Churchfields Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled in this friendly and nurturing nursery. They are greeted warmly by the kind and caring staff. Staff make themselves readily available to give cuddles and comfort to children who find it more difficult to separate from their parents. This helps children to quickly settle in and develop their confidence to go and play with their peers.

Children benefit from a broad range of activities and experiences in their vibrant and well-planned learning environment. Babies enthusiastically explore splashing in gloop. They listen to sounds they make when banging different tools together. Two-year-old children delight in playing outdoors. They carefully climb up onto boxes and balance to walk across a beam. Staff remain nearby to offer support and ensure their safety. Older children skilfully use scissors to cut around pictures from a magazine. They develop an understanding of their feelings and emotions as they are encouraged to choose pictures of things that make them happy.

Older children develop a sound understanding of the high expectations staff have for their behaviour and conduct. They are kind and respectful towards each other, and adults. Children say 'please' and 'thank you' without prompting. They are eager to gain recognition for their positive behaviours by collecting stars in their visual jar. Children understand that this results in rewards, such as being the leader when they need to line up.

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

• Leaders and managers are passionate about fulfilling their roles. They strive to provide every child with the best possible early education experience. The nursery curriculum is highly ambitious and focusses on preparing children to gain a breadth of knowledge and skills to become ready for the next stage in their learning. Staff share this vision. They plan and provide interesting activities that support children to make progress in their learning. However, due to some recent staff changes, some aspects of the curriculum are not yet fully embedded to stretch and extend children's learning further.
• Children's physical development is given high regard by staff. Children have ample opportunities to practice using different tools. Children confidently use spades and scoops to transport sand between different sized containers. Older children carefully place pins into a board to create letters and numbers they are familiar with. At mealtimes, children use ladles to serve their own food, which strengthens their coordination.
• Leaders and managers are committed to providing an inclusive service. Several members of staff have completed additional training to enable them to better support children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff work closely with children, their parents, and other professionals to implement targeted support plans that meets children's individual needs. This helps each child to succeed.
• Staff frequently speak to children throughout their day. They sing songs to children and introduce new words during activities. Children chant familiar phrases as staff read stories they know, such as one about going on a bear hunt. However, staff do not consistently give children opportunities to use the language they hear to build on their communication and language skills further.
• Children are supported to develop their understanding of how to behave appropriately from a young age. When younger children struggle to share a toy car, staff calmly suggest ideas to help them do so. They heavily praise children when they begin to roll the car back and forth between themselves. Consequently, older children become exceptionally well behaved. They play cooperatively with their peers and know how to take turns during activities.
• Staff value children as individuals and give them choices throughout their day. Staff gently approach younger children to ask them to have their nappy changed. For those who are toilet training, staff give children choices about whether they want to use the potty or toilet. They support children to wash their hands afterwards, embedding good hygiene practices. Older children use coloured cards to vote for which story they would like to read after lunch time.
• Staff report that they receive high levels of support in their role. They feel that leaders and managers are always approachable. Leaders and managers regularly observe staff's teaching and practice. They provide constructive feedback and training opportunities to help staff continually develop their teaching skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to embed the curriculum and provide children with consistently high levels of challenge to stretch and extend their learning further
• build on the support for children's communication and language development.