Ashbourne Day Nursery at Padgate

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, settled and secure. Upon arrival, they receive a lovely warm welcome from staff and are eager to go off and find their friends to play with.

Leaders, managers and staff have acted swiftly in making improvements since the last inspection. Together, they have designed a curriculum that is ambitious and builds on what children know and can do. Overall, the quality of education is good. Staff have high aspirations for children, including those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff place a strong focus on supporting children's understanding of caring for others and their learning environment. Children start their day singing the welcome song to each other. Babies are sung to throughout the day and snuggle in with staff when exploring books. Staff remind children to think about keeping their room safe through tidying away their toys. Children are supported to use their manners and say 'please' and 'thank you' in their conversations. Furthermore, staff provide children with praise and encouragement throughout the day. Consequently, children's self-esteem and confidence are increasing.

Staff model expectations for children's behaviour and routines. Children know what is expected of them. For example, when preparing to go outside, they know that they need to form a line and wait to be counted. Additionally, once outside, children understand that they need to swap into their wellington boots if they want to play on the grassed area. Children demonstrate a positive attitude to learning.

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

• Leaders support new and existing staff to improve their skills and knowledge through targeted professional development. For example, staff have recently received training to help them care for babies. They reflect on the positive impact this has had on their knowledge. After this training, they have made changes to the learning environment to provide greater opportunities for babies to develop their core strength.
• Staff provide many opportunities to develop children's communication and language skills through a range of play experiences. Staff engage children in conversations, using open-ended questions and back-and-forth commentary. However, on some occasions when staff plan adult-led activities for younger children, they do not fully consider the background noise. This means that it is difficult for children to focus their listening on the sounds and words and the intended learning.
• Children's personal development is supported well. Children are provided with healthy food and snacks, which they eat with gusto. Young children know they need to take a tissue from the box and attempt to wipe their nose. Others skilfully put on their own coats in readiness for outside play. Children are developing their independence skills to help them take care of themselves.
• Children with SEND, and children in receipt of additional funding, are well supported. Staff use assessment effectively and act promptly when they have concerns about children's development. They work in partnership with parents and carers and external professionals. Staff work together to plan and monitor appropriate targets for each child. Children's targets are shared with parents to enable a coordinated approach to their learning and development. All children make good progress in their learning and development.
• There is a minor weakness in the curriculum for mathematics. Staff incorporate some mathematics into the daily activities and routines of the setting. For example, children are beginning to learn about the order of number through counting songs. However, staff do not make best use of opportunities in children's play to explore key mathematical concepts, such as shape, colour and number recognition. This means that children are not consistently developing a base knowledge of mathematics to support them in their next steps for learning.
• Staff encourage and talk about kindness with children. They model how to be polite and recognise when children are considerate to one another. When a young child is upset, they are cuddled and soothed by staff and asked, 'Are you feeling sad?' Children are developing empathy and an understanding of their feelings and those of others.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop further the curriculum for mathematics to improve children's knowledge of mathematical concepts
• improve the implementation of the curriculum for communication and language so that children benefit further from opportunities to help them develop their communication and language skills.