Squirrels Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and settled in this welcoming and friendly nursery. Staff are kind and caring and respond well to children's individual needs.

They get to know children and their families well and build strong relationships and bonds with children. This helps build on children's emotional well-being. Children demonstrate a positive attitude to learning.

They engage well and persevere with their play, proudly showing staff what they have created. Children develop their imagination, pretending to cook and serve food to staff and visitors using the toy kitchen. They enjoy joining in with music-and-movement sessions, wh...ere they learn the positive effects physical exercise has on their bodies.

Staff have high expectations for all children. The curriculum provided is well planned and sequenced to build on what children already know and can do. Children behave well.

They understand the rules in nursery and respond well to staff's gentle and appropriate reminders. As a result, children display positive behaviours, learn to share and take turns, and are kind and caring towards each other. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress in their learning.

They are developing the skills needed to support them in their future learning, including moving onto school.

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

Children benefit form many opportunities to develop their communication and language skills. Staff engage children in frequent conversations and discussions.

Children join in with songs and rhymes and enjoy listening to favourite stories. Keywords in home languages are used to help children feel settled and secure.Staff have a good understanding of how young children learn and develop.

They provide appropriate learning experiences that are based on children's individual needs and interests. However, occasionally, staff do not fully support less confident children to fully engage in group activities.Children independently select from the well-resourced environment.

Staff encourage children to make choices throughout the day, such as choosing to play indoors or outside. However, children are not always encouraged to fully develop their independence skills, because staff frequently do things for children that they can do themselves.Staff promote healthy lifestyles to children.

They encourage parents to provide healthy choices in their packed lunch. Good hygiene routines are followed. Children understand the importance of washing their hands before meals and snacks.

Children enjoy being physically active in the garden, riding around on wheeled toys and learning to negotiate the grassed slope.Staff help children to resolve and manage any disputes they may have. For example, if children disagree over toys, staff help them to find alternatives until that toy becomes free.

Children show respect for their environment. They readily help to tidy away the toys before moving on to the next activity.The manager has established excellent links with the local community, supporting families to access local services as needed.

Staff have formed good links with other professionals to help plan targets for children with SEND. This helps to close any gaps in learning and helps them to make the progress they are capable of.Parents are extremely happy with the care and education their children receive.

They are kept informed of their children's progress through an online application and daily conversations and discussions. Staff share resources with parents and give them activity ideas they can do with their children at home. For example, they send home a 'snuggle bag' with children's chosen books to continue to support children's love of reading at home.

The manager supports staff well. She ensures they benefit from regular supervision meetings, where they can review their own practice and set targets for future development. Staff have regular opportunities to attend further training to build on their already good knowledge and skills.

This helps to improve the outcomes for children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Managers and staff have a good understanding of child protection issues and know the possible signs and symptoms of abuse and neglect.

They are confident with the procedure to follow to share concerns to external agencies. Staff understand the 'Prevent' duty guidance and the signs that children may be exposed to extreme views. The provider notified Ofsted of a recent incident involving a child being able to briefly leave the building unattended.

The provider took swift and decisive action to help prevent a reoccurrence. Effective risk assessment now ensures children are well supervised and the premises are safe and secure.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: promote children's independence further by encouraging them to do more things for themselves provide further support for less confident children to actively engage during group activities.

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