ABC Nurseries (Coventry) 20 Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the nursery happily and are greeted warmly by managers and staff. They hang their coats up before going into their rooms, separate well from their parents and settle quickly to the activities.

Children benefit from plenty of fresh air and exercise and enjoy spending lots of time outdoors. They enthusiastically re-enact their favourite stories in the 'imaginary garden' area, such as 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. They recall the story and enjoy searching for the bear.

Children recreate familiar experiences. They demonstrate good pencil control when writing letters to their families. They place their letters into envelopes before pretending to take them to the post office. Staff extend these experiences further by going out into the community and visiting a post office.

Babies build strong bonds with key staff caring for them. They babble to each other and use simple words to communicate. Staff encourage this and respond warmly to their interactions. Toddlers enjoy rolling small cars and trucks in paint, moving them around an imaginary high street created on paper, and they talk about the lines and patterns they make. Older children enjoy making their own kites, adding stickers and writing their own names on them before running around the garden to see if they will fly.

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

• Managers and staff work closely to provide an exciting and stimulating environment for children. They use information gathered from parents when their children first start nursery and their own observations of children's abilities to plan a wide variety of activities to support children and finely tune their learning.
• Staff introduce adult-led activities into the curriculum to build on children's next steps in learning. A wide range of resources support child-initiated learning and enable children to follow their own ideas and interests. However, at times, staff complete tasks for children they are capable of completing themselves, which impacts on children's independence.
• Parents are extremely happy with the service provided. They feel that the strong communication between themselves and nursery staff keeps them informed about their child's progress. Parents comment that staff are approachable, caring and make their child's time at nursery an enjoyable experience.
• Staff praise and encourage children's good behaviour. Their positive influence as role models reflects the importance of talking nicely to each other, sharing and taking turns and giving each other time to share their own ideas. As a result, behaviour throughout nursery is good.
• Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is strong. Gaps in learning are quickly identified, and action is taken to seek any additional support children need in partnership with parents. Staff work closely with other professionals to set targets of support, which are then regularly reviewed and updated as needed.
• Staff capture children's interest in stories through the exciting way they read to them. Children join in with familiar texts and share their ideas about what is going to happen next. A variety of books are freely available to children throughout the day, and children like to sit quietly, either alone or with a friend, to read. However, some books are in need of repair, to enable children to gain the most from them.
• Children's health and well-being are supported well. Staff follow children's routines from home, and children rest and sleep according to their needs. Staff follow requests from parents for the use of comforters at these times. Regular nappy changing routines support children to remain comfortable during the day. Staff work closely with parents to reach developmental milestones, such as toilet training.
• Children enjoy a wide variety of foods, including foods from different countries, freshly prepared each day. Individual dietary needs and preferences are well known by staff. Effective safety measures are in place to ensure that children do not access foods that are unsuitable for their individual diets.
• Children have many opportunities to learn about different cultural events and celebrations. Positive images of people from around the world are accessible through books, pictures and small-world play.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance opportunities for children to develop their independence even more during planned activities
• take steps to ensure that books that are freely available to children are well maintained so that children gain the most from reading them.