St Richard’s School Nursery Unit

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The passionate manager and staff work hard to create an inclusive environment for all children and families.

They have a very caring approach and create a particularly warm, positive and nurturing atmosphere. All children are happy and show how safe and secure they feel as they explore the nursery with confidence. There is a strong focus on language development and staff successfully support children who speak English as an additional language to catch up with their communication skills.

Staff consistently speak clearly, encourage plenty of engaging conversation and model new words. Subsequently, children express thems...elves confidently and use their increasing language skills to make friendships and develop their play.The curriculum is broad and closely linked to children's interests and development.

There is a particular focus on outdoor play, particularly in all weather conditions, to help children receive a rich set of experiences. Children delight in exploring the adventurous, wild and stimulating nursery garden. They discover and investigate, as well as developing good physical skills, coordination, balance and strength.

Staff have high expectations for what children can achieve and children are highly motivated in their play and learning. They consistently show perseverance and a 'can-do' attitude. All children quickly gain the skills needed for the next stage in their learning and for school.

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

The highly experienced and qualified manager and staff have worked hard to bring about improvements and raise standards since the last inspection. Vetting procedures for all staff and committee members are now robust and there is clear organisation in the nursery. The manager gives staff plenty of support in their roles and offers good guidance, coaching and further training for their professional development.

Recent training has focused on children's pronunciation and staff are introducing new games and ideas to support children who find this difficult. Staff have also introduced new 'core books', which they successfully use to develop children's understanding of rhyme, rhythm and repetition.Staff know the children very well.

They precisely assess children's development, monitor their progress and plan for their most important next steps in learning. Staff skilfully link this knowledge with children's current interests and create a diverse and stimulating learning environment. For example, during the inspection, children enjoyed creating spiders out of dough, hunting for buried treasure in sand and building their own obstacle courses.

Staff use their interactions to follow children's lead and help them to explore and develop their own ideas in play. For instance, children excitedly used tape to make bridges between a toy car park and a table, carefully pushing cars along the 'bridge'.However, occasionally some staff step in too quickly to offer suggestions and help children work things out.

This does not fully support their problem-solving skills.Staff are strong role models and sensitively guide and support children's good behaviour. Children learn to listen to each other, share the toys and treat others with kindness.

They are very sociable and build trusting bonds with their friends and all staff. This helps children to develop a strong sense of self-esteem, belonging and confidence in their own abilities. For example, children proudly celebrate their achievements, taking photographs of their finished dough spiders, drawings and paintings.

Staff use songs successfully to support children's learning through fun games and activities. For example, children excitedly develop their bodily movements as they join in with physical circle games and action songs. They enjoy learning songs in the diverse range of home languages of the children and celebrate their different cultures.

Children are knowledgeable and respectful of what makes them different and the same as their friends.The manager and staff give children a rich set of experiences to support their good all-round development and ignite their wonder of the world around them. Throughout the year, children grow and tend to plants and vegetables, observe the life cycle of frogs in the garden pond and explore the changes of season.

Children are inquisitive learners and understand how to manage some risks safely. Older children very carefully walk along balance beams independently, whereas younger children ask to hold staff's hands for extra support. However, staff have not focused enough on how to support children's understanding of potential risks when using the internet.

There is room to offer children and parents more guidance and support.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Children's safety is at the heart of the nursery.

The manager fully understands the importance of keeping children safe and ensures she is in line with local safeguarding procedures. All staff have a thorough knowledge of the signs and symptoms that may indicate a child is at risk of harm. They know who to contact if there are any concerns about a child's welfare.

The manager ensures that herself and all staff keep their training up to date. This includes wider safeguarding issues, such as how to identify children at risk of extreme views.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: make the most of all staff interactions with children to offer further challenge where appropriate and extend children's problem-solving skills fully focus more on how to teach children to identify and manage the potential risks when using the internet.

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