Clive Vale Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy, safe, and secure in this warm and welcoming nursery. They understand that the staff will help them to manage risk and keep safe. For instance, children gain confidence in their movements as they balance on logs and beams, knowing staff are close by to help them if necessary.

Children of all ages benefit from the range of different sized ride-on toys and bicycles available. This helps to support their physical development. Children have close bonds with their key person, often choosing to sit quietly together to share a book.

They freely choose activities to engage in, from the interesting and motiva...ting range on offer. Children begin to develop scientific skills, predicting that the banana will go brown if it is left in the open air and observing the changes that take place.Children understand the expectations staff have of them and follow established routines without question.

Children behave well, responding positively to praise about a specific achievement. They know how to take turns and share. For example, they share the marbles and take turns to put them on the run.

The youngest children enjoy playing outside, where they excitedly find the different creatures in the soil and create concoctions in the mud kitchen.

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

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. The special educational needs coordinator works with parents and external professionals to plan appropriate activities to help support their progress.

Children who speak English as an additional language receive effective support and make good progress.Parents say their children are happy in the nursery and settle well. They value the daily communication they receive.

However, staff are not fully effective at sharing information about learning and providing suggestions to help parents reinforce learning at home.Children have many opportunities to develop their fine motor control and this helps to support their early writing skills. For example, younger children enjoy threading and painting the outside walls with water, while older children use a range of items to draw and write their names.

The manager holds regular meetings with her staff to discuss their practice and training needs. Staff are well supported in pursuing additional qualifications to help to build on their knowledge and skills. For example, some staff members have undertaken training to help support children's early reading.

Staff routinely monitor the progress of their key children. Where children have gaps in learning, staff plan suitable, sequential learning experiences to address these delays. They plan engaging activities, based on children's interests, to support the progress children make.

Children are enthusiastic participants in their favourite stories, making tea for the tiger for example. They delight in joining in with the actions and repetitive refrains of well-known tales. Children have positive attitudes and good levels of concentration when listening to stories.

Staff provide good support for children's communication and language development. They speak clearly and model good language, repeating words and phrases back to children to support correct pronunciation. Staff question children well, encouraging more detailed responses, which helps to promote speaking and listening skills.

Children are provided with many opportunities to develop their mathematical understanding and language. Older children work collaboratively to investigate which shapes roll and which are best to build with. Younger children begin to use the language of comparison, using words, such as 'bigger' and 'smaller,' and naming common two- and three-dimensional shapes.

Staff have forged good links with other settings children attend. They share information about children's learning and progress to help to ensure consistency of care. This helps them to ensure children are well prepared for school.

Children confidently manage their own self-care. However, at times, they are not given enough opportunities to do things for themselves.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and staff are fully aware of their responsibilities in keeping children safe at all times. The premises are checked daily to ensure that children can learn in a safe environment. Recent and regular training ensures that all staff can identify a child who may be at risk of abuse, from radicalisation or from county line activity.

They know who to inform should they need to seek advice about children's safety or welfare. There are appropriate systems in place should an allegation be made against any member of staff.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nensure that children have more opportunities to do things for themselves, promoting their independence provide parents with more detailed information about their children's activities and how they can support their learning at home.