Cherish Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children happily arrive at the nursery, keen to start their day. They confidently separate from their parents, demonstrating they feel safe and secure in the environment. Caring and nurturing staff know the children and their families well. They build close bonds and attachments with their key children and, subsequently, children feel emotionally safe and are eager to learn. Children are happy, confident and settled.

The curriculum is designed to support children's interests and builds on what they know and can do. Staff follow plans that clearly identify the knowledge children will learn and in what order. Staff focus on what they know about children to create a variety of activities and experiences, both inside and outside. For example, during a forest school session children are using sticks to build as they follow their interest in construction. Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress.

Children behave well. They treat each other kindly, imitating the good relationships that they see around them in nursery. For instance, children confidently use sand timers to share favourite resources, such as bikes in the garden. They make friends and share and play together well.

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

• Overall, the manager and staff implement a well-sequenced curriculum. However, sometimes, staff do not identify opportunities in children's play when they can take their learning to the next level. For instance, staff do not consistently challenge children's learning to build on what they know and can already do. In this way, children are not consistently provided with high levels of challenge throughout the day.
• Children, including those who speak English as an additional language, are becoming confident communicators and readily chat with visitors. Staff are good role models. They use clear speech and repeat simple words and phrases to secure children's understanding. However, at times, staff working with babies do not position themselves to enable babies to copy words and gestures. Also, staff working with older children do not consistently use effective questions to challenge children's thinking skills and extend learning.
• Children with SEND have good support from staff. They have individualised learning plans, which help to close gaps in children's learning. Staff build strong links with external professionals involved in children's care. This supports high levels of continuity for children's care and learning.
• Staff support children to develop their mathematics skills. Children confidently count and recognise numbers displayed. Staff introduce sizes as they play in the shop role-play area. Children are keen to share answers as they complete simple sums when using play dough.
• Generally, staff offer good support for children's learning. However, at times, staff do not organise themselves to be as effective as possible when joining children's activities, occasionally, this means they are not meeting all children's needs.
• Staff encourage children to share their experiences with each other as they learn about the similarities and differences between themselves and their friends. For example, children enjoy stories read to them in other languages and learn songs of their friends' home language. Staff regularly organise special cultural days, whereby children learn about special celebrations and traditional clothes as well as tasting different foods from around the world.
• Staff have built strong partnerships with parents. They communicate with parents daily and via an app about what their child is doing at nursery. The manager involves parents well. For example, they invite them in for special events. Parents comment on how much they value this regular flow of information.
• The manager is enthusiastic and dedicated to her role. She uses her wealth of experience to lead her staff team well. The nursery has staff who are developing their own knowledge and skills through their ongoing continual professional development to enhance their practice. The manager provides effective coaching, supervision and support. Staff say that they enjoy their roles and feel valued and supported.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to strengthen their teaching strategies to consistently challenge and extend children's learning
• strengthen teaching further to ensure that children of all ages receive consistent, high-quality interactions to support their developing communication and language skills
• improve staff deployment to help staff make the most of all opportunities to build on children's learning.