Abacus Day Nursery and Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show they are excited and happy at the nursery. Effective key-person arrangements are in place to ensure children are well supported. Children separate from their parents at the door with ease and happily go to their base rooms. Staff are kind and attentive to the children. They provide them with a wide range of activities that support their interests and help them to build on their prior knowledge and skills. For example, in the baby room, babies enjoy water activities on table-top surfaces, which encourages them to stand to build the muscles in their legs. Older children have many opportunities to expand their dexterity in their hands ready for writing as they enjoy exploring with media and materials, such as dough and sand.

Children behave well and they are learning how to be kind and considerate to each other. Staff support children's self-confidence successfully as they praise children for sharing, listening and turn-taking. Overall, staff support children's communication and language purposefully. They sing songs together and encourage children to develop a love of stories. This helps children to build on their vocabulary and understanding as they hear words used in a variety of contexts.

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

• Leaders and staff work well together to create a welcoming environment for the children. Since their last inspection, they have re-created the curriculum to ensure the main focus is to build on what children know and can do. Staff set up inviting play spaces and activities for the children, which they enjoy. Plenty of opportunities are also available for children to make independent choices about what they would like to do.
• Staff understand how children learn. They are confident with the areas of learning and adapt their teaching when supporting children to incorporate as many of these as they can to support learning. Overall, staff communicate with children effectively to support their language. However, at times, some staff do not use the correct pronunciation when naming animals, and too often children are not given time to think and respond to questions they have been asked by staff. This somewhat limits children's opportunities to explore ideas and understanding.
• Staff utilise the indoor and outside spaces well to ensure that all children's needs are catered for. Children benefit from a wealth of outdoor experiences planned to enhance their knowledge, education and curiosity. For example, they go for walks in the community and enjoy visits to the pantomime. Children have many opportunities to learn about people who help us and about festivals through planned activities and events.
• Staff have a good awareness of the importance of ensuring children's health.
• They ensure the toys, resources and environment are safe, clean and suitable for children to play. Children are supported to maintain healthy practices well. For instance, all are reminded to wash their hands before eating. Children are encouraged to stay hydrated, and all enjoy the nutritious meals and snacks offered to them. Staff are effective at promoting children's independence.
• Leaders are ambitious and passionate about the nursery. They are reflective and work with the staff to model practice. Staff benefit from team meetings, supervision sessions and training opportunities. However, systems used for the coaching and mentoring of staff practice are not targeted accurately enough to help improve staff practice. Nevertheless, staff comment that they are happy and feel supported.
• The special educational needs coordinator has a good awareness of her responsibility to support and guide staff to create targeted plans to help all children to achieve. She works closely with parents and other professionals to enable children with special educational needs and/or disabilities to make good progress. Additional funding is used effectively to close any gaps in children's learning.
• Parents have a good amount of information available to them. They have access to an online app that provides them with information about how their children are developing and about the children's day. Parents speak highly of staff and praise them for their support.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to strengthen their understanding of how to support children's early language development and broaden their vocabulary
• develop further the systems for coaching and mentoring of staff to raise the quality of education.