Carlton and Gedling Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at this welcoming nursery. They arrive eager to start their day and happily leave their parents at the door. Staff place a strong emphasis on children's emotional well-being. To this end, staff are motivating and build children's self-esteem. For example, children bring their Easter bonnets to nursery to show their friends. Staff organise a parade to enable children to show off their unique creations. Children say 'wow' and readily cheer and clap their friends' achievements. This helps develop children's confidence and gives them a sense of pride.

Children thoroughly enjoy outdoor play. Staff have created an environment that presents appropriate risk and challenge for children. For example, staff supervise children as they safely climb felled trees. Children develop their balance and coordination skills as they carefully consider how to move along the tree trunk. Staff engage toddlers in parachute games. Toddlers work together to follow staff instructions to flap the parachute up and down, and fast and slow. Babies confidently explore the soft-play area. They use their muscles as they pull themselves up onto the small slopes, climb onto the different levels and roll balls back and forth to staff.

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

• Leaders and managers genuinely care about the children and want them to have the best start in life. They work closely with families and other professionals to ensure early help is put in place for those that require additional support. Parents are overwhelmingly positive and state that staff work hard to meet the needs of their children. They feel their children are progressing well, and they know what their children are involved with at nursery.
• Staff support children's love of stories and singing. Babies smile as staff spontaneously sing familiar songs to them. They join in and do the actions, clapping themselves at the end of each song. Toddlers sit at group time and look at lift-the-flap books with staff. They listen carefully and are keen to suggest what animal is hiding behind the flap. Pre-school children sit with their friends and enjoy listening to a story about a stick man. Children know the key phrases and repeat these with confidence. This helps children develop a love of books.
• Staff provide plenty of opportunities for children to develop their small muscles. This helps them practise the skills they need for early writing. For instance, pre-school children work with staff to safely use knives to chop carrots and potatoes into chunks. Toddlers focus as they spread glue on paper. Staff provide a variety of materials, such as wool, tissue and tinsel, and encourage children to feel the textures. Toddlers laugh and show staff their sticky fingers. Babies carefully pick up small wooden rings, which they hang on pegs. When the rings fall off, staff encourage babies to try again. This helps children develop their perseverance skills.
• Generally, children behave well. Staff are good role models and support children to share resources with others, help tidy away and play safely with equipment so they do not hurt their friends. However, mealtimes are not well organised. Because of the length of time children are left waiting, they become restless and display unwanted behaviours, such as shouting, banging cups on the table and flicking drinks at each other.
• Staff ensure they embed mathematical learning within all children's play. They talk to children about colours, shape, capacity, speed and measure. For example, toddlers concentrate as they build towers of colourful bricks. Staff help them to count and find the same colour bricks. Pre-school children use small wooden buttons to make different patterns and shapes. Staff suggest new shapes that children could make. This provides children with additional challenge.
• Staff know the children well and use this knowledge to provide a variety of activities that build on their existing skills and knowledge. However, staff interactions are not yet consistent. For example, some staff step in too quickly to solve children's problems and complete tasks they could easily do for themselves.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve the organisation of toddler and pre-school mealtimes so that children do not have to wait unnecessarily
• strengthen staff practice to ensure that children always experience high-quality interactions in order to build further on their existing skills and knowledge.