Ashbourne Day Nurseries at Leicester Central

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy to attend this welcoming and friendly nursery. Staff greet them warmly, helping them feel safe and secure. They form close bonds with children and create a nurturing environment where children thrive. The effective key-person system ensures strong relationships and supports children's well-being. Older children confidently invite visitors into their play. Babies wave and share toys, showing their sense of security and belonging.

Children develop independence from an early age. Older children hang up their belongings and manage self-care routines confidently. At mealtimes, staff encourage babies to feed themselves and support younger children to cut their food, offering praise and time to succeed. Older children enjoy taking responsibility for serving themselves food. Staff use positive language to build children's self-esteem and confidence.

Children benefit from regular experiences beyond the setting, helping them to understand the world around them. Trips to the local library promote early literacy and a love of books. Children grow in confidence during outings, such as visits to large elephant sculptures in the city. Staff use these opportunities to teach children about art and introduce them to the diverse cultures within their community. These experiences broaden children's knowledge, support their social development and increase their confidence.

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

• The nursery curriculum is clear and well planned to support children's learning and progress over time. Staff work closely with parents from the outset, gathering detailed information about children's interests, routines and prior experiences. This builds a full picture of each child's starting points. Staff observe and assess children to identify appropriate next steps in learning. Parents value the regular updates they receive about their child's development.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive effective support. Leaders make good use of additional funding to increase staffing ratios and put targeted support plans in place. They work in partnership with external agencies to ensure children can access specialist help. As a result, children with SEND are included in all aspects of nursery life and make good progress from their individual starting points.
• Staff act as positive role models and consistently encourage respectful behaviour. They respond promptly and sensitively when children need help to manage their emotions. They support children to understand how their behaviour may affect others.
• Leaders carry out regular staff supervision and well-being checks. Peer observations are used to support the development of teaching practice, which contributes to positive outcomes for children. Staff feel valued and well supported. They work well as a team and speak positively about their experience at the nursery.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language development well, including for those children who speak English as an additional language. Storytelling and singing help to develop children's listening and speaking skills. Staff also use simple sign language and visual prompts to aid communication. However, they do not always model clear language structures, which may limit opportunities to support children's speech development further.
• Mathematics is embedded in everyday routines and activities across the nursery. Children explore numbers, shape, size and capacity through hands-on play. Staff introduce mathematical vocabulary, such as 'full' and 'empty', and count aloud during activities. Children also discover shapes as staff ask them to count the number of sides on triangles and hexagons. These experiences support children's mathematical understanding well.
• Children benefit from a wide range of opportunities to develop their physical skills. Outdoors, they run, climb and ride bikes to build strength, balance and coordination. Indoors, they use rolling pins with play dough, paint with brushes and scoop, pour and dig in sand. These activities help children to build their small muscles in their hands and improve hand-eye coordination.
• Staff offer children a variety of opportunities to practise and build on their skills. For example, children show high levels of engagement when making play dough. They name ingredients, pour, mix and describe what they are doing. Staff offer a narrative during these activities, which supports language and understanding. However, staff do not always fully extend children's learning to promote deeper thinking and problem-solving.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• use clear pronunciation and accurate grammar to help children hear and develop language and vocabulary effectively
• support staff to know when to extend children's knowledge further to develop deeper thinking and to solve problems.