Acorn Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children come confidently into the nursery and are welcomed by the warm and friendly staff. Staff welcome parents in, helping children to settle quickly and to feel safe and secure. For example, toddlers look at photos of family members and talk about them with staff and parents before saying goodbye to their parents and moving off to join in activities. Children new to the setting are reassured by a familiar key person. Children form positive and trusting relationships with their key person and other staff. They confidently speak to staff to share their experiences or to ask for help.

The setting's curriculum is broad and ambitious, and staff support all children to make good progress in their learning and development. Children are keen to engage with the learning opportunities that staff offer and show their curiosity in exploring different resources. For example, pre-school children explore the real china tea set and talk about what drinks they will make. Babies show curiosity exploring flowers, pulling off petals and feeling the different textures. Staff identify children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and put clear plans in place to support their individual needs and ongoing development.

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

• Staff encourage children's speech and language development well. They sing songs and rhymes and share stories with children. Staff engage in conversations with children and introduce them to a breadth of language and concepts. For example, older children confidently join in with familiar stories and suggest what comes next. Younger children show an interest in insects, and staff develop their learning further by going on a 'bug hunt' in the garden and talking about what they find.
• Staff know the children well and mostly identify the areas where children need to develop further. Staff plan activities around these areas to support children's continued development. However, they do not support older children more to interact with others who are playing alongside them or involve other children in their play. This would develop children's social skills and build their confidence when interacting with their peers.
• Staff model positive behaviour and polite manners and have clear expectations for children's behaviour. For example, they refer to the golden rules before reading a story, and children confidently talk about the rule of listening and what this means.
• Children respond promptly to requests, such as being asked to tidy away. However, at times, children across all age groups are sat for longer than necessary while waiting for other children to be ready. As a result, some children become bored and disengage.
• Children receive good encouragement from staff to be independent and learn how to care for themselves. For example, younger children learn to roll their sleeves up and wash their hands independently.
• Staff involve children in making choices and value their opinion. For example, older children are able to vote on which story they would like, and they choose their own fruit at snack time. Younger children choose between a story or singing. This helps them to learn about making choices and listening to others.
• Parents are highly complimentary about the setting. They value the 'home-from-home' feel of the nursery and the feedback they get from staff about how their child is developing and what they could do at home. This enables them to further support their children's learning at home.
• Staff meet regularly to review the provision and make changes. Leaders and managers encourage staff to share ideas from training and use these to improve the provision. For example, following training, staff have introduced chairs at story time for the older children that has improved their focus and engagement with stories.
• Leaders and managers work with other professionals to support all children. For example, they work with the local schools to ensure children are prepared for the move on to school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure the organisation of routines across all age groups minimises delays so that children remain in meaningful play
• provide opportunities for older children to engage in play with their peers, to further develop their social skills.