Chatterbox Day Nursery & Out of School Club

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, children continue to arrive and be collected at the nursery gate. Children arrive happily and settle well into play with staff who are warm and caring. This helps children to feel safe and secure.

Children make independent choices about the toys and resources they want to play with. They sit to build a roadway for their cars to drive along. Children are confident to ask staff for help and staff provide this readily. Others have fun using one-handed tools to transport gravel to various containers. This helps children develop their hand-to-eye coordination and strengthen their physical skills.

Children become fully involved in their play outdoors. They begin to learn about and experience the weather. Children watch how the branches on the trees move. They stand with their eyes closed to feel the wind on their faces. Others develop their larger physical skills, riding wheeled toys and having fun on the climbing frame and its attached slide. Children receive lots of praise and encouragement for their efforts and achievements. This helps to increase their confidence and develop positive attitudes towards learning.

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

• Leaders and managers use a well-designed curriculum and have a clear intent for what they want children to learn. Staff regularly review and adapt the nursery environment to meet children's emerging learning needs and interests. They know the children well and plan activities and experiences to stimulate children's learning and build on what they already know and can do. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress and are well prepared for their next stages in learning.
• Pre-school children enjoy their activities with staff. For example, they sit together to explore musical instruments and talk about the sounds they make. They experiment with their voices as they learn to speak at different levels of high, low, soft and loud. They laugh together with staff as they listen to each other.
• Younger children enjoy taking part in story time. Staff build anticipation as children take a turn to lift the flap to see which animal is underneath. Children are excited when it is their turn to open a box and take out an animal. They smile proudly as they recognise it matches the picture in the book. This helps young children remain engaged and learn the names of the animals and the sounds that they make.
• Children behave well and staff model respectful behaviours. Children respond to say, 'you are welcome' when staff say 'thank you' to them. Children are kind to each other. They give each other toys when they have finished playing with them, such as a windmill to watch as it spins in the wind outside. Staff use timely praise, which helps children to understand about positive behaviours.
• Children increase their independence. For example, the youngest children are encouraged to feed themselves at lunchtime. Older children take a turn to help lay the table. They are keen to count how many children they will need cups for.
• Children develop good speaking skills. Staff use their skills to ask open questions and give children the time they need to respond. Staff repeat back what children say, using correct pronunciation and sentence structure.
• Leaders and managers provide opportunities for staff to develop their knowledge and skills through additional training to benefit the children. Staff feel they are supported well. However, the arrangements for staff supervision are not always consistent to focus more precisely on raising the quality of their practice to the highest possible level.
• Leaders have a clear vision for how they would like to enhance areas of the nursery, such as improvements to the garden and monitoring the adaptations they have made in the playrooms. However, they do not yet gain and use the views of parents to contribute to their evaluation and help identify other improvements to the provision.
• Parents speak positively about managers and staff. They value the support they receive. They are happy with the information they gain about their children's care and learning progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the arrangements and consistency of supervision of staff, to focus more precisely on raising the quality of their practice to the highest possible level
• build on the already good relationships with parents and consider ways for them to contribute their views to the self-evaluation and help identify further improvements.