ABC Day Nursery Ltd Lightmoor

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this inspiring and nurturing setting. Children arrive extremely happy, and staff welcome them with smiles and warm greetings. They eagerly leave their parents and become engrossed in purposeful play. Staff provide an inspiring environment, both indoors and outdoors. It allows children to be free and independent and follow their curiosities. The use of open-ended resources invites children to explore and be creative, thereby increasing their skills in all areas of the curriculum. For example, babies develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they explore items inside baskets. Toddlers listen carefully to the different sounds they make with saucepans and spoons, taking them to different areas to vary the results. Pre-school children use their imagination as they create models from boxes. They proudly talk about their houses, dinosaurs and pumpkins that they have made. Staff support children in developing their independent skills. The child-led curriculum enables children to follow their interests and make choices to work things out and solve problems for themselves. This supports children to become confident and have a love for learning.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. They reinforce rules with gentle reminders when needed. They provide consistent positive praise and encouragement, which fosters excellent behaviour among the children. Staff actively support children in understanding and expressing their feelings, helping them to start to regulate their own emotions.

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

• The leadership team and staff are inspirational. They continually evaluate the impact that the environment and staff teaching has on children. Leaders have a clear vision and high expectations of the staff team. They provide coaching and mentoring to staff and ensure that there is continuous improvement in their teaching. Staff undertake extensive professional development and reflect on how training supports the children in the setting. The apprenticeship programme fully supports trainees to become competent practitioners. As a result, morale is high, and staff feel extremely well supported.
• The language-rich environment helps support and develop children's communication and language to exceptionally high levels. Staff ask children open-ended questions and give them time to think and respond. Babies are encouraged to repeat words, and staff narrate their play. All staff use stories, songs and rhymes to build children's vocabulary and introduce new words. Staff encourage children to recall events to promote conversations. Children who speak English as an additional language are well supported. Staff value their home languages with words and pictures that may be familiar to them. This supports all children to become confident talkers.
• Parent partnership is exemplary. Communication is maintained through a secure online system, ensuring parents are informed daily about their child's activities, care needs and ways to support their development at home. A wealth of information is available within the setting, covering topics such as funding, oral health and key dates. Parents highly commend the staff, expressing confidence that their children are safe, well-supported and making significant progress.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive exceptional support. Staff work closely alongside parents and other professionals to ensure children with SEND benefit from an inclusive and challenging curriculum. Any additional funding is used in a highly effective way to support individual interventions and appropriate resources. Therefore, all children make excellent progress in their learning.
• Staff across the setting have a strong understanding of the curriculum and deliver it highly effectively. Children are provided with a wealth of opportunities to explore and engage with the wider world. For example, they visit a local care home to sing for the residents, go on trips to nearby shops to buy produce, or post letters. The setting welcomes visitors, such as the police, to talk to the children. These experiences help children develop an understanding of different people, communities and the world around them.
• Children develop healthy lifestyles as staff consistently model positive habits. They engage children in discussions about healthy eating, oral health and the importance of daily fresh air and exercise. Nutritious hot meals ensure children enjoy a well-balanced diet. To support physical and mental well-being, children participate in a weekly physical education session at the school, helping to develop their coordination, fitness and confidence. Additionally, staff and parents recently took part in a '28 Miles in One Month' walking challenge as part of Mental Health Month, reinforcing the importance of staying active and promoting well-being within the wider community.