The Nest Nursery

The Nest Nursery

Unique reference number (URN): 2815759 Address: The Nest Nursery, Pauls Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP2 0AN Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 22/10/2024 Registers: EYR Registered person: Bows and Arrows

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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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Achievement Expected standard

Children grow in confidence through a curriculum that promotes early language, purposeful play and emotional security and resilience. Children make sound progress from their starting points in all 7 areas of the early years foundation stage framework.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) achieve well because their needs are identified early and supported through tailored interventions. For example, children with SEND use Makaton and visual prompts to communicate their thoughts, feelings and preferences. Consequently, children with SEND make progress from their starting points in communication and language. This helps them to participate fully in daily activities and interactions.

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Achievement Expected standard

Children develop communication and language skills through daily conversations with adults who model language effectively. Children benefit from focused group activities that are tailored to their stage of development. Small-group learning helps children to make progress towards their individual targets and participate fully alongside their peers, and helps prepare them for school.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), can access the outdoor environment from the moment they arrive. This particularly helps children with SEND to regulate their emotions, settle quickly and engage positively in their learning.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Leaders continually review and improve mealtime routines to ensure they remain safe. They have recently introduced 2 lunch sittings to create a more social experience while better meeting the needs of younger children. However, staff are not always clear about their individual roles and responsibilities during these times. This means children do not always receive clear, consistent guidance, such as when to wash their hands before eating, and where to sit. This disrupts the flow of some mealtimes. It also reduces opportunities for staff to consistently promote healthy eating habits and good table manners.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard

Staff are positive role models who teach children to treat others with kindness, care and respect. For example, through nurture and communication groups, staff use tactile games and activities to help children understand and express their feelings. In turn, this helps children develop consideration for others and learn to recognise and respect different needs. Children are kind, play cooperatively together and build positive relationships. This includes children who initially found it difficult to understand and accept the needs of others.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Children benefit from regular forest school experiences, with a dedicated natural forest area in the nursery garden for young children. Babies and children enjoy singing and exploring natural materials, such as mud, bark and leaves. These safe sensory experiences spark curiosity and help them develop an appreciation of the natural world. These opportunities reflect leaders' commitment to inclusion and ensure that children's physical and emotional wellbeing remain at the heart of the provision.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Children who speak English as an additional language settle quickly. This is supported with key people being carefully matched to their individual needs and those of their families. This helps children build trusting relationships, feel secure and access learning confidently from the earliest stages of their education.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff support children to assess and manage possible risks appropriately. For example, babies learn how to get down from a chair safely with modelling from staff.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Staff meticulously follow daily risk assessments to ensure children with special dietary requirements, preferences, food allergies and intolerances have their individual care needs met.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard

Occasionally, staff do not consistently promote children's self-care skills and independence. For example, older children are not routinely encouraged to make appropriate decisions about their own wellbeing, such as choosing to wear hats in sunny weather. This means some opportunities for children to develop independence and take responsibility for their own needs are not fully embedded in daily routines.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Overall, teaching is of high quality across the nursery. Typically, staff place a great emphasis on communication through play. For example, children participate in daily group discussions about their planned play. Staff encourage children to listen to others, contribute their ideas and reflect on their experiences. Staff use visual prompts, such as whiteboards to draw pictures and provide extra meaning to discussions with younger children. This means all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, can express their thoughts, engage in meaningful discussions and learn from each other. However, staff do not consistently consider the most appropriate time and location for children to take part in these sessions. At times, these discussions take place close to other groups engaged in singing activities. The resulting noise levels make it difficult for children to listen attentively,

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

engage fully, share their ideas and further develop their communication skills.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Staff are positioned in planned activities and support children as they choose to take part. They use their knowledge of children's interests, development and current learning to extend experiences through meaningful interactions. Staff encourage children to think, explore ideas, make decisions and solve problems for themselves, helping to develop independence, creativity and confidence in learning. For example, children experiment with different ways to create texture and patterns in their work, testing their ideas and adapting their approach as they play. This supports creativity, problem-solving and independent thinking.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Robust settling-in procedures and an effective key-person system ensure that leaders and staff get to know children extremely well before they start. Leaders offer home visits where beneficial. These can help children who find transitions difficult build relationships with staff and settle more confidently.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff use effective assessing and monitoring systems to gather information about individual children's needs. They work in partnership with parents and external professionals from the outset. When required, support plans are made together and consider parents' views. This collaborative approach means tailored support is implemented quickly, to help reduce gaps in children's learning and development. Daily communication between staff and parents helps to build positive relationships. This promotes inclusion and enables staff to identify and provide effective support for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or who may face any barriers to learning and/or wellbeing.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff understand and consistently follow children's care plans. Individual strategies are used effectively to support communication, care routines and transitions. For example, visual 'now-and-next' boards help children with SEND to understand expectations and move successfully between activities.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Early years pupil premium funding is used effectively to promote inclusion and help children make progress towards their individual learning and development goals. Leaders identify that they can do more to consistently evaluate the impact of funded interventions to ensure provision remains sharply focused on improving outcomes for children.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Senior leaders work extremely well with leaders and take a strategic approach to improvement. They identify the right priorities to ensure the best possible outcomes and experiences for children.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders actively engage in their own professional development and are positive role models for staff. They have established a culture of continuous improvement, supported through coaching, mentoring, in-house training and apprenticeships. These opportunities help staff develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to carry out their roles effectively and contribute to consistency across the setting. However, staff do not always implement agreed approaches consistently. For example, recent changes to mealtime routines have not been embedded effectively, with staff occasionally making unplanned adjustments without communicating them to leaders or colleagues. As a result, routines are not always applied consistently, which can cause confusion for children as they learn and adapt to new expectations.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Staff report high levels of wellbeing and job satisfaction and speak very positively about working at the setting. Staff value the face-to-face training opportunities, which are tailored to their needs and learning styles. Staff feel valued and actively contribute to improvements, resulting in a motivated team focused on achieving the best outcomes for children. Parents are highly complimentary about the nursery's inclusive approach. They appreciate the personalised support provided for their children, the strong communication from staff and the proactive partnership working that helps children settle and thrive.

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

Children enthusiastically enter this inclusive nursery and happily wave goodbye to their parents and/or carers. Children's individual characters are promoted through interactions with staff, which reflect each child's interests and personality. For example, children eagerly initiate games such as peekaboo, and staff respond warmly, helping them feel valued and secure.

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

Babies and children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), settle smoothly. This is enhanced by bespoke settling-in procedures and robust key-person systems where all children's care is tailored to their individual needs.

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

Children who face barriers to learning, including those with SEND, thrive at the nursery. Flexible arrangements, such as adapting attendance patterns to meet individual circumstances, help children access consistent early education. This supports all children to develop positive behaviours and attitudes, laying the foundations for them to become happy, confident and competent learners.

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

Babies and children benefit from daily routines that closely reflect those established at home. Parents play a pivotal role in shaping sleeping and weaning routines, with staff valuing and responding to their views. As a result, babies experience consistent and familiar care, helping them feel secure and develop a sense of belonging and providing a sound basis for learning.

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

Children benefit from high-quality teaching strategies that typically complement a well- sequenced curriculum. Recent changes in planning and teaching approaches are helping children to build successfully on their learning and development, particularly in their communication and language development.

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

Children's physical and emotional wellbeing are supported very well. Children benefit from calm, inviting spaces where they can build confidence and feel listened to. Children, including toddlers, enjoy inclusive forest school experiences. These help them develop an early appreciation of nature and foster a love of learning outdoors. Children relish regular visits to the local park and develop a love of reading as they share stories with staff and

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Address:

The Nest Nursery Pauls Road Ipswich Suffolk IP2 0AN

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises parents during these community outings. These meaningful experiences support children's sense of belonging, wellbeing and enjoyment of learning.

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Next steps

Leaders should ensure that staff consistently support children to develop their independence, enabling them to make appropriate decisions about their wellbeing and manage aspects of their self-care confidently. Leaders should strengthen communication and oversight to ensure that new routines and teaching initiatives are implemented consistently by staff, enabling children to continuously benefit from a high-quality curriculum. Leaders should review the organisation of mealtimes to ensure that children receive clear and consistent guidance from staff that promotes inclusion, positive social interactions and good table manners.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with the senior leadership team, staff, parents 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 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. Registration date: 22/10/2024

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About this inspection

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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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

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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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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