Best Nursery (Arlesey)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with an interesting and welcoming environment at this bright and busy nursery. Staff plan activities with children's interests in mind, which helps children to engage in learning and develop their concentration. When children in the pre-school room enjoy finding plastic bugs in some mud indoors, staff encourage children to look for real-life bugs in the garden. They enable children to complete the task by providing good-quality resources, including magnifying pots and a bug checklist. Children investigate areas of the garden with staff by looking under logs and digging in planters. They excitedly tell staff they have found a slug and continue looking for more. This helps to build on children's curiosity about nature and develop a genuine love of learning.

Children are developing a strong sense of self at the nursery. Staff say babies' names when they roll balls to them. This helps babies begin to understand when it is their turn and when it is their friend's turn. Staff help older children to recognise and name emotions. Children are beginning to learn about how to regulate their feelings and behaviour. Children feel safe to share when they have had minor disagreements with their friends. Staff help them to understand how to negotiate these moments and how to help their friends feel better. As a result, children show others how to be kind to their friends.

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

• The management team is supportive and has an ambitious vision for children. Staff feel very well supported by the management team to develop their skills and knowledge. Additionally, staff are encouraged to fulfil their aspirations of career development. This builds a commitment to their roles, to provide a stable and caring environment for staff and children.
• Staff implement the curriculum successfully so that children make good progress in their learning. They regularly assess children's needs and provide activities to support children's next steps in learning. Staff link with other settings that children attend to obtain an extensive understanding of the stage children are at in their development. They use this knowledge to prepare children to be ready for the next stage of learning. This includes when babies move to the toddler room, or when older children move to school.
• Children form secure emotional attachments with staff, who know them well. The effective key-person approach means that staff help meet children's individual needs well. Furthermore, staff work well together to help ensure that babies' and children's moves to other rooms and overall development are promoted well.
• The team focus on children becoming independent from a very young age during their time at nursery. Staff help children learn these skills in suitable phases for their age and development. Staff encourage young babies to wipe their faces with flannels after eating. Toddlers have a go at putting on their wellington boots by themselves and older children are self-sufficient at following personal hygiene routines.
• The manager ensures that all children receive the education and care to which they are entitled. She and her deputy are extremely dedicated to the community and the families that attend the nursery. They work closely with a range of professionals to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Furthermore, additional funding is spent in ways that individually meet the children's needs. Consequently, all children make good progress in their learning from their starting points.
• Staff create purposeful links with parents. They tailor visits to children's needs when they begin attending and parents report they feel included when children move from one room to the next. Parents receive regular updates about their child's development and learning. Parents appreciate the regular newsletters that give them ideas for activities to do at home, such as scavenger hunts. This partnership working helps provide consistency of care and learning for children.
• Children are developing good overall language skills as staff help them to hear and use a wide range of spoken, read and sung language. Staff read books that children are familiar with and encourage children to join in and repeat known phrases. Toddlers join in the actions of songs and sing some of the words. Staff tune into, and listen to babies' vocalisations to understand what they are communicating. This helps babies to learn the very early features of conversations.
• Children set and complete their own tasks to their satisfaction. For instance, children roll balls down tracks and attempt to catch them all at the end in a box. They persevere to complete puzzles. Staff praise children for their efforts during these activities, but do not always build on these activities further to stretch and challenge their thinking.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to consistently build on activities to further stretch and challenge children's thinking.