Ofsted Report

Inspection of St Mary's Nursery @ Wensley Fold Wensley Fold Childrens Centre, Carnarvon Road, Blackburn, Lancashire BB2 6NL

Inspection date: 5 March 2020

Overall effectiveness Outstanding
The quality of education: Outstanding
Behaviour and attitudes: Outstanding
Personal development: Outstanding
Leadership and management: Outstanding
Overall effectiveness at previous inspection: Outstanding

What is it like to attend this early years setting?
The provision is outstanding
The ambitious staff have high aspirations for every child. They support children to gain life-long skills that enable them to become highly successful individuals in society. Children are curious, imaginative and motivated learners. Older children enjoy real-life experiences, such as taking a doll to the local baby clinic, to further advance their knowledge of weight and measure. They use their exceptional physical skills to build a water station using large construction materials and discover the various properties of water. Younger children maintain increased levels of concentration during favourite stories. They use language associated with position when looking through a pretend telescope and bring the story to life when using this outdoors. Children boldly rise to any new challenges. All children make exceptional progress in their learning and development.
The devoted staff place a sharp emphasis on ensuring that children are extremely happy, settled and safe in their care. The effective use of additional funding has helped to significantly enhance children's personal, social and emotional skills. Children's behaviour is impeccable. This is demonstrated through the acts of kindness that they show on a daily basis. For instance, older children select a chair for visitors to sit on and take time to ensure that they are comfortable before moving off. Children actively join in with their friends during daily exercise sessions that contribute towards their excellent health.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?
 Managers and leaders are truly inspirational. They invite staff to read inspiring quotes each morning, to help to equip them with positive thoughts for their day ahead. This contributes towards staff's increased upbeat energy and enthusiasm within the nursery.
Staff aspire to continually improve. In response to recent training they have greatly enhanced their inspiring play areas with a wider range of natural and real-life resources. This is helping to 'fill children's hearts with awe and wonder'. Children are naturally curious and become deeply engaged in their play.
Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is outstanding. Staff meet regularly with parents and other professionals involved with each child. They swiftly implement personalised education plans that focus on what each child needs to learn next. This supports all children to achieve the best possible outcomes. External professionals positively comment that 'staff do whatever they can to support the needs of every child'. n The highly qualified staff plan 'in the moment' experiences for children to engage in that rapidly build on what they know and enjoy. For example, in response to children's interest in princesses, staff create opportunities for them to build and design their own castles. Outdoors, children use tools for a purpose while constructing these in the sand. Staff skilfully extend on this learning indoors as they invite children to create castles using paint and other materials. Children use talk to connect their ideas and make accurate predictions when mixing colours. They collaborate with others when working on a larger scale and sustain high levels of involvement.

Partnerships with parents are superb. Innovative 'stay and play' sessions help parents to gain a sense of what nursery life is like. Staff provide ingenious home learning ideas, such as enjoyable mathematical challenges, to build on children's excellent skills at home. Parents are extremely complimentary. They express that 'staff go above and beyond' and that 'children make super progress'.
Children confidently take part in new activities that equip them with some of the practical skills that they will later use throughout life. For example, they challenge themselves when attempting to hammer nails into different-textured fruits and vegetables. Children listen carefully to safety instructions and follow these perfectly to gain a superb understanding of how to keep themselves safe.
The polite and courteous staff lead by example. They take swift action, such as encouraging children to stamp in puddles, to help children to overcome rare bouts of frustration. This supports children to become more aware of their emotions and contributes towards the high levels of self-control that they acquire. n Staff are highly skilled in providing a rich set of experiences that help to prepare children for their move on to school. For instance, children enjoy taking part in their weekly physical education sessions at the local school. They willingly engage in challenging schemes, such as 'goodbye nappies and hello pants'. This contributes towards their ability to manage their personal care needs with increasing independence.

Safeguarding
The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
Managers, leaders and all staff adopt a coherent culture of vigilance and have a superb understanding of their role in keeping children safe. Extensive training and the sharing of informative safeguarding scenarios help to ensure that staff have an expert knowledge of child protection procedures. Staff work closely with other professionals to ensure that children with specific care, safety and welfare needs are successfully supported. Recruitment and induction procedures are tremendously thorough and ensure that staff are fully aware of their responsibilities. The effective deployment of staff is highly successful in meeting the needs of all children attending. Children are safely accounted for during changes, such as when moving between the indoor and outdoor environments.