Blossoms Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff want all children to reach their full potential. They plan a wide range of exciting and ambitious activities that the children enjoy. Staff consider each child's personality and emotional development to help them to access activities. All children, including children with special educational needs and or disabilities, make good progress in their learning.

Staff build warm relationships with children and their parents. They make links between what children learn at home and in the nursery. For example, staff find out what experiences children have had prior to coming to nursery. They use this to plan challenging new activities for children to try. Staff consider what additional support disadvantaged children need to be successful. They ensure all children have ambitious new experiences. All children feel confident and happy. They develop high levels of self-esteem.

Staff teach children that it is important to share their feelings. They listen to children and encourage them to discuss their emotions. Children know that staff are sensitive to their feelings. This helps them to feel safe. Staff teach children how to care for their environment. Children understand the rules and expectations of the nursery. They listen to staff and follow their instructions. Children behave well.

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

• The manager has a strong oversight of the curriculum. She trains all staff well to understand how to plan and sequence what children are learning. All staff understand how to identify what children can do and what they need to learn next. They plan learning opportunities to match each child's abilities. Children are well prepared for the next stage of their education, including school.
• Staff are adept at engaging with the children. They engage them in back-and-forth conversations and encourage them to speak to others. Children gain progress in their speaking skills. However, sometimes staff do not fully extend children's language during focused activities. Children do not always have the most ambitious opportunities to practise new vocabulary.
• Staff support children to develop literacy skills well. Children have consistent access to stories, songs and nursery rhymes. Staff provide children with plenty of opportunities to see words and letters. They teach children to recognise their names, when they are developmentally ready, and experiment with writing in their play. Children enjoy books and stories. They are excited to share their writing with nursery visitors.
• Staff teach children the expectations and rules of the nursery well. They share a common understanding of how they want children to behave. However, on occasion, routines do not fully support children to engage and continue to behave well. For example, during transitions between activities, staff do not always consider what all children need to join in. At times, staff do not provide enough activities to choose from during these periods and younger children struggle to share.
• Parent partnerships are strong. Staff understand that continuing learning at home supports children's development. Staff share next steps with parents so that they can extend children's skills outside of the nursery. For example, staff give children stickers displaying their favourite activity from the day. Parents say that this helps them to ask what their children have been doing and practise this at home.
• Staff teach children about physical health and hygiene. They remind children about germs when cooking and teach them to wash their hands thoroughly. Children learn that keeping themselves clean prevents illnesses. All children develop independence as they do things for themselves. They develop high levels of confidence.
• The manager and staff support children to celebrate what makes them unique. They teach children about the cultures, religions, and languages they share. Children share and celebrate their own differences. They learn tolerance and respect for other people.
• The manager consistently evaluates the impact staff training has on children's learning. She uses supervision sessions to identify termly and yearly targets for staff. The manager knows that continuous professional development is important. She creates training opportunities that are closely linked to children's learning needs. The teaching skills of all staff continue to develop over time.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop further how staff teach new vocabulary to enable all children to gain fluency at a higher level
• build on good practice to ensure that routines at the nursery consistently support all children to maintain concentration and behave well.