Forest Hill Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and settled at the nursery.

They arrive eager to start their day. Children receive plenty of help and support from staff should they need them. Children are adventurous in trying new activities and are skilled in using their new-found skills.

Younger children thoroughly enjoy learning to climb the stairs of the slide and turning around at the top, sliding down safely. They giggle with delight at their achievements and the fun they are having. They also recall the new skills they have been taught by staff in using the scooters.

This helps to build on children's physical development. Older chi...ldren further develop their self-help skills as they learn to undress and then dress up. The skills they have been taught are clearly embedded in their learning as they rarely ask for help or support.

Children thoroughly enjoy role playing and using their imaginations as they play. For example, they dress as the police and use a toy dog as their police dog. Children are taught how to play safely with their peers and to pick up dropped resources to prevent trip hazards.

Children behave well.

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

Staff do not always provide enough challenge for the most able children to enable them to reach their full potential.Staff support children who speak English as an additional language well.

They use children's home language alongside English as they play, helping the children to learn the English words. This greatly helps to support children's emerging language development.Staff work closely with parents and other agencies.

They are alert to seeking help and support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff attend regular meetings, sharing information about children's progress and what targets they can set to support children's learning.Leaders evaluate the provision well.

They are able to identify training for staff to help them enhance the care of the children. The most recent training has helped staff to support children with autism spectrum disorder. This supports staff to work with both parents and children to help children progress with their learning and development.

Staff are consistent in their approach to behaviour management. They take the time to explain to children the importance of sharing and also why they cannot throw toys around. Staff explain to children the consequences of their actions.

This helps children to understand how their behaviour can affect others.The quality of education is good. Staff plan enjoyable activities for children.

Older children thoroughly enjoy creative activities, developing their imaginations as they describe to staff what they are painting. They are encouraged to use different resources. This helps to support children's fine muscle development and early literacy skills.

Staff support younger children to explore messy activities such as sand play. Children learn how to use utensils such as spades and buckets to make sandcastles. Staff teach children how to fill buckets up and then tip them to make the castles.

This helps children's emerging physical development as well as their hand-eye coordination.Given children's starting points and the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their development, children are making good progress. Staff are fully aware of the impact and use this information to plan activities to support these areas.

Children are highly confident in asking for help and support from staff. They are taught by staff to use their words if they are stuck and need help. For example, at the time of the inspection, children readily asked for different resources to play with.

Staff work with children to swap the activities away, making sure that the floor is kept clear for the more mobile children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a clear understanding of safeguarding and what action to take if they have any concerns.

They understand the implications of contextual safeguarding on both children and adults. The provider has recently changed her accident forms to gather more information to help her risk assess accidents. She also gathers parental feedback on how the accidents were managed by the staff.

This helps her to keep an audit of risks and to see what areas need addressing to minimise accidents and incidents. All of these processes help the staff to keep children safe.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to recognise and provide further challenge to the most able children to help them to reach their full potential.