The Old Station Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement While leaders know what they want the children in the setting to learn, they have not ensured that all staff deliver what they intend from the curriculum. As a result, the quality of the experiences that children receive is varied. Some staff are not clear about what it is they want children to learn from activities and how this contributes to them making progress.

Some children, therefore, do not receive the challenge they need to keep them focused in their learning. As a result, they become disengaged and this impacts on their attitude to their learning.Although leaders have re-established supervision arrangements for staff, fol...lowing the recent changes to the management team, these are still not effective.

This has resulted in a decline in the support that is given to staff, which has impacted on staff morale. While leaders provide training for staff, it has not yet had the desired impact on improving the quality of staff practice. Nevertheless, leaders have spent time evaluating the provision and have identified the key weaknesses.

They are taking action to establish positive improvements.Despite these weaknesses, staff support children to be confident and independent. For instance, older children competently manage their personal needs in the bathroom.

Younger children are encouraged to put on and take off their own coats. Overall, children are happy. They delight in joining in activities such as water play and playing in the garden.

Children show that they have positive friendships within the nursery. They hold hands when playing in the garden and staff provide activities that support teamwork in play. However, staff are not yet consistently supporting children to learn about the expectations for behaviour.

This results in children not always being aware of what is expected of them and, at times, not listening.

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

Leaders recognise that recent changes to the nursery, including to the staff team, have had an negative impact on the overall quality of the provision. The manager has recently introduced supervision and provides ongoing coaching and support for staff.

However, these procedures are in their infancy and have not yet improved the quality of some staff's teaching. As a result, children do not consistently benefit from teaching and learning opportunities that build on what they already know and can do.Staff use children's interests to plan activities.

However, these activities are not always organised effectively and implemented consistently well, particularly to support younger children's learning. For example, staff provide play dough activities to encourage a group of young children to share, but only have one rolling pin, which leaves children waiting with little engagement. In addition, staff do not consistently ensure that routines and activities such as story time and lunchtimes are organised as well as they could be.

Babies become upset because it is not clear what is happening next.The key-person system works well for the older children. However, not enough information is shared between staff to ensure that the youngest children's learning and individual needs are met when their key person is absent.

Agency staff do not know the babies well enough, and staff often pass unsettled babies from one member of staff to another to try to calm them. This hinders babies from forming secure attachments and relationships with a key person.Children make good progress in their physical development.

Staff provide daily opportunities for them to be physically active when they arrive in the morning. For example, children thoroughly enjoy running, climbing and throwing in the garden. They develop their physical skills further as they race each other and learn to kick balls outside.

Staff provide a range of opportunities for children to develop their communication and language skills. Babies enjoy singing and join in with the parts they know. Older children join in lengthy discussions with staff and each other.

In the garden, staff talk to children about the sun and planets. Pre-school children recall this learning and name planets proudly. Staff talk to children during activities and talk to them about what they are doing.

This exposes children to a range of vocabulary.Pre-school children are beginning to show an understanding of what is expected of them and the rules they need to follow. They are praised when they behave well.

However, some staff do not use consistent strategies or suitable explanations for younger children. For example, when toddlers transfer sand to the water tray or stand on the climbing frame, staff tell children 'no thank you' and 'no more'. However, they do not always provide an explanation to support younger children in developing a deeper understanding of the rules and boundaries.

Staff communicate regularly with parents via an app and verbal feedback. Parents comment that they know their child is happy and safe, as the staff are caring.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date ensure that positive behaviour strategies are implemented consistently to help younger children develop a deeper understanding of the rules and expectations at the setting 31/05/2024 improve the quality of training and professional development opportunities so that the quality of staff practice is developed to a consistently good standard 31/05/2024 develop key-person arrangements so that enough information is shared between staff to make sure that children's individual needs are met when their key person is absent from the setting.31/05/2024 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimplement systems to help children understand the routine and changes in activities so these are much smoother and help children to feel more secure.