Apricot Nursery and Jumping Jacks After School and Holiday Club

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a wide range of inspiring activities designed to meet the children's interests and needs. Children spend long periods of time immersed in their learning. Babies delight in playing peek-a-boo with staff as they hide behind scarves. Staff are always on hand to support play ideas. For example, staff help younger children when they want to wrap the dolls in blankets and rock them to sleep. Older children enjoy digging in the sand to discover toy animals. Children have fun developing their physical skills. Staff ensure all children have access to daily fresh air and exercise. Babies build on their walking skills as they hold staff members' hands. Younger children explore the garden. Older children take part in daily yoga sessions, where they practise different yoga poses and breathing techniques.

Staff support children to develop their independence well. They teach children skills such as serving their food, pouring drinks and putting away their belongings. They encourage children to try to do things for themselves first and they praise their efforts and achievements. Children behave well. Staff are good role models and clearly explain to children what they expect. They give children choices and use positive language, for example kind hands and walking feet. This helps boost children's self-esteem and encourages them to make appropriate choices on their own as they get older.

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

• Since the previous inspection, the leadership and staff team have worked with local authority advisers to make significant changes. Leaders have designed an ambitious curriculum tailored to support all children to make good progress in their development. In each room, staff confidently talk about how they implement the curriculum to benefit children.
• Staff's teaching is good. They are clear in what they want children to learn. Overall, staff regularly check the impact of their teaching. This allows staff to provide activities that focus on each child's learning needs. However, occasionally, staff lose sight of what they want children to learn and increase the difficulty level of the planned activity before the children are ready.
• Staff promote children's language development across every activity and routines in the nursery. This includes children who speak English as an additional language. Staff interact with children to encourage their communication and thinking skills. They narrate and comment on children's play. Staff ask older children questions to support them to talk about what they are doing. They build on younger children's vocabulary by modelling the correct pronunciation and emphasising key words. Staff repeat words, such as 'squidgy' and 'sticky', to children as they play with dough. Babies enjoy a group signing session. They
• Inspection report: Apricot Nursery and Jumping Jacks After School and Holiday Club 2 19 September 2024 show prior learning as they recall and then sign 'more' when the song ends.
• Leaders and staff team have the same ambition for all children. They assess children's development and identify any gaps or delays. Leaders work with parents and other professionals to provide children with the support they need to succeed at the nursery. Leaders use additional funding to support children's individual needs, purchasing specific resources and having extra staff.
• Children benefit from a well-planned settling-in period when they start at the nursery and when they move to new rooms. All staff show genuine interest in children and support children's emotional well-being. Staff give cuddles to babies when they become upset and find their favourite toy to help distract them. Staff gently approach younger children to ask permission to change their nappy and kindly explain why this needs to be done.
• Parents say their children enjoy coming to the nursery and are making good progress. They say they feel well informed about their child's time at the nursery. Parents say they are impressed with the progress their children make. They commend staff on how well they support their children to speak English.
• Leaders and staff are reflective and always striving to further develop the already good-quality care and education that children receive. Staff value the development opportunities and feel supported. For example, they speak highly of the recent curriculum training. This has helped them to define and understand the knowledge and skills they want children to develop.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider ways to ensure that staff check what children have learned and understood from planned activities, to make sure that they continue to build on what they already know and can do.
• Inspection report: Apricot Nursery and Jumping Jacks After School and Holiday Club 3 19 September 2024