Bramblings, Parkgate Day Nursery and Pre school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show that they feel safe and happy in the friendly nursery. Staff understand how children learn. For example, the daily programme includes lots of singing and dancing. Babies listen attentively when staff sing familiar nursery rhymes. They begin to anticipate and join in with the actions. Toddlers show their delight when staff lead them in dancing the 'Hokey Cokey'. Pre-school children join in enthusiastically with the singing and movements of an engaging television presenter. The activities help children of all ages to learn to coordinate their movements. Furthermore, children acquire new vocabulary in meaningful contexts and engage with the rhyme and rhythm of spoken English from an early age.

Staff help parents and carers to continue children's learning at home. They share practical information about helping babies to develop the strength and coordination to stand up ready to walk. Staff and parents work together to teach pre-school children to dress themselves. This promotes children's independence, ready for school. Children learn to behave responsibly. At story time, pre-school children demonstrate their knowledge that rubbish from their pretend picnic must be collected and put in the bin. This helps children to form habits that prepare them to be helpful citizens.

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

• Leaders and managers work well as a team. Skilful delegation means that staff's professional strengths are recognised and built on. It also means that areas of responsibility are defined and allocated. For example, when children do not arrive at nursery at the time when they are expected, the designated staff follow a clear procedure for checking their whereabouts and welfare. This promotes children's safety.
• The nursery has a well-established system for supervising staff. Staff say that they feel encouraged and supported to keep on improving their professional skills and knowledge. However, on occasion, the observations of teaching do not focus closely enough on the detail of staff's spoken interactions with children. This does not help them to keep refining the quality of the communication and language teaching in the nursery.
• The promotion of children's early literacy is a strength of the provision. Staff regularly read new stories and favourite stories to children. Pre-school children are very familiar with the events in 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. Staff expertly build on this to involve the children in telling an adapted version of the story. Children carefully switch their pretend torches on and imagine creeping into the dark cave. The activity generates excitement about books. This promotes children's eagerness to become readers themselves.
• Staff create meaningful opportunities for children to count and use numbers.
• Children of all ages sing counting rhymes. Pre-school children learn how to use fingers to represent numbers. However, sometimes, the introduction of mathematical concepts is not sequenced well enough. For example, children are asked to work with written numerals before they have gained secure counting and calculation skills.
• Children's physical development is promoted effectively. Babies launch themselves into unrestricted, whole-body movements on the soft-play blocks. This promotes their confidence and core strength. Staff sensitively teach toddlers to hold and use cutlery at meal times. This promotes children's small-muscle development and they gain important self-help skills.
• Staff establish and teach consistent routines. Children know the behaviour that is expected of them at different times of the day and this promotes their self-control and independence. For example, pre-school children wait patiently for their turn to wash their hands and find a place at the meal table. The predictable pattern of the day helps staff to foster a purposeful atmosphere in the nursery.
• Staff take effective steps to promote children's safety and well-being. Everyone takes careful account of children's allergies to particular foods. This means that children are catered for safely. Staff know how to promote children's safety at sleep times. They check sleeping children regularly. Staff keep required records and share them with parents. For example, staff record children's accidents and injuries and any first aid that they administer.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• pay even closer attention to the detail of staff's interactions with children, so that targets for staff's development show precisely what they need to do to improve the quality of their dialogue
• sequence the teaching of numbers and counting more effectively, so that children acquire a really secure grasp of the number concepts that they need for their future learning.