Chuckles Private Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff greet families with warmth and affection, which results in children settling quickly in the welcoming environment. Staff foster children's emotional well-being extremely well, which helps them to flourish and feel happy, safe and secure. For example, staff form part of their curriculum around mindfulness. They add calming fragrances to tactile media and set up a foot spa for children's relaxation, for instance. Children's laughter fills the nursery. They have great fun and love learning.

Overall, staff plan effective educational programmes that help all children progress well, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or those who receive additional funding. Staff enrich children's learning with visitors from the emergency services, for instance. The curriculum for children aged three and above is particularly strong. They are keen learners who develop independence, excellent focus and a wealth of knowledge and skills, in readiness for school. For example, they engage in intriguing science experiments, such as freezing flowers in water, learning about its properties. Two-year-old children enjoy the sensory aspect as they explore the ice. Staff provide children with excellent opportunities to learn about the miracle of nature, for instance, through harvesting food.

Staff model important social skills. This is reflected in children's friendships and excellent behaviour. For example, older children delight in helping to prepare the morning snack for everyone and play collaboratively during activities. Staff sensitively support younger children who are learning to share and take turns and praise them for their 'good listening'.

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

• Staff monitor children's progress closely and take swift action where children have a developmental delay. They have high aspirations for all children and put in place meticulously targeted interventions, in excellent partnership with parents and other professionals. Consequently, children with SEND are superbly integrated into nursery life and make significant development steps.
• Staff plan an overall broad range of exciting activities that generally engage children well and follow children's interests. However, the curriculum is, sometimes, not fully aligned to children's stage of learning. For example, some activities are too challenging for the youngest two-year-old children and provision in the baby room is not challenging enough for the oldest children getting ready to move up.
• Staff work in excellent consultation with parents to support children's care and learning needs. For example, staff meet with parents after children's first month at the nursery, and each time they complete children's progress summaries. Staff share a wealth of other information, for example, through care diaries, newsletters and social media. They share activity ideas and packs to help parents support children's learning, such as their small-muscle strength and early language. Parents sing staff's praises.
• Staff effectively promote children's large physical skills. For example, older children in the baby room use wheeled toys and toddlers climb on soft blocks. Two-year-old children walk across tree stumps and planks, with staff's support, and older children show great agility while using the wooden climbing pyramid.
• Staff teach children to respect and celebrate the diversity of the world and everyone's uniqueness extremely well. For example, they plan a wealth of activities, such as cooking and arts and crafts, around the chosen country of the month and parents contribute to linked displays.
• Staff support children's small physical skills superbly. For example, toddlers scoop jelly and shredded paper and older children in the baby room use sand tools and pour milk from a small jug. Two-year-old children manipulate intriguing magic sand that holds its shape as they squeeze and press this, and make marks with paint using the wheels of small transport toys. Older children competently peel and chop potatoes for lunch.
• Children grow a variety of vegetables and herbs in the garden beds. This helps them to learn about healthy eating and absorb amazing facts first hand about where food comes from. They also use gardening tools, which further develop their hand-to-eye coordination.
• Staff incorporate early mathematics during activities and care routines. For example, they use gardening activities to build on early mathematical skills, such as counting and ordering items by size. Children count during role play linked to a favourite story about three bears.
• Staff skilfully expand two-, three- and four-year-old children's learning, including their language development, through stories, their animated narrative, singing songs and asking questions. Staff in the baby room are very nurturing and they sit alongside children to engage in their play. However, they do not consistently motivate children, or build on their early communication skills, to a high enough level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus the curriculum more precisely on younger children's learning needs, to fully engage them and help them to make the best possible progress
• provide more targeted coaching, mentoring and support for staff in the baby room, to help them to strengthen the quality of their interactions and deliver the curriculum for children's speech and language to a higher level.