The Battersea Nursery And Pre-School Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Staff are friendly and interact warmly with children at this nursery. They provide children with comfort and reassurance.

Children show they feel safe and secure. They play excitedly and interact well with their key persons. Staff encourage children's independence skills from the moment they arrive.

Children are supported to safely walk up the staircase to reach their classroom, where they independently take off their coats.Staff plan interesting activities to support the curriculum. This includes plenty of opportunities for children's messy play, creative arts and sensory exploration.

Staff have high expectat...ions for what they want children to learn. For example, babies develop strong hand muscles and coordination as they have a go at mixing and stirring using simple cooking utensils. Babies are happy and enjoy the cuddles they receive from staff.

Staff ensure babies have plenty of opportunities for uninterrupted exploration. In addition, staff plan a variety of activities that promote baby's speech, small muscle development and coordination.Overall, children enjoy being together and show they feel at home.

Staff expect children to behave well and support their turn taking skills. Older children immerse themselves in imaginary role play. Younger children busily help themselves to toys and resources for their play.

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

Across the nursery, staff promote children's language and communication skills well. Staff engage older children in conversations linked to their individual experiences. This helps promote their ability to accurately recall present and past events.

Staff encourage babies to echo the names of toys, objects and colours. Babies learn to move from gesturing to using intentional speech.Children benefit from good support to understand how to develop their social skills.

Staff model and encourage politeness and good behaviour. Children form close friendships and learn to play cooperatively. Staff communicate well with each other to provide consistent support for individual children to learn to understand and regulate their emotions.

Staff support children's early literacy appropriately. They encourage babies to make marks and dab coloured paint on large paper. Staff read books to children, which helps them develop a love of reading.

Young children enjoy the opportunities to snuggle close with staff to listen to their choice of stories.Children have some opportunities to think and solve problems. For example, staff give older children time to think about what they need to do to prevent their feet from getting wet when they go ice skating.

Despite this, not all staff implement sufficient challenge for older children's planned activities and learning. Consequently, at times, not all older children engage fully with the activities. This does not help them to reach their full potential.

Staff embed the nursery routines effectively. They sing rhymes to support children's understanding and to facilitate smooth transitions throughout the day. Consequently, children end their activities amicably.

They know when it is time to prepare for lunch, eat, rest and play.Staff are vigilant and supervise children well. They complete routine risk assessments to address hazards and ensure children's play is safe.

Children know they must line up before accessing or returning from the outdoors. Staff promote children's good agility, balance and large muscle movements as they play chase games during outdoor play. However, children do not learn to take and manage appropriate risks to extend their learning.

Staff do not plan or create opportunities for children's risky play.Staff work in communicative partnership with parents. They share information about children's learning and development needs.

They upload photographs and information on an online platform for parents and provide daily feedback. Parents are pleased with their children's overall experience at the nursery. They feel their children build good relationships and staff are kind and caring.

Managers have high expectations of all staff and are very supportive. There is a strong team feel among staff. Staff can access regular professional development training.

New staff complete their induction which includes their familiarisation with the nursery's policies. Despite this, not all staff demonstrate a secure understanding of all the nurseries polices in the way that senior leaders have intended. In particular, the updating of visitor's registers.

Therefore, at times, record keeping does not correctly reflect the periods when visitors are at the premises.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a good understanding of safeguarding and have up-to-date safeguarding knowledge.

They attend regular training and understand their duty to report or log concerns. Staff know what signs and symptoms of abuse to look out for. They discuss these confidently and describe how they would report to their designated safeguarding lead or take concerns further, such as to outside agencies, if necessary.

Staff implement appropriate procedures to monitor and manage accidents, injuries and concerns about children's welfare. Staff and leaders ensure non-vetted persons do not have unsupervised access to children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: provide support for staff working with older children so they implement sufficient challenge within their planned activities to extend children's learning create opportunities for children to learn to manage appropriate risks as they play strengthen the system for sharing the nursery's policies with staff so they all demonstrate a secure understanding of procedures, in particular, visitors registers, so they accurately reflect the periods when visitors are at the premises.