Chinley Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and families are welcomed into the nursery by attentive and caring staff. Children settle quickly and soon become engrossed in the activities that staff have carefully planned for them. Staff nurture children's communication skills from an early age. For example, staff provide focused interactions with young babies and use eye contact, repetitive sounds and an engaging tone of voice. This helps babies to feel safe and secure, and they are keen to respond to these warm interactions. Babies enjoy exploring books with the support of staff. They listen intently as staff describe the pictures in the book before babbling back in response, learning the back-and-forth flow of conversation.

Children enjoy the range of opportunities provided by staff to practise their physical skills. They develop their small muscles and hand-eye coordination through painting and manipulating play dough. Staff show children how to position their hands to control scissors. Children develop their coordination and balance skills as they use bicycles to navigate the outdoor space.

Children behave well. They listen to the instructions from staff when it is tidy-up time. Children know this routine well and excitedly help staff to put the toys away. Staff use specific praise to acknowledge the efforts and achievements of children, promoting positive behaviour.

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

• Staff help children to share and take turns to help develop their social skills and subsequent friendships. For example, they use visual prompts, such as sand timers, to help children to understand when it is their turn to use the outdoor equipment. Children are familiar with this strategy and patiently wait their turn.
• Children experience exciting opportunities to learn about their local community and people who help us. For example, staff invite visitors, such as doctors and firefighters, to the nursery. Children learn about their different roles and the equipment they use. For instance, doctors show children bandages and stethoscopes, helping children to feel comfortable about visiting the surgery.
• Staff provide children with opportunities to develop a sense of responsibility. For instance, they encourage children to be mealtime helpers. Children are eager to help and proudly assist staff to set the table, hand out cups and serve meals, helping to increase their confidence and self-esteem.
• Staff promote children's good health. They provide daily opportunities for children to play outdoors and to benefit from fresh air and exercise. Staff work closely with parents to identify and meet children's dietary requirements and provide them with healthy and nutritious meals.
• Staff make effective use of assessment to help them to understand children's development and identify their next steps in learning. However, at times some staff lack confidence in the learning intentions of routines and activities. Consequently, teaching does not consistently help children to build on what they know and can do.
• Children's independence is promoted well. Staff encourage babies to wipe their hands and face after eating. Older children are reminded by staff to wash their hands and they do this independently. After eating, staff encourage children to take away and scrape leftover food from their own plates, helping them to develop skills for the future.
• Staff build trusting and supportive relationships with parents and carers. They share strategies and information, such as information about weaning and promoting communication, to help to support children's learning and development in the home environment. Parents comment that staff identify and meet children's needs well. They say that children have come on in 'leaps and bounds' since attending the nursery.
• Leaders prioritise the well-being of staff. They encourage staff and families to acknowledge the achievements and efforts of staff, for example, through writing comments on a 'recognition tree'. Staff practice is supported by leaders through a range of strategies, such as supervisions, team meetings and observation of practice. However, leaders' monitoring of staff practice is not yet fully effective to ensure staff provide children with consistently high-quality teaching.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to have a clearer understanding of the learning intentions of routines and activities, so that teaching is consistently focused to help to extend children's skills and knowledge even further
• continue to develop the monitoring of staff practice to provide consistency in the teaching and curriculum provided to children.