Blue Skies Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this nurturing and warm environment. Children form strong bonds with staff. They approach staff for comfort, reassurance or to enthusiastically share their ideas. Staff have high expectations for children's learning. They use children's interests to encourage them to access opportunities that help them achieve the next steps in their learning. Children are enthusiastic learners and enjoy the exciting activities that staff plan for them. For example, they join in with the many songs throughout the day, dig for worms in the garden and enjoy making fruit kebabs. This supports all children to make good progress.

Children understand the daily routines well because staff explain clearly what will happen during the day. For example, they explain to the children that first they will wash their hands and then they will have fruit. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Staff give children choices about what to do throughout the day. For example, they ask if children would like to read a story or sing songs. This helps children to have ownership over their own learning.

Children behave well, showing they feel safe and secure. Staff clearly explain children's achievements to them, providing specific praise such as, 'Well done for putting it back.' This helps children to understand what is expected of them. There is a calm and positive atmosphere within the nursery.

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

• Leaders ensure that the curriculum for communication and language is effective and helps children to develop a rich vocabulary. Staff get down to the children's level and narrate as children play. They use repetition to reinforce key concepts to babies, such as, 'Hot, hot, hot,' when they are playing with the toy kitchen. Staff engage children well as they sing and read stories. This helps children to expand their vocabularies and develop their sentence formation.
• Staff carefully consider how to support children to develop their physical skills. Children balance along blocks, throw and catch balls, ride balance bikes and play running games in the garden. They develop their fine motor skills through activities such as pouring water, picking up objects with tweezers or spooning sand into a pot. This means that children make good progress in their physical development.
• Children develop their independence skills very well. They hang up their coats, get their bags from their pegs and take their mats out from their trays. Children collect cups with their names on and pour their own water throughout the day when they need a drink. Babies start to feed themselves with a fork from an early age. This helps to build children's confidence and self-esteem and to prepare them for the next stage of their learning journey.
• Staff plan regular opportunities throughout the day to help children develop their mathematical skills. For example, children count the number of people in the circle or the number of blocks they balance along. Staff regularly use language related to size during their interactions with children. This helps children to develop important mathematical concepts.
• Leaders support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. They identify children who may need extra support early, and consider how to help these children make progress towards their learning goals. Leaders work closely with external professionals and implement recommended strategies so that children's individual learning needs are met.
• The manager keeps her own professional development up to date so she understands what good practice looks like. She ensures that effective systems of supervision and training are in place to support staff, who are offered training based on their needs and requests. This leads to good outcomes for children.
• Staff build strong parent partnerships. They take time to speak to parents at the beginning and end of each day to share what their child has been learning. This helps parents to support children's learning at home. The manager is creative in providing support to the families who use the nursery. For example, she has built links with a doctor who provides health-related workshops and support to families. She also supports families to use local food banks where necessary. This helps to ensure that children are safe and secure.
• On occasion, staff ask children too many closed questions and do not give children sufficient time to process information. On these occasions, children do not develop in their communication and language skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider how to support staff to use questioning more effectively to further enhance children's communication and language.