Carousel Day Nursery & Pre-School Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children demonstrate a clear sense of belonging. They are happy, settled and have strong bonds with staff. They are excited to see familiar adults on arrival at the setting and happily separate from their parents and enter the setting. Children benefit from interactions with the staff who are extremely responsive to their needs, wants and interests. Staff effectively supervise, interact and listen to the children to ensure they feel heard, safe and reassured. All children benefit from language-rich environments with lots of discussion, songs and stories. For example, babies delight in exploring a sensory activity of all different textures, based on one of their favourite stories. Slightly older children are amazed at a painting activity where they use toy animals to mark make and excitedly point at the footprints on the paper. Children demonstrate fascination as they engage in a variety of activities supported by staff members who effectively question and extend their learning.

Children demonstrate extremely positive attitudes to learning and are highly motivated learners. They are inquisitive and demonstrate an eagerness to take part in activities and learn. They are excited to talk about skills they have previously learned. For example, a child talks about how they used tools to create a vehicle at the woodwork table and proudly shows off what they have made. All resources are easily accessible, which provides the children with the ability to direct their own learning.

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

• Children's speech and language development is prioritised in the nursery, and staff are highly skilled at supporting children to acquire language. Staff effectively communicate with the children and each other, using stories, songs, rhymes and music to support children to acquire and use language.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported extremely well. Staff build collaborative relationships with other professionals and work closely with them to put extra support in place to enhance their learning. The nursery routine is carefully planned and implemented to support all children to take part. Subtle changes are in place to meet children's individual needs.
• Staff are passionate, dedicated and skilled. They use a variety of observation and teaching methods and take time to get to know each individual child and support them to make exemplary progress. They have an excellent knowledge of their individual key children and how to best support them to reach their full potential.
• Managers have a clear focus for the setting and use research and new initiatives to continually reflect on practice and drive improvements. The setting's curriculum is carefully planned and embedded, and all staff work together to implement it, which ensures children receive high-quality care and education.
• Partnerships with parents are highly effective. Parents share extremely positive comments, both verbally and in writing. They comment on how the setting communicates effectively with them by using a variety of communication methods, and they feel well informed about how their child is doing and the progress they are making.
• Staff confidently extend children's mathematical thinking through planned activities as well as spontaneous ideas that come from the children's interests. The staff ask questions to encourage children to think, problem solve and use mathematical language. For example, at lunchtime, children count how many scoops of lunch they have put on their plate. Children count how many candles are on the birthday cake, and they talk about 'more' and 'less' when looking at quantities.
• Children's growing independence is encouraged and supported during their time in the setting. Staff carefully plan what they want children to be able to do independently as they progress through the different rooms in the setting. They build on these developing independence skills at each stage, with the overall aim of providing the children with a strong sense of independence for the future.