Kenwood Nature Nursery

Kenwood Nature Nursery

Unique reference number (URN): EY543517 Address: Montague House, 294 Cemetery Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S11 8FT Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 13/02/2017 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Forest Schools Kindergarten Limited

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, are courteous, friendly and behave well throughout the nursery. Leaders establish clear routines and expectations for staff to listen to a support children's emotional and personal needs during their time indoors and out. Staff are consistent in their positive attitudes and caring approach to all children. This is reflected in the very positive views of the parents for the care and support staff provide.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Leaders and staff are warm and encouraging role models. For example, they join with children as they tidy away and purposefully praise them for their teamwork and care. As a result, children are proud of their efforts and eager to work and play together. Staff build nurturing bonds with babies and young children that help them to feel safe and confident in their surroundings. For example, staff work closely with parents to understand daily sleeping and eating routines to support babies to feel relaxed, refreshed and eager to learn.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Leaders set clear expectations for children's attendance and punctuality from the start of their relationship with the families. As a result, children attend regularly and parents know procedures for reporting and managing absences.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders and staff have a clear focus on promoting children's welfare and wellbeing needs overall. This starts from establishing positive relationships with parents to understand their children's personal needs well. This includes any additional support needed for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. As a result, children settle effectively into the daily routines and care of the staff. They enjoy learning both in small groups with children of the same age and opportunities to play harmoniously with mixed-age groups.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders and staff work together to ensure children are safe indoors and out. They are vigilant when children travel and play in the open spaces and woodlands. They involve the children in considering their own safety and encourage them to follow instructions and consider each other's needs.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff follow nationally agreed safe-sleeping routines to ensure babies and young children get the rest they need in a caring and secure environment. They support children's personal hygiene and toilet training ensuring children have the privacy and protection they need during nappy changes both indoors and out. Children are supported and encouraged to recognise their own needs. For example, they wash their hands thoroughly and regularly after activities and before eating. Children have full access to drinking water at all times.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff help children to recognise and manage their own emotions. Staff make positive use of well-considered books, songs and games to enrich children's emotional understanding. They encourage children to share their thoughts and feelings as they play and this contributes to their confidence and readiness for further learning.

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Needs attention

The nursery provides healthy meals and snacks. They support children to use cutlery and to learn to drink from open cups. They ensure children are safe during mealtimes. However, they do not take all opportunities to further involve children in developing an appreciation of healthy eating, for instance, through discussions and opportunities to prepare their own snacks.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff complete assessments of children's learning. This begins when children start at the nursery. This helps staff to promptly identify any children who may need additional help such as children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or face other barriers to their learning. For children who require extra support, staff work with parents and the special educational needs coordinator to create individual learning plans. They monitor the progress that these children make towards them regularly and adjust targets to reach the next levels in children's progress. They know how to seek further help from other professionals, such as medical specialists and speech and language therapists, if needed.

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Inclusion Expected standard

They work closely with parents to access support and to share information for children with SEND. Staff receive some support from leaders as they discuss any concerns they may have about a child's development and to plan next steps for their learning. Parents are very positive about how staff engage with them to help their children achieve.

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Achievement Needs attention

Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, do not consistently benefit from well-planned, sequential learning opportunities, particularly in mathematics. As a result, they do not always make the best possible progress in readiness for their next stages in learning, including school.

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Achievement Needs attention

Babies and children achieve in their personal and social skills overall. Staff encourage children to make decisions about the songs and stories they would like to hear. They encourage children to make choices about their learning and to become increasingly independent. Children enjoy creating their own games, such as developing a role-play pirate ship and building an anchor with wood and string.

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Achievement Needs attention

Children build their fine and large physical skills well. Young children enjoy handling small pieces of wood and observing them drift down the stream and completing jigsaws. They order wood by size and identify larger and small stones. Children enjoy using spray bottles of paints on a large fabric sheet hanging between tree so create patterns and begin to learn about colour mixing.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Leaders have designed a curriculum that generally follows children's curiosity and interests. However, they are not sufficiently focused on the skills and knowledge that children need to be taught directly. This includes teaching children mathematical skills and asking questions, to deepen their thinking and extend their learning. For example, children spend much of the day in the woodland and grassy areas of local parks and other grounds they can walk to. Staff have created adult-led activity packs on themes, such as, 'People who help us', to use outdoors. However, they are not sufficiently focused on skills and knowledge that children need to be directly taught, such as aspects of mathematical learning, and, therefore, do not support opportunities for practice and deepening learning. As a result, children are not always as engaged by the activities as they could be to ensure the very best rates of

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff are enthusiastic and very committed to the ethos of the forest school experience the setting promotes. They make some use of assessments and information sharing with parents to understand what children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities need to learn next. Staff generally interact well with children and promote communication skills effectively. However, they do not always make full use of questioning strategies to help children reflect on and extend their learning.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders and staff are enthusiastic and committed to the forest school ethos the nursery promotes. However, leaders' oversight of the nursery is not consistently rigorous and firmly based on first-hand monitoring of the curriculum, teaching and learning to ensure the highest standards of provision are achieved. There have been recent steps taken to sharpen monitoring and supervision procedures, but these are at too early stage to have a maximum impact. Staff feel well supported in their roles and comment positively on their wellbeing.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Staff are well-qualified for their roles overall and there are positive procedures for recruitment and induction into the nursery. Leaders ensure all staff have training in paediatric first aid and safeguarding. However, further opportunities for staff training are not fully based on analysis of the curriculum and learning the nursery provides.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders take positive steps to help children who have special educational needs or/ disabilities or have other possible barriers to their learning. Leaders work well with parents and carers to share ideas on what will help children to continue to develop their skills outside of the setting at home. Parents are very positively committed to the nursery's ethos and warmly appreciate the relationship and communication with staff.

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Compulsory Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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Voluntary Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the voluntary part of Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Voluntary Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Babies and children enjoy frequent opportunities to play and learn in the fresh air and open spaces. However, inconsistencies in leaders' and staff's curriculum planning and the quality of teaching means children do not always make the best progress they could in all aspects of their learning.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children typically build positive relationships with each other and the adults who care for them. Babies become increasingly confident and sociable as they play alongside each other blowing bubbles or watching their sticks float under the bridge along the river. Older children work together to make an anchor from wood and branches for their role-play pirate ship on the fallen trees they climb. Children build their appreciation of books as they settle with a friend and member of staff to share a well-loved story or learn about people who help us and other topics.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children feel safe. They learn about road safety on their daily walks and understand the importance of listening to and responding promptly to instructions when in the park and woodlands. Babies and young children follow safe routines for healthy eating and sleeping. They become increasingly independent in learning to look after themselves. They typically learn to take turns and be patient in response to staff's guidance and calm approach. They build their stamina and physical wellbeing as they walk, run and climb or play chasing games with staff between the trees.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children attend regularly and leaders ensure that parents understand the importance of communicating any absences promptly. Parents welcome the frequent communication and detailed information sharing that helps to keep their children safe and engaged.

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Next steps

To meet the requirements of the Early years foundation stage and Childcare Register the provider must take the following actions by the assigned date:

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Action Completion Date

Design a curriculum that ensures consistent progression in all areas of learning, that identifies aspects that need to be directly taught and provides frequent opportunities for children to practice and repeat their knowledge and skills in different contexts. 30/09/2026

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Action Completion Date

Create rigorous procedures based on first-hand monitoring of teaching and learning to evaluate and analyse the quality of provision and ensure staff receive training and support to achieve the highest levels of teaching. 30/09/2026

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, including the special educational needs coordinator, staff and children during the inspection.

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About this inspection

We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The

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Address:

Montague House 294 Cemetery Road Sheffield South Yorkshire S11 8FT

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Forest Schools Kindergarten Limited

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 18:00

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Urgent improvement

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk . Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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