Cherrytown Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Children enjoy exploring a range of sensory experiences available, such as sand, paint and soil.

For instance, babies and toddlers scoop sand and push cars along in the mud. However, the early years curriculum is not yet fully established to ensure that all children benefit from the best possible learning opportunities. Additionally, not all staff understand the intentions for children's learning or how to best support this.

Teaching across the nursery is variable. For some children, including children who speak English as an additional language (EAL) and children in receipt of additional funding, this does not help them ...to make the progress they are capable of.Children arrive happily and settle into the nursery, with the support of kind and caring staff.

Younger children benefit from cuddles and reassurance as they settle into new routines. Children are polite and courteous as they play together. For instance, pre-school children wait for their friends to finish eating so that they can all play together.

Older children develop an understanding of making choices that promote their physical well-being. For instance, they talk about the importance of drinking water as this 'keeps their bodies healthy'. They enjoy a variety of opportunities to be physically active.

Babies develop strength in their legs, as they pull themselves to stand, while staff support and praise these new skills.

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

The management team recognises that recent changes to the nursery, including to the staff team, have had an impact on the overall quality of the provision. Induction, supervision and coaching for staff who are new, or who need additional support, is not consistent.

Staff's knowledge and practice across the nursery is variable. The curriculum intent is not well known or understood by all staff. Learning for some children, particularly the youngest, is more focused on activities and less on what children need to know or to be able to do next.

Staff say that they enjoy working at the setting and feel valued and respected in their roles. They have regular meetings with the managers and benefit from some training to build on how they support children's behaviour. However, some staff teaching is weak.

Where staff need additional coaching and support, although managers are aware of weaknesses, they do not focus sharply enough on strengthening staff practice. As a result, children do not consistently benefit from focused teaching and learning opportunities to help build on what they know and can do.Overall, staff place a strong focus on building children's communication skills.

Pre-school children benefit from a language-rich environment, which supports them to learn and use a wide range of words to share in conversations. For instance, they share ideas about insects they would find in the garden. They recognise and name the centipede and quickly work out that 'the one with more legs would be a millipede'.

However, where younger children, including children who speak EAL, are developing their early language skills, staff do not consider how to focus their teaching and support on helping to boost all children's communication and language development skills.Opportunities for children to develop strong personal, social and emotional skills are embedded across the nursery. Staff recognise that supporting the uniqueness of children's personalities enables them to be confident and happy, in readiness for future learning.

Staff are good role models. They talk to children kindly and with respect. In turn, children are kind, polite and helpful.

For instance, pre-schoolers help to tidy away their own plates and use the dustpan and brush to help staff sweep the floors. Staff talk to children about the different family dynamics, helping children to recognise and respect the differences between themselves and their friends.Children develop an understanding of how to lead a healthy lifestyle.

They have daily opportunities for fresh air in the well-resourced garden. Children are provided with nourishing, freshly cooked meals and snacks. Toddlers and pre-schoolers learn how to wash their hands before they eat and become increasingly independent in attending to their personal care.

Pre-schoolers explain to visitors the routines that will keep them safe. For instance, they explain how the 'fire alarm means we will need to leave', confidently sharing their understanding of personal safety.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The managers ensure that all staff know how to report concerns about abuse or neglect, and how to escalate these, to keep children safe. They understand the procedures to follow if they have concerns about the behaviours of adults working with them. However, newer staff are not specifically trained to understand the nursery's safeguarding policy and procedures.

Consequently, they do not have a secure enough understanding of wider safeguarding issues. Staff complete effective risk assessments of the indoor and outdoor environments. Managers track accidents and incidents and make the necessary changes to ensure that the setting remains safe and secure.

Children are supervised by closely by staff at mealtimes.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date improve the induction for new staff, to ensure that they have an up-to-date knowledge of all aspects of safeguarding, including female genital mutilation and county lines 04/07/2023 focus support for staff, including less-qualified or less-experienced staff, on enhancing their teaching skills, so that teaching is consistently good or better.04/07/2023 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: develop staff's understanding of curriculum intentions to enable them to focus specifically on what children need to learn next to promote consistency in children's development nenhance staff's knowledge of how to support children who speak English as an additional language, to enable them to focus their support on helping to boost all children's communication and language development skills.

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