St Michael’s Family Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Staff create an incredibly calm, quiet and thoroughly engaging environment for children. This contributes well to children's exceptional levels of focus and concentration in activities.

Children are confident communicators. The calm environment enables their voices to be heard and encourages their keen listening skills. Children feel safe as they are confident to express their views, knowing they will be heard and valued.

Children's enjoyment of their nursery experience is evident in all rooms.Children develop extremely positive relationships with staff and each other. They show care and concern for their friend...s.

For example, children check that their friends are not hurt when they fall over and help them back to their feet. Children play cooperatively together, showing good problem-solving skills, as they build a track to extend their interest in playing with vehicles.The manager and senior staff team are inspirational leaders.

They have clear ideas of what they want children to learn, how to maximise their learning potential and how this can be most successfully implemented in the setting. This vision is communicated clearly to the staff, who share the leaders' aspirations. They provide children with consistently rich and high-quality learning experiences in each nursery room.

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

The manager is extremely proactive in supporting staff to continue their professional development. Staff training is focused on helping them to develop their skills to provide children with highly targeted interventions, particularly when promoting children's speech and language development. The manager acknowledges the training needs of her highly qualified senior staff team.

She sources national professional development opportunities and conferences to inspire them and enhance their skills even further.Staff are extremely well supported in the setting. Following the recent changes to planning, staff confidently seek support from senior leaders, who promptly offer them personalised guidance.

Leaders observe staff and give them feedback, encouragement and reassurance to build their confidence. The established staff team is extremely valued by the leaders, who implement effective systems to promote staff's well-being and reduce any workload burdens.Staff provide children with a wide range of learning experiences.

At times, these are very simple but highly effective in helping children to learn and develop. Children excitedly explore with 'slime'. They use it in different ways according to their imagination and interest.

Older children seek a partner to see how far they can stretch the 'slime'. Younger children use it to make facial features on a pumpkin. All the time, staff join in with children, extending their learning and creating language-rich opportunities.

The manager recognises that not all children have the same experiences outside of the setting. She provides every child with rich and enjoyable opportunities to engage with books, stories and rhymes. Babies listen for prolonged periods as staff read to them.

Children who speak English as an additional language benefit immensely from being read to and listening to rich language. Consequently, they quickly develop their vocabulary and use of the English language.Staff develop close partnership working with parents.

They inform parents how they promote children's learning in the nursery and support them to continue this at home. Parents comment highly favourably about children's experiences in the nursery. They say that the information they receive from staff clearly demonstrates the clear progress that their child has made.

The manager reflects on environmental factors that are beneficial in promoting children's good behaviour. She considers the space and resources that children access and creates a warm, friendly and calm atmosphere. This has a positive impact on children's behaviour.

Staff are excellent role models for children and manage their behaviour positively.Staff take account of children's diverse experiences and create a fully inclusive provision. They help children from all backgrounds to develop a sense of identity and celebrate similarities and differences.

Staff and children communicate in different ways, such as through signs and gestures as they play group games. This ensures all children, including those with limited speech, benefit from the exciting opportunities on offer.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager is highly experienced and knowledgeable in safeguarding matters. She takes a proactive approach to sharing information with other professionals and takes a lead role when acting on concerns. She engages with local networks of professionals to keep up to date about potential safeguarding issues in the local area.

She shares her knowledge with parents, for example, about the possible risks children may be exposed to when accessing the internet. She understands her responsibility to promptly and decisively act on any concerns about children's welfare. Staff are confident in the procedures they must follow if they have any concerns about children.

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