Ofsted’s evaluation area of behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines sets the foundations for all learning to be built on. But it can be an area that causes some confusion.
Many nursery managers find it an area less tangible than achievement and less measurable than leadership and governance, or is it?
In this blog, we break down what Ofsted are looking for in this evaluation area, what strong evidence looks like in practice and what that means for your nursery.
A note before we dig in:
There’s a common misconception that this evaluation area is simply a measure of how well-behaved children are on inspection day.
Yes, children’s visible behaviour is sometimes noted in reports – but in early years, your team’s job is to expose children to situations where they can practise self-regulation, empathy and the social skills they’re still developing. That looks very different to a quiet, contained classroom.
For the purposes of this blog, when we use Ofsted’s terminology of ‘poor behaviour’, we mean behaviour that isn’t conducive to a child’s own learning or that of those around them – not a failure to sit still and comply.
Early years children are learning through play and opportunity, and that’s exactly what effective practice looks like.
What this evaluation area tells Ofsted about your nursery
As we know, the changes to the Ofsted framework are now in full force, with the new inspection framework being introduced in November 2025. The area of behaviour and attitudes is not a new one, although establishing routines is an addition.
When your nursery inspector evaluates your behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines provision, they’re looking at four main concepts:
1. Whether your environment actively supports learning, development and care
This moves beyond aesthetics of your nursery environment. The inspectors are looking to see if the underpinning culture and environment of your nursery supports children to engage, explore and develop their learning.
2. Whether your team helps children to understand and manage emotions and behaviours
Self-regulation is growing in focus in early years, where practitioners are helping to shape how children understand themselves and others.
Teaching emotional literacy and understanding through secure, warm relationships. Your nursery practitioners will be confident (and consistent) in modelling effective self-regulation, understanding the science behind how it works for young children.
3. Whether you work with parents to build the foundations of good learning habits
The early years are the foundations of all learning, including the learning of good habits that will help children in their next stage of education.
Inspectors will look at the relationship between nurseries and their families to see how attendance, punctuality, attitudes to learning and consistency of a healthy routine are promoted.
4. Whether your provision has a visible impact on your most vulnerable children
Children with SEND, those known to children’s social care and those facing other barriers should be the driver behind your policies and processes. Inspectors want to see how you anticipate, identify and reduce barriers to their learning and wellbeing.
Worth noting: the Early Years Inspection Toolkit specifically addresses settings that don’t currently have children who meet the disadvantaged criteria. The expectation is still there. Leaders should be able to demonstrate how they’d support vulnerable children, including those at high risk of mental health challenges, whether for their current cohort or in preparation for children who may join.
The factors Ofsted consider the strongest indicators of effective provision
When inspectors gather evidence in this area, they’re guided by four factors that research and inspection evidence show matter most.
Behaviour, attitudes and routines are prioritised setting wide. Nursery managers don’t rely on the luck of exceptional staff who prioritise effective behaviour and attitudes to learning as it’s an expectation and priority across every room.
Allowing every child to benefit from the learning experiences and education your nursery offers.
Expectations are clear, consistently applied and well understood. Practitioners know what they’re working towards. Parents know what’s expected. And when things fall outside those expectations, everyone knows what happens next.
Children are motivated and developing positive attitudes to learning. A child at any developmental stage can show curiosity, persistence and engagement – and Ofsted expects settings to nurture that, not wait for it to emerge on its own.
The nursery culture is positive, inclusive and respectful. Particularly for children who are disadvantaged or vulnerable. Inspectors will look for evidence that the warmth and high expectations in your setting extend to every child, not just the ones who find it easy to thrive.
How inspectors gather evidence during your nursery visit
Inspectors use a combination of eight inspection activities during your visit to look at the behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines area.
The Early Years Inspection Toolkit breaks the evidence-gathering into these main areas:
Strategic leadership
Inspectors will look at whether nursery leaders know how effective everyday practice is. That means analysing patterns to anticipate problems before they become a habit that will negatively impact a child’s education, especially for disadvantaged children and those with SEND.
Leaders should be able to demonstrate that their policies communicate expectations clearly to practitioners and parents alike and that those expectations are followed in practice.
It’s the same message threaded across all areas of evaluation, especially the area of leadership and governance. Effective nursery managers must know the impact their strategic decisions have on child development.
Positive relationships
Key worker relationships are a vital strategy in building the safety and security children need to achieve, belong and thrive.
Inspectors will observe how practitioners support children’s emotional development, their sense of security and their growing ability to manage themselves and relate to others.
They’ll look for evidence that practitioners understand why secure attachment matters, and that they actively teach children skills like sharing, listening, managing conflict and mutual respect. These will all be evident if your EYFS curriculum and setting’s ethos is underpinned by fundamental British values.
Attitudes to learning
Inspectors consider whether children are supported to settle and build positive attitudes to learning at a pace that’s right for their age and stage.
They’ll look at whether practitioners actively teach children to find and follow routines and manage their own feelings, and whether they know how to support children who are struggling to regulate.
This includes using emotional regulation strategies that help children stop or redirect an unhelpful thought or action – always with a realistic understanding of what executive function capacity children have at different ages and developmental stages.
Nursery attendance
Attendance in the early years isn’t compulsory, but it’s widely recognised in the framework that the habits formed in early years will shape their next stage in education.
Inspectors will look at whether nursery leaders record, monitor and evaluate attendance, whether they work actively with families to overcome barriers, and whether they follow the setting’s attendance policy consistently when trends are noticed with children’s absence.
Inclusive approaches
Inclusion is its own inspection area, and as expected, it’s threaded throughout all other evaluation areas.
Inspectors consider whether high expectations apply to every child – with adjustments made for individual needs, offering a different route to the same destination.
They’ll look at whether provision is adapted as children’s circumstances, and whether targeted support and interventions are helping disadvantaged and vulnerable children to express feelings, develop positive attitudes and navigate setbacks with growing resilience.
EYFS Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Examples of good practice
Evidence in this area isn’t found in just one place, it’s visible across your whole nursery.
Although it can be more challenging to measure the impact of effective practice, it’s worthwhile your whole nursery team knowing examples of what excellent provision for behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines looks like in everyday practice
Here are some examples of how to demonstrate you prioritise positive behaviour, attitudes and routines in your nursery:
Setting-wide understanding of expectations
Every practitioner (and parent) knows what ‘poor’ and ‘good’ behaviour, attitudes, and routines look like. And how to distinguish between a child learning through experience and a developing pattern of habits that will negatively impact their future learning.
If we could recommend one simple task for you to take from this blog, it would be this. In your next staff meeting, create a collective understanding of what ‘poor’ and ‘good’ behaviours, attitude to learning and routines look like for each nursery room and development age. Treat this as you do your safeguarding process, where everybody knows the concern signs to look out for, who to flag these concerns to, and what action is likely to be taken.
Your policies in practice
Created using evidence-based research and strategies, that are tailored to your setting and your children’s needs.
Staff training and CPD plans
How you invest in your team’s ability to support behaviour, emotional development and regulation.
It’s mentioned in the exemplary and strong standard criteria that staff are ‘highly trained’ enabling them to support children’s development in behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines.
Does your nursery CPD training plan show this Ofsted evaluation area as a priority?
EYFS tracking and data
Compare progress between groups and cohorts, spot attendance patterns and monitor vulnerable group development, ideally visible in one place via your nursery management system.
Prioritised tracking for EYPP and vulnerable children
Visible evidence that those children’s outcomes are monitored and acted on decisively and through using evidence-based strategies and interventions.
Opportunities for children to learn about themselves and others
Activities that challenge feelings, turn-taking, sharing, regulation, routine choices are essential for children to apply their learning in real life.
Inspectors will want to see how those opportunities extend to families at home through effective parent partnerships.
Behaviour incident logs
Your setting may use your practitioner observations to demonstrate the growing development of regulation skills. showing your response to serious incidents and the progression of children’s behaviour, attitudes and routine use over time.
Your nursery ethos and values
Where British values underpin the culture children grow up in at your nursery, how children are praised, supported and challenged to develop across the seven areas of learning.
EYFS transition planning
School readiness is a topic that is building momentum (it’s why we created our own 5 S’s framework to support managers). A smooth transition from nursery to school must be carefully planned, including helping their new setting to pick up where your nursery team left off with behaviours, attitudes and routines.
The language in your nursery rooms
Evidenced by how feelings are named, how regulation is talked about and how children use that language to understand and support themselves and others.
For nursery managers preparing for inspection
The toolkit’s strong standard for attendance states that leaders ‘consistently take decisive, evidence-led action to anticipate, identify and tackle barriers.’ That sentence appears in the attendance section, but it’s a useful lens for this whole evaluation area.
Ask yourself: are you anticipating, identifying and acting – or responding only once something has already gone awry?
The strongest settings in this evaluation area aren’t reactive, they’re reading the patterns, adjusting the provision and making visible progress for every child.
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