The Co-operative Childcare Walcot

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children flourish in this diverse nursery, which is very much part of the local community. They arrive ready to learn and eagerly take part in an exciting range of carefully planned activities.

For example, older children have the opportunity to handle Brian, the giant African land snail, and find out first hand what he eats. Children form extremely close bonds with staff. For example, toddlers greet their key person with a huge hug.

Children demonstrate how safe they feel at the nursery as they move around with great confidence and make independent choices about their play. Babies relish playing outside, choosi...ng whether to look at books with a member of staff, confidently using the slide or spraying the plants they are growing. Children play exceptionally well together, sharing, taking turns and respecting each other's personal space.

For example, children aged two to three enjoy playing shops together and taking turns with the new till. The nursery's golden values are displayed throughout the setting, including outdoors, so that staff can refer children back to them. Staff know children and their families exceptionally well.

They find out as much as possible about what children can already do before they start and work extremely closely with parents to ensure that each child makes the best possible progress. This is particularly the case where families are vulnerable or children need extra help to achieve.

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

Staff have an excellent understanding of the curriculum.

They know each child exceptionally well and carefully identify what they need to do next. They use this knowledge to skilfully extend children's learning through a varied range of exciting activities and resources that inspire children's curiosity. For example, children are growing herbs and strongly scented plants in their garden and eagerly decorate wooden spoons to make plant markers.

Staff provide exceptional support for children who have identified special needs and/or disabilities and those who need additional help. They seek professional advice and specialist training, such as de-escalation techniques. They draw up carefully considered individual plans, which focus on achievable targets to help each child make progress.

They make highly effective and consistent use of strategies, such as signing and visual cards, to help children communicate. Staff and parents report rapid improvements for many children.Parents describe strong relationships with their children's key persons, who keep them fully informed about all aspects of their child's care and learning.

They report that staff give them personalised advice to support their children's learning and behaviour at home. For example, staff identified that some younger children were not eating enough solids at home or at the nursery. They have worked hard to engage parents in improving this situation.

Leaders and staff are committed to supporting the whole family. They have a food donation point where parents can drop off or take supplies, for example. They provide lots of useful information for parents.

This includes leaflets about online safety and information about walking and talking to their children on the way to nursery instead of using their mobile phones.Children have excellent opportunities to learn about their emotions and how to regulate them. For example, all staff wear lanyards with cards showing different emotions and use these with children to help them express their feelings.

There is also a 'feelings station' in the pre-school room, where children can go to identify how they are feeling and talk to staff about it. Staff use highly effective, individually tailored strategies to support those children who need additional help managing their behaviour.Children are extremely confident and develop great independence.

For example, babies confidently make their way to the cloakrooms to wash their hands before they eat. Children are deeply engaged in their learning, spending prolonged periods at activities, such as creating a pond with collage materials or making patterns, including dinosaur footprints, in flour.Leaders prioritise their staff's well-being, explaining that happy staff make a happy nursery.

They are invested in staff's professional development and understand that staff are the pre-school's most important resource. They carefully identify targets for staff, who have easy access to training online and also benefit from in-house training. Staff are confident in their abilities and eager to share what they do with others.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Leaders have embedded a strong culture of safeguarding in the nursery. Staff are extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of protecting children and vulnerable families.

They are constantly alert to the signs that may indicate a child is at risk of harm and understand that they have individual responsibility to protect children. They are clear that they would make referrals themselves if necessary and that they would whistle-blow if they had worries about the conduct of one of their colleagues. Staff are vigilant, ensuring that children can play and learn in a safe environment and teaching children about how to stay safe.