Snapdragons Nursery Grosvenor

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children and families receive a warm welcome from friendly and nurturing staff. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, staff currently meet them at the nursery entrance.

Nonetheless, children quickly settle to play. This is because they form strong bonds with reassuring staff who help them to feel safe and secure. Children readily explore the learning experiences that staff tailor to their needs and interests.

For example, babies delight in make animal noises while singing. Younger children use dinosaurs in paint and print on paper. They talk about colours and the marks they create.

Older children re-enact stories usin...g props. They build houses for the 'Three Little Pigs' and predict which is the strongest house. These activities help children to develop important skills, including communication, language and literacy.

All children progress well, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or those in receipt of additional funding. This is because staff have high expectations of them all and provide timely support to those who encounter difficulties. This helps to promote good outcomes for all children ready for their next stage in learning, including school.

Children learn to behave very well as staff teach them the nursery's 'code of kindness'. This helps children to learn rules and boundaries to keep themselves and others safe, such as not to run inside.

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

Support for children with SEND is a strength of the setting.

Staff work closely with parents and outside professionals to put targeted plans in place. Children receive high levels of attention as staff work hard to support them to reach their highest potential. Consequently, children with SEND make very good progress from their individual starting points.

Staff support children's personal, social and emotional development well. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, staff have identified that children need more support to build their confidence and to play well with friends. Staff facilitate 'sunshine circles' for children to learn to understand and express their feelings in small groups.

This helps to support their emotional well-being throughout the ongoing pandemic.Overall, staff promote children's communication and language skills well. They actively listen to children, repeat words back to them correctly and provide a narrative during their play.

They use sign language to help children's understanding of what is being said. Staff introduce new words to younger children, such as 'pretzel' as they explore the pretend food. They encourage older children to fill in the rhyming word during stories to build their vocabulary.

However, sometimes, staff ask children questions that only require a one word answer and do not allow children enough time to respond. This reduces children's engagement in learning.Staff show some commitment in supporting children to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

For example, they provide nutritious organic food for children's meals and offer recipe ideas for families to try at home. Staff share books with children about tooth care and remind them to drink plenty of water, especially after physical activity. However, staff do not always extend children's learning further to build their knowledge about healthy lifestyles as much as they could.

Children benefit from rich learning experiences. While learning about the natural world, staff skilfully incorporate other learning areas too. For example, the forest school leader teaches children how to make clay.

Children show curiosity and excitement as they proudly exclaim 'we're mixing!' while noticing how the mixture changes as they do so. The forest school leader models positional language as he encourages them to 'swirl backwards, forwards and side to side'.Partnerships with parents are strong.

Parents speak very highly of the setting. They report that they feel well informed by staff of their child's progress and how impressed they are with the communication. Staff use an electronic platform to communicate information to parents about children.

Furthermore, staff in the baby room use daily diaries to share information about babies' care routines. This promotes an effective dialogue between the setting and home, to provide consistency in care for children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Managers ensure that staff are fully aware of their roles and responsibilities to protect children in their care from harm. Managers and staff undertake regular safeguarding training to help them recognise the signs and symptoms of when a child may be at risk of harm. Staff know the reporting procedures to follow should they become concerned about the welfare of a child or the conduct of a colleague.

They are also aware of the wider safeguarding issues, such as how children may be subject to extreme or radical views. Staff consider the needs of individual children and ensure that the nursery and garden are a safe place for all children to play.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: further develop the use of staff's questioning techniques to promote younger children's thinking skills and allow time for them to respond, in order to maximise their engagement in learning support staff to maximise opportunities to build on children's knowledge about healthy lifestyles, to extend their learning even further.