Adventures Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff have very high expectations for children's learning and development in this friendly and supportive nursery. Children of all ages have access to a well-planned curriculum, which is based on what children know and what they need to learn next. Staff know their key children very well. Staff understand children's starting points in learning and can therefore plan accordingly.

Staff take children's thoughts and feelings into account at all times. They show respect and are polite in their interactions with children, who in turn demonstrate the same to their friends. Children are extremely well behaved and play cooperatively alongside each other. Older children manage minor disagreements easily and with confidence. Staff teach children how to stay safe and how to minimise accidents, but still encourage children to take measured risks in play.

Children are happy, well settled and curious in the learning environment. They have strong relationships with their key person and with their friends. Babies giggle in delight while reading familiar stories and singing songs. Older children set up activities alongside staff, offering their opinions on the resources that they want access to. Children are actively engaged in the curriculum. They concentrate very well in all aspects of learning.

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

• The leadership team is inspirational in providing an enabling environment for staff. Staff have access to individualized training that supports their professional development and challenges their thinking. Leaders provide effective support for staff to reflect on children's learning. During one-to-one sessions, leaders prioritise staff's well-being to ensure that staff remain focused on children making progress in their learning everyday.
• Staff provide children with rich, exciting and interesting opportunities. For example, children use citrus fruit, fruit teabags and china cups, saucers and tea pots to make tea infusions. Children excitedly lead the session as they discover different tastes and ask curious questions about how the fruit gets from the tree to the shop. During these sessions, children develop a number of skills, including fine motor skills, extending their vocabulary, sharing and turn taking.
• Leaders work alongside staff to mentor and role model effective teaching. Staff appreciate the opportunities to observe different styles of teaching and are encouraged to develop their own. Staff acknowledge the support that leaders offer them.
• Children's speech and language are very well developed across every age group. Staff promote imaginative storytelling that children spontaneously join in with. For example, they develop fun stories over a few days about animals that visit the nursery and the adventures they have. Children actively revisit the stories and can recall them with great joy. At these times, children add to their already extensive vocabularies and use their memories to store and recall stories. Younger children snuggle up with staff as they look at familiar books and photos.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make excellent progress from their initial starting points in development. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) provides very good support to ensure that these children receive all the necessary assistance. For example, the SENCo meets regularly with staff to ensure that targets set for children are focused and ambitious.
• Children have access to a rich outdoor play environment that they risk assess. Staff teach children how to play safely and how to minimise accidents. Children enjoy balancing on beams, running and climbing. Staff champion children's physical development across all age groups.
• All children have very well developed self-help skills. Young children confidently feed themselves and older children expertly wipe their own nose and face using mirrors placed beside tissue boxes. This confidence helps to build children's self esteem and their personal social and emotional development.
• Parents feel strongly that children's learning has been accelerated by the efforts of the whole staff team. They offer many examples of how the nursery has helped and supported children in their learning needs. Parents strongly recommend the nursery to other families in the community and some families continue to attend even once they have moved out of the area. Parents comment on the strong leadership and management of the nursery and the confidence that this gives them in leaving children in their care.