Appletrees Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with a homely setting in a rural location. They have made wonderful links to the outdoors through well-resourced and exciting outdoor play spaces. Children enjoy playing in a mud kitchen, wet-play area and sandpit, which help them to observe and interact with the natural world around them. Indoors, staff offer children age-appropriate activities and routines when they are encouraged to make choices in their learning. Staff help children to build their confidence and resilience through praise, respectful conversations and nurturing support. Children enter the nursery happily and have good bonds with staff and other children.

All children are encouraged to take ownership of their play. Staff use children's interests to extend their knowledge and skills. For example, they extend a topic with a trip on the bus into town to the post office and arrange for a fire engine to visit the nursery. This helps children to learn about people who help them in the community. Children have the choice to play inside, outside and in the 'garden room', which is at the heart of the nursery. This allows free-flow access for children to make the most of the opportunities on offer each day.

The curriculum helps to prepare children for their transition on to school. A dedicated transition manager ensures that children are ready for this next chapter, and staff have made good links with local schools. Staff have high expectations for all children, including those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. All children make good progress.

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

• Children have freedom to choose their own interests from the array of resources available. For example, children play with pretend insects and play dough. They make their own bugs out of the dough and compare them to the ones in their books. Children talk about a 'snail', relating this to the book 'The Snail and the Whale', which they have read in nursery. Staff skilfully point out rhyming words. This helps children to make connections and develop their literacy skills.
• Staff introduce some new vocabulary and engage in meaningful play with children on their level. This helps children to develop their ability to speak confidently and be curious about the world around them. They are confident to talk to staff who develop children's skills through careful questioning. However, staff do not consistently help children to interact more with each other.
• Mealtimes offer children a good opportunity to connect with their key worker and strengthen relationships across the setting. Children of different ages sit together and are encouraged to serve themselves. They are helped to spoon their pasta and sauce into their bowls. Children pour their own drinks from a jug, which helps to give them a sense of responsibility. However, staff do not consistently support the older and most-capable children to be completely independent at mealtimes.
• The experienced manager has a clear vision for the nursery and values an approach that places kindness and respect at the centre of nursery's ethos. The well-established and supportive staff are keen to create a happy, inviting and nurturing environment where children can thrive. Consequently, children make good progress across the curriculum.
• Parents feel that communication is excellent. They praise the kind and caring staff and feel that their children develop well. They say that staff are very accommodating and caring, which helps even the most anxious of children settle in quickly.
• Children learn about different festivals, such as Chinese New Year and Diwali. This helps children to widen their understanding of the world and different countries. Children and parents also look forward to an annual summer party, when families can come together to play and celebrate the year and their child's achievements. Staff also share their own training sessions with parents. This helps parents to learn more about how to educate and care for their children at home.
• Children's well-being is high. They are keen and motivated to learn through play. Children demonstrate high levels of engagement. For example, they wash the toy farm animals after using them to make marks with paint. They carefully dry them afterwards and work together to clean up after their painting activity. This helps children to develop teamwork and cooperation.
• Children use the outdoor water-play area to tip, pour and fill the various containers available. Children declare that they are making 'tea pie', and staff encourage this creativity. Children use mathematical language in their play, showing their understanding of shape, space and measure.
• Children are at the heart of this welcoming nursery. They show very good attitudes to their own learning and have good self-regulation skills. Behaviour is also very good across the age groups of children. Staff encourage children to share, take turns and learn how to focus through some group teaching times. However, staff do not consistently plan precisely for what children need to learn next during some adult-led activities, such as group times before lunch.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• create further opportunities for children to talk with each other as well as with adults
• plan adult-led activities more precisely, in order to maximise the impact on all children's development
• extend opportunities for older children to develop their independence, such as at mealtimes.