Anna-Ca-Soo Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff in the nursery provide children with a range of fun learning experiences that encourage them to develop a positive attitude to learning. Children arrive happy to start their day, and staff greet them with a smile and a warm welcome. This helps children to settle and feel secure in their surroundings. Staff take the time to get to know the children. They build very close relationships with parents to find out what they know and can do when they start. This enables staff to provide activities that are tailored to children's needs and interests.

Leaders ensure that staff understand their intent for children's learning and follow an ambitious curriculum that is sequenced to build on children's knowledge and skills. This supports children to be fully prepared for starting school. Babies are provided with lots of opportunities to use and explore their senses. They shake their musical instruments excitedly as staff sing familiar songs. Older children engage in activities that help to develop their hand-eye coordination. They practise drawing big circle movements with chalk, make snips in paper with scissors and throw balls through holes on a board. Children are building the language they need to communicate their needs with others. This helps them to express themselves with their friends as they learn to share and to take turns.

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

• Leaders have devised a curriculum that includes a strong focus on supporting children's independence, self-care and building relationships in preparation for school. They closely monitor the delivery of the curriculum and provide staff with regular mentoring and training opportunities that help to continually improve their practice and deliver a high-quality provision. Staff feel that their well-being is given high priority by leaders, and they enjoy the 'family' feeling they have working in the nursery.
• Staff demonstrate good teaching skills. They are enthusiastic and positive in their approach. Staff listen to children, engage them in meaningful conversation and make learning fun. For example, following a conversation about holidays, staff helped children to create an airport in their role play. Children want staff to join in their play. They enjoy the games they play outside, such as hunting for 'bears' or going on a nature hunt. However, on occasions, some staff do not always recognise when to adapt their teaching to better support what the children know and can do and to provide further extension.
• Building on children's communication and language is a key focus of the nursery. Babies show a great interest in books and seek out staff to read them. They copy the animal sounds that staff make, such as the sound of a frog. Toddlers show increasing concentration when stories are being read and confidently finish the sentences of their favourite books. Older children engage in conversation and ask questions to develop their knowledge. Children use their critical thinking skills when deciding how to make their rainbow picture as colourful as possible.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and their families receive exemplary support and guidance from the nursery's dedicated SEND team. They, along with staff who work closely with the children, ensure that children are provided with a learning environment that consistently meets their needs and helps them make the very best progress. Very positive relationships are in place with parents and other professionals to provide a combined approach to help children achieve their learning targets.
• Staff work very closely with all parents and ensure that they are fully informed of every aspect of their child's care and education. Parents highly value the support and guidance they receive from staff and are fully involved in their children's nursery life. They attend regular events, such as stay-and-play sessions, where they engage and see first-hand the experiences their children receive. Parents ask for recipes from the nursery menu, so they can create these for their children at home.
• Staff support children to be independent from a young age. Babies learn to feed themselves and toddlers scrape their plates and pour their own drinks at mealtimes. Older children successfully dress themselves for outdoor play. They show good perseverance to attach and pull up the zip on their coat. Staff 'high five' children for their achievements, which makes them smile.
• Children are learning how to stay safe. Staff model how to use and hold scissors safely in their play. They learn about stranger danger and practise what to do in emergency situations.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff understand how to consistently adapt teaching to extend children's learning to the highest level.