Cheeky Chums Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nursery radiates happiness, enthusiasm and joy. Staff warmly welcome children and take time to connect with parents to find out about each child's start to the day. This thoughtful approach helps children settle quickly and engage happily in activities that await them. Kind and caring staff know children well. They work closely with parents to provide high-quality care, particularly around eating and sleeping arrangements. Older children confidently follow familiar routines, such as washing hands thoroughly before mealtimes. All children demonstrate a strong sense of security and belonging. Consistent expectations and well-established routines support children's positive behaviour effectively from an early age.

Leaders create an ambitious curriculum for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. Staff are fully committed to successfully fostering a learning environment that promotes high levels of confidence, independence and curiosity, such as creating a sensory room for those who learn better with less distractions. Activities are carefully planned to reflect children's interests, needs and abilities. Throughout the nursery, children eagerly explore and show positive attitudes to learning. For example, older babies strengthen their large muscles by crushing cereals in bags with hammers. They hear and repeat appropriate language, such as 'bang, bang'. Toddlers learn through meaningful experiences when they attempt to peel bananas to add to their 'meals' in their role-play area. Through rich opportunities, such as these, children make consistently good progress.

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

• Committed and passionate leaders are highly reflective about the high-quality service they provide for children and their families. In collaboration with their dedicated staff team, leaders have made significant improvements that have further enhanced children's outcomes. For instance, their tireless efforts to build positive relationships with families, ensure that children's learning continues at home. Leaders also organise a range of social events and information sessions across the year for parents, including workshops to support children's communication and language. In addition, children explore their local community, such as visiting a local school to share their facilities. Future plans are in place for children to spend even more time outdoors exploring the woodland area at this school.
• Children focus well when engaging in the wide range of activities that help to promote their development across different areas of learning. Older babies show confidence climbing slides and enjoy zooming back down. Staff give them ample opportunities to practise and refine their physical skills. Toddlers demonstrate growing independence as they make their own sandwiches from a variety of fillings. They skilfully use knives to cut cucumbers and spread soft cheese on slices of bread. Experiences such as these build children's self-esteem, self-care skills and prepare them well for their eventual move to school.
• Children's communication and language development is a clear priority. Staff continually narrate children's play and use several opportunities to sing songs in a lively and engaging way. They promote a love for books and create imaginative role-play experiences to encourage children to act out their favourite stories with props, such as 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. However, occasionally, staff use too much adult talk. They do not give children enough time to process their own thoughts and respond appropriately, particularly when staff ask several questions in quick succession. This limits opportunities for children to practise speaking for themselves or exploring their own ideas and interests to the fullest.
• Leaders have put systems in place to monitor individual staff practice and provide regular supervision. They frequently observe staff's interactions with children and use this to identify their training needs and areas for professional development. Overall, staff adapt activities well and offer appropriate levels of challenge. However, this is not consistent across the nursery. There are times when some interactions lack specific focus and do not fully extend individual children's learning to the next level, particularly for the most-able ones.
• There is a real sense of community at this nursery. All staff actively embrace the cultures and experiences that children bring from their heritage and home lives. Many staff are multilingual and share a rich knowledge of different traditions. For example, during sand play, staff show children who speak Hindi how to shape balls like 'ladoos', a type of Indian sweet. Children smile, repeat the word and try to create more. This helps them feel represented and understood. In this way, staff foster a sense of belonging and opportunities for others to develop an appreciation of the diverse world we live in.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• engage children in two-way conversations that encourage them to think more deeply and explore their own ideas and interests, to further develop their communication skills
• support staff to more precisely build on individual children's existing knowledge and skills to ensure they consistently extend and challenge all children's learning.