Anchor Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The manager and staff provide exciting and engaging activities for children of different ages across the nursery. They make sure that they talk with families and children about what their lives are like outside the setting, to help them plan meaningful experiences.

There have been changes to the physical play spaces, including the enlargement of the pre-school room and the addition of a sensory room. These have increased the opportunities for children. Pre-school children have more space for activities. All children using the sensory room can explore using their senses. They can feel textures, sit and manipulate the coloured balls in the ball pit, and watch the way lights change colour in the light tubes. Staff comment that children become calmer and relax after using the sensory room.

Children in pre-school recall visits to see dinosaur models. Staff recreate this on a smaller scale in the nursery, so all children can learn about dinosaurs. Children get to 'extract' dinosaur skeletons from pretend fossils and uncover 'bones' hidden in the sand tray. They show good concentration, physical skills, and consideration for others as they share tools to break away the 'fossil'. They exclaim excitedly when they see pieces of the dinosaur emerging and proudly show others what they have found.

Younger children have fun creating with natural materials. Staff working with babies help them dip pine cones into different colours of paint. They tell children the colour names and comment on the patterns babies make as they print with the cones. Toddlers start to understand about healthy food choices. They can 'buy' real food from their own 'Farmer's Market' and sometimes try the different fruit and vegetables.

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

• The manager and staff are aware that families have experienced many pressures and changes due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Their partnership with parents is fantastic. Staff are starting to welcome parents back into the setting to collect children at the end of the day. They share detailed information with parents about what children have done, eaten, and learned. Parents comment that throughout the pandemic, the manager and staff were terrific. They say that they received calls, emails, and online support. This included suggestions for different activities they could do with children at home. Children continued to learn and develop well.
• Staff constantly narrate what children are doing, provide new words, and ask questions. They recognise that some children are learning English as an additional language. They use signs, picture cards, and words in children's home languages as well as English, to support speech development. However, staff sometimes do not allow sufficient time for children to think of what they want to say or express their ideas fully.
• Staff support children's personal development well. They remind children why they need to use tissues to wipe their nose, and then wash their hands, to stop germs spreading. Babies progress from drinking out of bottles to using cups. Toddlers make pretend cups of tea for staff, who model good manners, such as saying 'thank you' when they are handed the cup. Pre-school children make choices about the songs they would like to sing during their 'wake and shake' dances. They wait for others to speak and join in enthusiastically with actions and words.
• Activities are well-thought-out and implemented. For example, staff working with the babies know that they tend to put things in their mouths a lot. They provide safe edible resources while encouraging children to develop physical skills. Children show superb concentration as they have a go at threading cereal hoops onto spaghetti strands and eat a few hoops as they do so. Toddlers make 'cakes' in the sand tray. Staff provide different sizes and shapes of containers. They encourage children to use spoons as pretend candles and have picture cards with shape names and numbers on. Children start to make connections between the shapes and count the 'candles' on their cakes. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress as activities are planned to meet individual next steps in learning.
• The manager supports staff well. She focuses on developing staff skills and supports their professional development. Staff are confident to voice their opinions and use new knowledge from training in ways that benefit children and improve outcomes. Staff work together as a team with a shared vision, dedicated to supporting children to make the best possible progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make sure staff interactions and communication with children allow children sufficient time to think, provide responses and express ideas.