Abacus Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff have made significant improvements since the last inspection. Children are happy and settled in this nursery. Babies snuggle into staff and seek to sit close to them. Staff offer plenty of cuddles and warm interactions. This helps children to feel safe and secure in their care. Children show high levels of engagement in their chosen areas to play. They begin to solve problems and to do things for themselves. For example, children confidently select the resources they need to cut star shapes from play dough. Staff help them to follow the process to roll out their dough before using the cutters

Children's behaviour is now good. Staff use improved strategies to help children learn the behaviours expected of them. Children are kind to each other. They learn to share, take turns and play well together. For example, children give their friends bells to wear on their wrists. They smile as they hold up their arms and shake them to hear the sounds they make. Children readily use good manners, saying please and thank you during mealtimes.

Children are keen to engage in play with staff and their peers. They have fun and enjoy the interactions they receive. As a result, children make the progress they need to be ready for their next stages in learning and the eventual move on to school.

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

• Staff understand and implement the curriculum well. They know the sequence of learning that children need to be able to make continuous progress, and staff make plans for the activities and experiences children need to help them to learn. Staff gather information from parents when children first start about what children know and can do. However, this information is not yet used effectively to focus the plans for each child's learning from the outset.
• The teaching of communication and language is a strength. All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress from their starting points. Staff use stories, songs and additional programmes of activities to help children listen, build and use their vocabulary to contribute their thoughts and ideas. Children happily engage in interesting conversation with staff. They are keen to say what they see in the pictures of a familiar book. Children become confident talkers and begin to develop speech rapidly.
• Staff tailor the play environments to enable children to access resources for themselves. They practise the skills they have learned and build on their own play and learning. For example, older children select from rubber bands, cellophane, tubes, and tissue paper. Staff help children to hold scissors correctly, and children continue to cut their paper to the sizes they want for their creations.
• Children show increasing independence. For example, babies learn to feed themselves, and the oldest children serve their own meals and manage cutlery well. They learn to dress in their own coats and practise fastening the zips and buttons. Children learn to manage their own personal care needs and understand the importance of washing their hands before eating and after using the toilet.
• Outdoors is a hive of activity. Babies have daily opportunities to be physical in their own space. They use ride-on and wheeled toys and have a safe space to explore and crawl. Older children develop their coordination while taking turns to throw balls into a large basket. Others practise their skills in climbing on the available frames. Staff help children to learn how to use the pedals effectively on wheeled toys.
• Managers ensure that staff receive the training and support needed to improve the effectiveness of their interactions with children. They have made effective use of the support from the local authority to make the required improvements. There is scope to continue to strengthen and embed these improvements, to further raise the quality of the provision for children to the highest possible levels.
• Parents speak highly of the nursery and staff. They say their children are happy to attend and are developing well. Parents say they receive detailed information about their child's care and learning progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make more effective use of the information gained from parents at the start about what their children know and can do, to focus the plans for their learning from the outset
• strengthen and further embed the improvements to staff practice, to raise the quality of the provision for children to the highest possible level.