Chipmonks Day Nursery Hellifield

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are safe and secure and they settle into the environment. They confidently choose what they want to do. Children relish the extensive play and learning opportunities. Staff provide children with a very well-resourced and challenging outdoor environment which particularly promotes children's physical development. Children are busy, full of excitement and have the freedom to explore. They enthusiastically practise a range of movements to climb to the top of a small incline. Children show pride as they achieve their goal and have high levels of confidence in their own abilities. Babies practise their newly learned walking skills. They hold their arms out and steady themselves as they move across the garden area. Staff give babies encouragement as they say 'well done' and 'you can do it'. This helps to give babies the determination to keep on trying.

Children willingly accept other children who enter their play. They freely share resources and discuss what is happening. For example, as children use toy dumper trucks to clear leaves, other children join in. They help to carry the leaves and manoeuvre the trucks into position for emptying. Babies readily share blocks with each other. They smile happily as they pass the blocks back and forth between themselves. Most parents are positive about the care and the opportunities provided for their children. Staff work closely with parents when children first start, to get to know children and support their individual needs. These arrangements have been flexibly adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, staff have conscientiously added extra settling-in sessions to help new children settle quickly.

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

• Children learn how to keep themselves healthy. Older children are excited to show their knowledge of why they need to wash their hands. They talk enthusiastically about 'washing the germs away'. Younger children show their understanding of managing their self-care needs as they independently access their own drinks when they are thirsty. This further supports children's developing self-help skills.
• Staff teach children about differences. For example, older children measure their hands with staff and other children. They discuss how each person's hands are different sizes. Staff further support children's developing mathematical vocabulary and talk about whose hands are 'larger or bigger' and whose hands are 'smaller or tinier'.
• The management team and staff know the importance of working on children's physical skills before they can learn to hold a pen or write. For example, babies make marks in sand and watch as the sand moves through their fingers. Younger children play with water. They wet sponges and giggle with delight as the water squeezes out.
• Staff know to get down to children's levels, speak clearly and use the correct pronunciation when they talk to children. Staff help to develop children's vocabulary as they introduce new words as children play. For example, when making play dough, staff talk about the oil being 'slippery' and the flour being 'fluffy'. However, in their eagerness for children to learn, some staff are focused on telling and directing children, rather than enabling children to solve problems and think for themselves.
• Staff support children to develop their independence. When dressing to play outdoors, staff encourage younger children to put their waterproof trousers and wellington boots on themselves. Older children know to change their footwear after being outdoors.
• The management team and staff want all children to achieve to the best of their abilities. Staff use information from parents and their detailed knowledge of every child to plan next steps in children's learning. Children who missed being in the nursery because of the COVID-19 pandemic have readily adjusted to returning and their development is flourishing.
• The management team and staff form effective partnerships with the local primary school and other schools further afield where children will be attending. They share information about the children's needs and development. Staff arrange visits from Reception-class teachers to ensure a smooth transition for the children and parents.
• At times, staff do not consider how daily routines, for instance mealtimes, can be used to extend and consolidate children's learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the already good teaching further by consistently asking children questions that encourage them to think and solve problems for themselves
• review the organisation of some daily routines to ensure that all opportunities are consistently used to extend and develop children's learning even further.