Chantry House Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and arrive at the nursery full of excitement. They thrive from close attachments with kind staff. Children receive cuddles when they feel tired or in need of reassurance. Staff work well together to create a welcoming and cosy environment. For example, babies and young children are provided with peaceful areas for daytime sleeping. Children are comforted when going to sleep and wake up naturally from their naps.

Children's communication and language skills are supported well. Staff ask children questions and provide words to help their growing vocabulary. Children develop an interest in books, enjoy listening to stories and join in with singing familiar songs and rhymes. Additional props and musical instruments are also used to make learning fun and enjoyable. In addition, children borrow books from the nursery to read at home with their family. Children are becoming great communicators and are making good progress.

Children are eager to get ready to go outside, and older children independently put on their coats. Siblings delight at being able to play together in the garden. Children enjoy playing and creating stories, such as in a cosy tent in the garden. They confidently climb to the top of the climbing equipment, where they negotiate the steps safely and balance along the beams. This promotes children's small- and large-muscle development.

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

• Since the last inspection, the manager and staff team have have made significant improvements to the sleeping arrangements for children and have effective risk assessments in place.
• The support in place for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is strong. The manager and staff act quickly and work well with external professionals and parents to get children the support they require. This helps children with SEND to make good progress. The manager carefully considers how additional funding is spent, to have the most impact for the children.
• The manager has a clear vision of what she would like children to achieve during their time at the nursery. She makes sure this is shared with the staff. The manager and staff meet regularly to discuss children's care and learning. They have a good knowledge of what children know, can do and need to learn next. However, at times, the teaching of mathematics does not support children to develop and apply their understanding of numbers, the relationships between them and the patterns within numbers. This affects the progress children make in mathematics.
• Children learn about healthy lifestyles. For example, a dentist visited the nursery to teach children about the importance of oral health. Following this visit, staff discussed with parents the importance of registering children with a dentist, to promote regular dental checks. Children have since shared their experiences of visiting the dentist. This has a positive impact on children's health and well-being.
• Staff take children into the community to develop their understanding of the wider world. For instance, children enjoy regular visits to the shops, to the library and to feed the ducks. They go on group trips to places such as a farm, where they develop their knowledge of animals.
• Overall, children behave well. Staff remind children about the 'golden rules'. They help children to understand how to share and take turns. Older children show respect for each other's views and ideas. They demonstrate a positive attitude to learning. However, staff are less effective at supporting younger children with beginning to understand how to manage their feelings and behaviours and at key transitions within the day.
• The manager and staff build positive partnerships with parents and carers. They inform parents about their children's achievements and share ideas to support children's learning at home. Parents value opportunities to meet with their child's key person to talk about their children's progress.
• The manager reflects on practice well. She understands the importance of staff training. The manager ensures staff participate in a wide range of courses that enable them to continually enhance their knowledge and skills. Staff share the training they have attended with the whole team so that it has the highest impact across the nursery. Staff feel supported by the manager. They have regular supervision meetings, where they receive feedback and guidance.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the curriculum for mathematics to further support children to count and use number during their play
• further support younger children at transition times and to understand the impact their behaviour has on others, to help them manage their feelings and behaviours effectively.