Spring - RAF Halton

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Children happily arrive at the nursery and are warmly greeted by friendly and caring staff. They settle well and seek out their friends.

Children play well together and develop friendships with each other, which support their personal, social and emotional development. Staff ensure they get plenty of fresh air and exercise to help keep them fit and healthy. For example, children have daily access to an outside area and a forest school.

They explore the environment and take risks, while remaining safe and secure. Children have access to activities that support the next steps in their development. For example, several child...ren show an interest in bugs and insects.

Staff provide resources to support this, such as a bug hunt while in forest school. Children behave well and listen to instructions. Staff ask children to recall the rules of nursery.

For example, staff repeat 'one, two, three come to me' when asking children to come over to a staff member to ensure children are safe. Staff focus on getting children ready for their next stage in education by encouraging them to take care of themselves. For example, staff provide children with school uniform to try on and get used to dressing themselves.

However, there are inconsistencies in some aspects of the organisation and teaching within the nursery.

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

Staff focus on a curriculum that is based on promoting children's resilience and independence. They promote this by encouraging children to move between activities themselves.

Children are very confident and happily approach their peers and adults in the setting for support and help. However, young children are expected to sit for longer than their concentration skills allow. They lose focus and become restless, for instance, while moving from indoor play to outdoor play.

The manager has expectations that staff recognise communication and language as key skills they want children to learn. This was identified as an area of focus after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, staff do not always fully support children with their communication and language development.

This is especially the case for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and speech delays.Staff encourage children to develop their physical skills daily. Babies have space to move freely and staff actively promote crawling and walking.

For example, they purposefully place a favourite toy out of reach so babies have to move to get it. Children have free-flow access to an outside space to encourage development, such as balancing, running and jumping. Older children enjoy climbing trees in forest school.

Books are used to complement activities so children can extend their learning, such as books about bugs in forest school to support this interest. This inspires children to extend their learning by playing with resources linked to the story. For example, they actively play with the characters from 'The Gruffalo' book and create their own story.

Staff enhance this learning by reading stories to children and inspiring their imagination. This helps develop children's literacy skills.Staff have a good relationship with parents.

Parents compliment the 'lovely' and 'supportive' staff. For example, parents say they help with children's sleep routines and give parents advice on how to encourage this at home too. However, on occasions, there are inconsistencies in the communication and feedback given to parents.

In addition, the arrangements for sharing information with other provisions children attend are not fully effective to support working in partnership.Staff assess risks well and are vigilant at supervising children. However, staff do not always successfully deploy themselves to ensure all children are fully included.

For example, some younger children wander around forest school, and they do not all receive meaningful interactions with staff to help them learn more.Staff's well-being and mental health are supported effectively by the management team. They report the manager is very approachable.

For example, she has an open-door policy so staff feel comfortable talking to her any time they need extra guidance. Staff have access to training courses to extend their early years knowledge and make them more confident practitioners. Staff attend regular meetings to discuss the nursery, any concerns with children who attend, and plan the environment and activities for the coming term.

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: review and amend the organisation of routines to support the behaviour and abilities of all children and prevent them from waiting for periods of time between transitions nimprove the support for children with communication and language delays, in particular those with SEND nenhance the deployment of staff to ensure there are consistent quality interactions with toddlers nimprove the communication and feedback to parents and the sharing of information with other provisions children attend, to support working in partnership.