Spring-board Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The well-established, experienced staff team helps children to make good progress from their starting points.

Staff know the children very well and have a secure understanding of what individual children particularly enjoy doing. They carefully plan the curriculum and environment in order to capture and maintain children's interest. Children have fun as they learn and are keen and motivated to join in.

They develop strong bonds with the staff and show that they feel emotionally safe and secure as they seek out staff to play with them. Staff provide children with clear boundaries and expectations. They sensitively suppo...rt those children who present more challenging behaviour.

When children show kindness to others or help out with domestic tasks, staff recognise this and offer praise. This helps to promote children's self-esteem. Overall, children behave very well.

Staff offer children innovative experiences, such as 'loose-parts' play, where the they can experiment with unusual objects. Staff encourage children to learn practical life skills, such as wiping their own noses, putting tissues in the bin and tidying away their toys. Children have lots of opportunities to speak and listen and as a result, they are developing good communication skills.

They independently 'read' books, listen to spoken words on a compact-disc player and eagerly join in singing songs and copying the actions to many of their favourites.

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

The staff plan the curriculum to consistently build on what each child knows and can do. They understand how young children learn and provide a varied range of learning activities inside and outside.

Children have free access to a variety of good-quality books. Staff are available to read to the children in a way that enthuses them to participate and share their ideas of what might happen next. Staff make very good use of props to bring stories alive and involve the children.

This helps to build children's confidence and introduce them to new language.Staff help children to learn about being respectful and understanding the similarities and differences between themselves and others. Staff help children to examine their own facial and bodily features, before supporting them to create their own unique self-portraits, which are displayed with pride in the entrance hall.

Children are encouraged to handle a variety of tools. They learn to hold writing tools, such as crayons and pencils, correctly when drawing. They confidently have a go at cutting with child-sized scissors and use spatulas to spread glue when making their own creations.

Staff support children's critical thinking skills really well. For example, when children discover that a cork is stuck in a cardboard tube, staff pose challenging questions and give children the time they need to think critically. This results in children exploring a number of options as they try to work out how to get the cork out.

Partnerships with parents and other settings are strong. Parents speak highly of the staff and state that their children enjoy a wealth of activities. They are provided with a good range of information about their children's progress.

They are encouraged to become involved in their children's learning in the nursery and at home. For example, they support their children to choose a favourite book from the nursery's library to look at and read together.All staff are responsible for key children.

They carry out regular observations and accurately track each child's progress to ensure that any gaps in learning are swiftly identified and, where needed, put support in place to narrow the gap. However, staff are less skilled in supporting children who are learning to speak English as a second language to make the best possible progress.All staff have completed mandatory training, such as paediatric first aid and safeguarding.

However, staff supervision is not used to the best effect to raise the quality of teaching to the highest level, including coaching and training staff, and supporting them with their continuous professional development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The supervisor and staff are fully aware of their responsibility to protect the children they care for.

They have completed child protection training and have a secure knowledge of safeguarding policies and procedures. This includes following up on children's unexpected absences and recognising signs of radicalisation. Information is displayed within the premises to remind staff and parents who they should contact if they have a concern about children's welfare.

Recruitment procedures are robust. The premises are safe and secure and risk assessments are implemented effectively by the supervisor and staff.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimprove staff's knowledge and skills on how to best support children who are learning to speak English an additional language and provide them with opportunities to use their home language within the setting raise the quality of teaching to a higher level by improving supervision arrangements and professional development opportunities for the staff.