Banana Moon Day Nursery St Albans

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are very settled in this nursery. They are eager to arrive and happy to start their day. They have close bonds with the staff and demonstrate that they feel safe and secure in their care. For example, younger babies move towards members of staff when a visitor arrives in the room. Babies enjoy listening to the sounds the musical instruments make. They bang the drums alongside the staff as they sing songs the children know. Other children shake the maracas and explore all the different sounds. Some children join in the actions to the songs. They delight when staff praise them for getting their body parts right when singing about their head, shoulders, knees and toes.

Older children show high levels of concentration. Using pens and pencils, children develop their early writing skills. They create their own versions of fruit and vegetables. Next, they use their newly developed scissor skills to cut out the fruit and vegetables. Staff discuss with children what their favourite fruit and vegetables are.

Children are well behaved and have a positive attitude to learning. Staff use children's interests to create activities. They ensure that children always have access to activities they enjoy. This helps children to enjoy the learning taking place.

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

• The new provider, manager and staff team have made lots of improvements and these are recognised by parents. The provider and the manager have high aspirations for the nursery. Staff say that they feel very well supported by the manager. Effective supervision meetings ensure that staff continue to make professional progress. Staff demonstrate they are happy in their work by their positive approach to the nursery day.
• Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the nursery worked hard to stay in contact with families. Using online videos, staff created activities and read stories to children. Children were able to access these from home and join in independently. Art and craft packs were available for those families who continued shielding. This supported children to still make progress at home.
• Staff promote healthy lifestyles across the nursery. Babies eat healthy meals and snacks and have access to outside physical play daily. In their room there is a lot of space for them to explore and develop their early walking skills. Older children practise cutting their own fruit and vegetables, trying each one as they cut them. Later they complete obstacle courses while out in the garden area.
• Staff have excellent knowledge of their children. They understand the next steps in their learning and create activities to develop these further. However, staff do not consistently ensure that children are aware of the learning taking place. Therefore, children are not always able to revisit what they have already learned.
• Children develop good communication and language skills. Staff talk to children a lot and engage in conversations throughout the day. They introduce words to extend older children's vocabulary. In the baby room, staff repeat words back to children. However, this is not always pitched at the right level for all babies. Therefore, some children make limited progress in their language development.
• Parents are extremely happy with the nursery and the progress their children are making. They are complimentary about the communication they receive about their children. All parents are aware of how to access information about their children's developmental progress.
• Transitions into the nursery and throughout the nursery are managed well. New children starting the nursery complete thorough settling-in sessions and spend time with their new key person. When children move to a another room in the nursery, they make plenty of trips to their new room to stay and play, before becoming settled and moving over. Staff ensure a smooth transition of information. Transitions from nursery to school are not as smooth. Reception teachers are invited into the nursery to meet children in their own surroundings. However, staff do not focus sharply enough on the skills children need to develop, to better prepare them for their transition to school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff even more to develop their understanding of teaching and learning, to make sure children are aware of the learning taking place
• strengthen staff's understanding of how to support language development for younger babies
• help staff to consider how they support children through transitions to school so that children are better prepared for the next stage in their learning.