Beechcroft Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled in this welcoming nursery. Younger children show strong bonds with staff as they enjoy lots of cuddles and support. Toddlers and older children have good relationships with staff. They show strong friendships as they share toys and talk to each other during their play. This creates a relaxed atmosphere, which helps children to feel safe and secure. Staff encourage children to take turns during their play and gently remind them of the nursery rules, such as using 'walking feet' so they remember not to run indoors. Children behave well and actively follow the daily routines.

Staff have made improvements to the curriculum since the last inspection. Their planning now securely links to children's individual learning needs and interests, with children's key persons now being integral to supporting their learning. Consequently, all children make good progress. Children are keen and interested to learn. Staff engage children well in activities that promote all areas of learning.

Children develop their senses while playing in the mud kitchen. They become engrossed while using sand, natural materials and pots and pans to play imaginatively. Children smell and look at a range of herbs and spices with staff. They talk about the ones they like and add them to their mixture. This successfully enhances their creative thinking and skills.

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

• Leaders and staff have made good progress since the last inspection. They have met all the previous actions raised. This includes reviewing and updating their risk assessments and making safety improvements, including to the chicken coop. New arrangements are in place for separate outside playtimes for older children and babies. This ensures that all children can play safely.
• Younger children enjoy group sessions with staff where they talk about the timeline of the daily activities and sequence the matching picture cards. This helps them to understand about what is happening now and next, promoting positive daily routines. Children keenly join in the actions to familiar songs. However, staff do not use opportunities to introduce and demonstrate the key words and actions of the songs to further enhance children's vocabulary.
• Older children show good problem-solving skills. For example, they work together to fix pipes and make a water cascade. Children complete complex puzzles independently. This promotes their early mathematical skills. Staff enhance children's early literacy skills. For example, they encourage children to draw representational pictures of people and begin to write their names. Children show their love of books as they listen well to stories read by staff. They recite stories to themselves as they look at books independently.
• Children enjoy outside play. They develop their hand movements while using chalks to make marks on the ground and then pour on water to wash their drawings away. Children show good coordination as they skilfully use a range of wheeled toys and confidently use the low-level climbing frame and slide. However, the activities for older children do not provide opportunities for them to extend their physical skills further.
• Parents and carers explain that their children have made good progress while attending the nursery, especially in their social and language skills. They say their children love the nursery and have good relationships with staff. Many siblings attend the nursery over the years, and parents explain that this makes it feel like a family community. Parents like the app used by staff to share regular information about their children's progress.
• Leaders have improved the arrangements for staff supervision sessions and monitoring of staff's practice. Consequently, staff receive targeted support. This enables staff to fully understand their roles and responsibilities, and the quality of the curriculum planning and teaching has improved.
• Children enjoy relaxed and sociable mealtimes and talk about the foods that are good for them. They make choices of the foods they like to eat, and older children use the bathroom independently. This promotes their personal independence.
• Children understand the expectations of their behaviour. They show a positive attitude to their learning as they engage well in all activities. These skills help to prepare children for the next stage of their learning as they move through the nursery or on to school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• use opportunities during group song times to extend children's understanding of the key words and actions of the song to further enhance their vocabulary
• review outside play activities for older children to provide activities that further extend their physical skills.