The Old Station Nursery, Marlow

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The enthusiastic leadership team is committed to providing a warm, welcoming and inclusive environment for all children and their families. Children have strong relationships with their key person and demonstrate that they feel emotionally secure.

They behave well, confidently make choices in their play and are inquisitive and enthusiastic to learn. Staff work well together as a committed team and have high expectations for every child. They work effectively with parents to ensure that any child who needs additional help quickly receives the support they need to enable them to progress.

There is a strong focus on mathe...matical development and children have numerous opportunities to explore numbers through everyday activities, both indoors and outside. Children are encouraged to talk about and use numbers during their play and demonstrate a good understanding of simple addition. For example, they know that if they add two numbers together, they will have a bigger number.

Overall, staff interact well with children and respond positively to them. They promote young children's communication and language effectively. They provide a constant narrative as they chat to children, repeat words and introduce new vocabulary during everyday play.

However, during conversations with older children, staff do not always allow them the time they need to respond to questions, to enable staff to build on children's existing knowledge and skills.

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

Members of the leadership team are very dedicated and committed to their roles. They proactively make positive changes that benefit children.

For example, they use a variety of methods to evaluate the provision, such as quality improvement plans to help continuously drive for perfection.Staff are successful in providing children with a rich set of experiences that promote an understanding of people beyond their own family and community. For example, children learn about different cultural festivals, through stories, crafts and cookery activities.

Children value the differences and similarities between themselves and others and know what makes them unique.Staff provide a good range of activities that promote children's enjoyment and learning effectively. They use children's spontaneous interests to promote their learning further.

For example, when children notice that magnifying glasses have clouded, staff explain that this effect is created when warm air encounters cold air and creates condensation.Staff respond well to the leader's high expectations and desire to provide all children, including those with special educational needs, with high-quality provision. Accurate assessments of children's learning enable them to plan for their individual needs and provide enjoyable activities that motivate all children to join in.

Staff are nurturing and respond swiftly to children's individual care needs. For example, when children become upset, they empathise with them and distract them with activities that interest them. As a result, children quickly settle and are happy to play alongside their friends.

Staff demonstrate a good understanding of how children learn and develop. They have interesting conversations with them and children benefit from good questions staff ask them, to help encourage their language and thinking. However, occasionally staff do not allow children time to respond to questions, to establish their level of understanding and provide explanations that help towards developing their knowledge and skills even further.

Relationships with parents are strong. Leaders and staff offer a good range of initiatives to engage, support and build on parents' interest in their children's learning. They use effective communication methods to share information and promote children's learning at home and in the setting.

Parents' feedback is very positive. They praise the high standards of care provided by the staff at the setting.Leaders focus well on staff's ongoing professional development.

Staff regularly attend training courses to help develop their knowledge and skills, and they complete a robust induction. However, leaders do not always check that staff fully understand their roles and responsibilities, to ensure they follow the policies and procedures meticulously. For example, although staff and children check the garden daily for any potential risks, they do not always do this as thoroughly as they could.

Therefore, less obvious, minor risks are not always identified.Children cooperate well. They show high levels of imagination, have interesting discussions about their experiences, retell familiar stories and act out their own experiences during role play.

They show high levels of determination and develop resilience to setbacks when completing challenging tasks. For instance, when they have trouble opening food packaging, they try different methods and adapt their approach until they succeed.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders ensure that staff keep their safeguarding knowledge up to date. Staff complete regular training and discuss safeguarding issues during staff meetings. Staff have a very good understanding of what to do if they have any concerns about children's welfare.

They are familiar with the whistle-blowing policies and the procedures to follow in reporting concerns about other members of staff. The provider follows robust recruitment procedures to ensure the suitability of all staff working with children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: noffer children more time to express their thoughts during play, to enable staff to help develop children's independent thinking skills to the highest level continue to support staff to help them to develop a comprehensive understanding of their roles and responsibilities and ensure that they follow the policies and procedures meticulously.

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