St Helens College Nursery and Creche

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children are highly engaged and immersed in the wonderful learning opportunities provided. They thoroughly enjoy the time they spend in this rich and vibrant nursery and continuously demonstrate that they feel extremely safe and secure.

Children of all ages have impressively mature attitudes to their learning. They concentrate and persevere in challenging tasks and are incredibly proud of their efforts that are warmly celebrated by staff. For example, toddlers concentrate and focus intently as they attempt to take their shoes off independently.

Staff offer gentle instructions and guidance and create a highly pos...itive can-do attitude as children master and consolidate their skills. Staff know children exceptionally well and have exceedingly high expectations of them. They meticulously follow children's interests and provide activities that ignite and enthuse children's passion and thirst for learning.

For example, to build on older children's confidence when using scissors, staff offer alternative materials to cut, other than paper, that include cabbage and lettuce leaves. Babies and toddlers enthusiastically explore making marks with coloured ice on large sheets of paper on the floor. These imaginative opportunities superbly support children for the next stage in their learning, including school.

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

Children develop an impressive awareness of their health and well-being. For example, as they wash their hands, they sing renditions of 'Happy Birthday'. They remind their friends to 'wash, wash, wash' until the germs are gone.

Staff freeze medical gloves to create frozen hands and use a marker to draw on 'germs and dirt'. Children are encouraged to consider how they can remove the germs and use cloths and hand soap to remove the marks. This superbly illustrates to children the importance of stringent hygiene practice.

Staff work tremendously well together and their engagement, enthusiasm and commitment in children's play and learning are inspiring. Children develop strong emotional attachments with their key person and build extremely positive friendships with their peers. They play collaboratively, sharing, taking turns and listening to one another's ideas and suggestions.

Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is exceptional. The management team demonstrates a strong commitment to working with external agencies. It swiftly acts on the advice given to provide detailed and targeted activities that truly enable children to excel from their starting points.

Also, managers allocate staff on a one-to-one basis so that children receive exceptionally high-quality, focused and purposeful support and guidance.Staff give children's communication and language development excellent attention. They ask challenging questions and always give children time to respond, and listen carefully to their ideas.

Staff working with younger children support children's emerging language through repetition, extending sentences with descriptive language and providing a commentary as children play. Toddlers happily engage in singing songs and rhymes, and older children are sensitively introduced to early reading and writing as they develop their knowledge of letters and sounds.Children engage in wonderful opportunities to learn about the world around them.

For example, following their imaginative play at nursery, they visit a hair salon to deepen their understanding. Furthermore, to broaden children's experiences and scaffold their awareness of transport, children visit the local train station and travel a few stops with their friends. Children eagerly learn about the community in which they live and gain an astute awareness of others.

They enjoy activities to celebrate Chinese New Year and visit a local Chinese restaurant, where they receive chopsticks to use in their play.There is an immense focus on outdoor play and staff place a huge emphasis on the importance of outdoor learning. They ensure that children are active outdoors every day, benefiting from fresh air and exercise.

Children enjoy a plethora of exciting opportunities that include following recipe cards in the mud kitchen and constructing obstacle courses with crates. Staff embrace these opportunities to enhance children's confidence and skilfully teach them about identifying risks and managing their own safety.The inspirational leadership team relentlessly strives to maintain excellent standards.

Leaders demonstrate an uncompromising commitment to providing high-quality provision. They observe, monitor and audit staff practice robustly and provide an extensive programme of professional development. This immense support translates significantly into the quality of education provided for children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Leaders and staff have a secure knowledge of local safeguarding procedures and fully understand their role and responsibility in protecting children from harm. They work collaboratively with other professionals to swiftly identify children that may be at risk of harm and secure the appropriate timely support that they need.

Staff attend frequent training to ensure they remain abreast of current legislation and procedures. They have a comprehensive knowledge of the action to take if they have concerns about the practice of a colleague. The safety and security of the setting is maintained consistently through robust policy and procedures and stringent risk assessments.