Camelot Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy to attend this setting and display a positive attitude to learning. They form strong relationships with the staff, who support children's emotional well-being, self-esteem and resilience. Children have access to a wide array of inspirational books. Older children enjoy looking through a book about recycling and learning how they can make the world a better place. They listen intently to the story. This helps them develop a passion for reading and build on their language and literacy skills. Children move with ease and interest around the setting, choosing activities that spark their curiosity and excitement. For example, they enjoy exploring a tray with blue water, foam, sea animals and cups of varying sizes. Children talk with the staff about the sea animals and join in pretend play with their peers. This helps them to strengthen their social interactions and widen their understanding of the world.

Children have fun exploring the messy activities, which offer meaningful opportunities to investigate and mix different coloured paints. They learn that mixing red and yellow makes orange and mixing red and blue makes purple. As a result, children feel proud and accomplished. Staff support younger children's sense of discovery and sensory exploration. For example, while in the garden, the children enjoy exploring a sand activity. They concentrate well and manipulate the sand tools with good control. This helps to build on children's hand-to-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

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

• Staff offer a rich environment with plenty of meaningful learning opportunities. Children make their own choices about the activities they would like to explore next. They learn to take turns with ease and confidence. For example, in the garden, children play well together with a large parachute. They listen and follow instructions well, giggling and laughing with excitement.
• Staff model language well and engage in conversations with the children. They use open-ended questions and introduce new vocabulary, such as 'metal' and 'organic'. However, staff do not use all opportunities to encourage younger or less-confident children to repeat these words to embed their knowledge.
• Staff always demonstrate positive behaviour and support children in learning about this. They use a puppet to teach the children all about emotions and how to express these with ease and confidence. For example, children can say when they feel happy or excited. Children benefit from activities which help to build on their fine motor skills. Younger children use play dough to mould with their hands and break into smaller pieces. Older children use tweezers with good control to pick small resources from sand.
• Children have good opportunities to be active and engage in physical activities.
• For example, younger children follow staff's instructions to jump like a frog and crawl like a bear. They also copy yoga poses to build on their balance, coordination and stamina. However, staff do not always encourage children to explore such opportunities further and challenge their learning.
• Children form strong relationship with the staff, who offer a calm, stable and nurturing environment. They feel secure in their care and readily ask for help when needed. This supports children's emotional well-being effectively. Staff have good knowledge of children's learning. They understand what children need to learn next and use information from their observations of children to guide their planning. However, occasionally, staff do not identify when children need more challenge to extend their learning further.
• Leaders' vision and ethos for the setting are ambitious. They strive to deliver a high quality of care and education. This includes working in close partnerships with parents and other professionals. Leaders value their team's well-being and professional growth. They organise regular meetings and training sessions to ensure they keep their knowledge up to date.
• Partnership with parents is effective. Parents praise the flexibility and inclusiveness of leaders and staff. For example, parents feel supported and involved in their children's learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the quality of teaching and education to ensure that children benefit consistently from extensive and challenging learning opportunities
• find ways to engage children more effectively in challenging conversations and introduce new vocabulary, particularly to younger children, to develop communication and language to a high level.