Westwood Day Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Children and parents receive a warm and friendly welcome as they arrive at this outstanding nursery.

Children separate confidently from their parents and become engaged in their chosen activity. Children are visibly happy and have lots of fun exploring the vast range of exciting and stimulating toys and resources on offer. Children learn through a highly effective balance of child-initiated and adult-led learning experiences.

As a result, children make rapid progress from their starting points. Children are at the centre of the nursery and activities are wholly based on what children enjoy and are interested in.... All children are inquisitive and confident learners.

They develop strong attachments to their key persons, who provide them with consistent loving care. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Children's behaviour is exemplary.

They share the resources and wait patiently for their turn. Staff consistently provide children with an abundance of encouragement and praise, which helps children to feel valued and to develop high levels of self-esteem. All children have exciting opportunities to explore their senses and use their imagination.

For instance, children excitedly look through cookbooks and mix flour with a hand whisk, pretending to make cakes. All children are motivated and display a positive attitude towards their learning.

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

All children, including babies, confidently explore their environment and willingly have a go at new experiences.

Staff are highly skilled and very sensitive to children's individual needs. They surround babies with language in a very natural way, helping them to rapidly develop new vocabulary. Babies and younger children have fun practising their early walking skills on challenging obstacles, indoors and outdoors.

Children learn to manage and assess risks. Older children expertly use knives with precision to cut a watermelon into pieces. They display excellent hand-eye coordination and perseverance and enjoy tasting different fruits and examining the seeds and pips they find inside.

Staff are highly experienced at recognising opportunities to extend children's learning even further through the use of skilful questioning.Children learn about nature and the natural world. They dig for worms and become captivated as they watch them move through the soil and look through binoculars to search for more worms.

They excitedly exclaim the worms are 'moving slowly' and are going to find their mummies and daddies.Children are encouraged to develop a love of books. They relax in the inviting cosy areas which are lined with enjoyable books and soft toys.

Children happily look through books with their friends and snuggle up to the staff as they enthusiastically read to them. Staff help to make stories come to life through interesting activities and props.Staff expertly weave mathematics into children's play.

For example, older children use tape measures to discover which piece of wood is the longest. They make predictions and begin to recognise large numbers.The passionate and dedicated staff display an in-depth understanding of how children learn and develop.

The staff know the children exceptionally well. They use this knowledge, along with detailed observations and assessments, to identify children's next steps in learning.The management team and staff develop excellent partnerships with parents.

They include parents in all aspects of their child's ongoing progress and encourage them to extend their child's learning at home. Parents are regularly invited into the nursery for workshops, stay and play sessions and parent forums. Parents speak extremely highly of the progress their children make.

They say the staff are very caring and professional and go the extra mile to ensure parents and children are happy and always made to feel welcome.The newly appointed manager has ensured the quality of the provision has remained exceptional. She has developed close and respectful working relationships with the dedicated team of staff.

The management team effectively monitors staff performance to precisely identify any training needs, to ensure staff consistently develop their practice to the very highest level.The inspirational leadership of the management team and company directors place a high priority on staff morale and well-being. New initiatives are consistently introduced to help maintain this continually evolving nursery where children thrive and excel.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The management team and staff have an excellent understanding of the signs and symptoms that may indicate a child is at risk of neglect or abuse. They have a strong knowledge of wider safeguarding concerns, including being drawn into extreme situations.

The management team monitors staff's knowledge of safeguarding through weekly on-the-spot questions. Staff and managers keep their first-aid qualifications in date. Children learn how to keep themselves safe.

The management team and staff talk to the children and parents about staying safe on the internet and provide valuable information for parents to read. The environment is safe and secure. In-depth risk assessments, both indoors and outdoors and for any outings, are conducted on a daily basis.