Beeches Park Children's Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff welcome children warmly as they arrive for their day at the nursery. They have established a consistent and nurturing key-person approach. As a result, younger children and babies have caring relationships with their key person. Children seek familiar adults for reassurance and cuddles to help them settle. Older children confidently choose their favourite activities. Children happily seek out their friends when they arrive.

Staff are experts at supporting children's emotional well-being with patience, care and understanding. Their knowledgeable interactions with them are extremely sensitive and respectful. There is a strong focus on personal, social and emotional development. This is embedded across the curriculum in activities and routines. As a result, children learn about their feelings from a very early age. Children learn to be kind to each other, to share and to help each other with tasks. For example, they ask a friend, 'Can I help you tidy up?' as they clear the craft table together in preparation for lunch.

Children's health is supported very well. This is because leaders and staff have thought carefully about the balanced, nutritious menu they offer. Healthy meals and snacks are freshly prepared in the nursery kitchen daily. Children begin to understand that food is a fuel as staff share menu cards with them that show details of ingredients. Staff explain to children that eating a jacket potato will provide energy for them to be able to play that afternoon and that eating some aubergine will help their brain solve problems.

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

• Leaders are passionate about ensuring that children benefit from a broad curriculum that supports learning and progress across all areas of learning. Children's well-being is central to everything that leaders and staff do. As a result, there is a consistent and coherent thread linking the education provision for all children. This successfully and securely prepares children for the next stage in their education.
• Staff are supported very well by leaders through supervision sessions and close working partnerships. They have excellent opportunities to develop their knowledge of child development through training and professional development. Leaders spend time in the rooms with staff and children every day. As a result, they have a good overview of how well the curriculum is being implemented.
• Staff provide children with regular opportunities to play in the nursery garden, which helps them to successfully develop their physical skills. For example, staff encourage children to dig in the large sandpit and build sandcastles by filling buckets. Children climb the small climbing frames and skilfully manoeuvre the wheeled toys around. However, the outdoor environment does not offer enough readily available opportunities for children to become engrossed in meaningful play to support all areas of learning.
• Children's communication and language development benefits from a language-rich environment. Staff sing, read and talk with children throughout the day. For example, babies giggle and smile as staff sing familiar nursery rhymes to them as they play. Staff introduce older children to new words in conversations to extend children's vocabulary. Furthermore, staff provide additional, focused support for children who speak English as an additional language. This includes using familiar key words in the child's home language during daily interactions.
• Staff ensure that the environment reflects children's experiences at home, as well as considering the local community. They use the local area for walks and enjoy looking out of the window to identify vehicles and wave at the drivers in the lorries and vans passing by. Staff provide some planned activities so that children can learn about different cultures and beliefs. However, the play environment does not offer children enough positive images of the diverse world around them.
• Staff are knowledgeable about child development. They carefully observe children and make decisions about their progress. Furthermore, they plan interesting and exciting activities following children's interests. Staff regularly share information with parents about activities that children enjoy and their next steps in learning and development.
• Parents say they are well informed about their children's experiences and their ongoing development. The online platform that staff use keeps them fully informed about their child's day. Leaders ask parents regularly for feedback on the nursery and make changes to improve the provision based on parents' comments.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff's understanding of how to organise the outdoor area more effectively to strengthen children's engagement and learning
• provide children with more opportunities to engage with positive images of the diverse world and other cultures as they play.