St Thomas’ Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children truly thrive in this wonderful, vibrant and fully inclusive nursery. They play harmoniously together and their behaviour is exemplary. Staff know children exceedingly well and have fantastically high expectations of them.

Staff are passionate about providing the very best start for children and their families. Through home visits they gather exceptionally detailed information about what children can do and their previous life experiences. They make excellent use of this information to plan meticulously for children's individual needs and interests.

Tremendous consideration is given to children's emotion...al literacy. Children are encouraged to talk about 'warm fuzzies' and 'cold pricklies' throughout the nursery day. This superb practice helps to ensure that children are able to talk about their feelings, understand empathy and express themselves in social situations.

Furthermore, this contributes towards children being exceptionally happy, settled, highly motivated, safe and secure.The quality of education and staff's interactions with children are outstanding. Staff effortlessly ignite children's passion for learning and challenge them extremely well to excel in their understanding.

For example, regular trips to the local beach support children's awareness of environmental issues, such as pollution. Children describe how they gathered rubbish from the beach 'to save the animals' and used this to create an art installation of a lifeboat.

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

Outstanding and inspirational leadership motivates and drives the excellent staff team.

Staff are given focused responsibilities within the nursery, which they relish. They carry out their tasks with an abundance of dedication and commitment, including conducting their own professional research to benefit children attending. Staff express how supported they feel through highly purposeful supervision meetings, observations of their practice and in their professional development.

Staff develop remarkably strong partnerships with parents. They have created superb home-link bags and home-link bears for children to enjoy together with their families at home. Social events and drop-in sessions celebrate children's achievements and facilitate detailed discussions about the next steps in children's learning.

Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is exemplary. Highly knowledgeable staff have an astute understanding of children's individual needs and celebrate the uniqueness of each child. Staff's well-considered interventions and robust partnership working with other professionals ensure that any gaps in children's learning are swiftly addressed.

Inspired attention is given to developing children's literacy skills. Staff have implemented a 'we are reading pledge' to encourage children and families to share books together. Parents are regularly invited into the nursery to read to the children.

An abundance of cosy corners and relaxing spaces encourage children to select and enjoy books with their friends. Furthermore, examples of children's literature are displayed in all areas of the nursery. This enables children to continually refer to their favourite stories, seek information and absorb themselves in language.

Children are developing an outstanding awareness of the community in which they live. For example, they frequently visit a local residential home which affords children wonderful opportunities to engage with the older generation and understand their role in society. Furthermore, children continuously raise money for charity, demonstrating an understanding of those who are less fortunate.

The acquisition of children's language skills is given high regard. Staff provide excellent commentary during children's play, modelling language and giving children ample time to think and express themselves. Staff focus on children's listening and attention abilities skilfully, as they introduce a 'singing bowl'.

Children are mesmerised as they explore new and exciting instruments and the sounds they make, noticing rhythm, tempo and volume.Staff nurture children's understanding of the natural world around them. After cutting up fruit and vegetables to share with their friend at snack time, children use the scraps to feed the birds in the garden.

They collect eggs from the chickens and help to clean out their cages. Staff further strengthen children's growing vocabulary as they talk about 'habitats' when using binoculars to observe birds and other wildlife.Children demonstrate an excellent understanding of how to keep themselves safe as they expertly use real tools to hammer nails into pieces of wood.

They make links to their previous learning, as they recall how to hold the hammer carefully and to keep their fingers out of the way. Children understand why they need to wear wrist bands and high-visibility jackets when visiting the beach and know that they must always be able to see or hear their adult.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and staff are highly committed to protecting children and ensuring that their safety is assured at all times. All staff have an excellent knowledge. They confidently describe the signs to look for which could indicate that a child is at risk of harm.

Furthermore, they fully understand who to contact if they have any concerns about the practice of a colleague. Stringent recruitment procedures and continuous checks on suitability help to ensure that staff are able to carry out their roles and responsibilities. Policies and procedures are reviewed regularly and frequent training opportunities help staff to keep abreast of any changes in legislation or practice.

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