Chipmunks Nursery OSC Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the nursery with excitement, and they are warmly greeted by the caring staff. Staff know the children and their families well and offer individual care and support. This helps children to feel happy and safe. Staff create exciting sensory activities for babies that are linked to their interests. For instance, children explore textures and movement with dinosaurs in edible green slime. They show interest and engagement as staff join in with their play. Older children use tools to slice fruit and discuss healthy eating as they make flapjacks with their friends and staff.

The nurturing manager and staff use additional funding creatively to provide children with a range of new experiences. This builds on children's understanding of the world around them. The manager has created an inspiring garden area that offers children opportunities to explore herbs and flowers by using all of their senses. Children learn how to plant seeds and take care of them as they grow. They behave well as they take part in these exciting opportunities. The manager has introduced daily toothbrushing for children attending the pre-school room. They delight in opportunities to collect their own toothbrushes and listen to stimulating music as they brush their teeth for two minutes. This helps children to learn about the importance of good oral hygiene.

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

• The manager and staff have created a curriculum that extends the interests and experiences of children. Staff spend time getting to know children well. They gather information from parents about children's early experiences and use this to create a baseline assessment.
• Staff provide engaging activities that children are excited to explore. Older children delight in opportunities to investigate the texture of mouldable soap and the shapes that they can make. However, staff do not always extend older children's learning and provide them with enough challenge to help them develop the skills they need for future learning.
• Communication and language development is a priority for the manager and staff. Staff use stories as a focus within their planning each week. Children get to know the story well and join in with excitement as staff read with them. Staff assess children's individual level of development and offer small intervention groups in a dedicated room in the nursery. Children take part in language-rich activities where they develop their listening skills, and staff support children's understanding of language. As a result, children make good progress in their speech and development of new vocabulary.
• The attentive staff support children's individual care needs. They work with parents to establish their sleep routines and follow children's daily needs. Staff teach children about how to be kind and considerate, and younger children follow instructions well. For instance, at lunchtime, they walk quietly together to the lunch room and sit well to eat their lunch. However, at times, staff do not make best use of the extensive learning environment to stimulate children's interests. This results in changes to children's behaviour.
• Parents are happy with the care and education that their children receive. They express that their children are making good progress and that staff offer good communication about their children's experiences at the nursery. However, not all parents are fully aware of their child's key person or the specific next steps that they are working towards. This means that parents are not always able to support their children's needs further at home.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress. Staff work closely with parents to discover their specific needs and liaise with other agencies to offer the best level of support that is available. The special educational needs coordinator arranges additional funding to provide resources and individual support for children. Staff nurture children and build warm relationships with them to help them feel secure and loved.
• The manager is passionate about making a difference in children's lives. She routinely reflects on practice to identify areas for development. Staff receive routine supervision opportunities with the manager and the deputy manager. They discuss feedback about their practice and ideas about how they can improve. Staff feel that their well-being is supported by the caring manager.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus planning more precisely on supporting older children to develop deeper thinking and offer higher levels of challenge in preparation for their move to school
• review and improve routines to make best use of the stimulating learning environment and respond more appropriately to changes in children's behaviour
• enhance partnerships with parents further, building on key person relationships and sharing more information about children's development targets.