities and experiences. For example, children measure a previous footprint that they made with their current foot size to discover how much they have grown.

Children enjoy recalling and sharing stories about themselves and the world. Staff use these discussions to support children to fill gaps in their understanding and introduce new language.Partnerships with parents are positive.

Parents describe how happy their children are at nursery and how supportive staff are to them. Parents state that they value the quick response they receive from the manager to their communications, and share how they enjoy receiving information about their children daily. They regularly receive development reports on their children's learning and information on how to build on this at home.

The special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) works with staff to quickly and efficiently identify where children may need additional support. Staff all have a good knowledge of children's individual plans and provide a consistent approach to support these. The SENCO closely monitors children's progress and development, working closely with parents and other professionals to enable these children to make the best possible progress.

Staff understand what children know and can do. They play alongside children and are nurturing while encouraging their learning and development. However, on occasion, not all staff are as consistent as others at identifying opportunities where they can further challenge and precisely target building on children's current skills.

For example, sometimes, staff do tasks for children who are capable of doing them for themselves. For example, staff scoop flour to make children's dough, or help them to put garments on, rather than encouraging them to do it themselves to enable them to be continually challenged in their learning and independence.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff understand their responsibilities to ensure children are kept safe. The manager and staff implement effective risk assessments to ensure children remain safe in the nursery building, the gardens and forest school areas. They reflect on incidents that occur and put actions into place to minimise them occurring again.

Staff have regular staff meetings and training to keep their safeguarding knowledge up to date. Staff demonstrate a secure understanding of the actions they would take if they had concerns about a child's welfare. Staff are vigilant to keeping children safe during the daily routines.

The manager and deputy, who are the designated safeguard leads, understand their responsibilities. The manager follows safer recruitment procedure to ensure staff are suitable for their roles.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to consistently recognise opportunities to challenge and further build on children's learning and independence.