Collingbourne Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Overall, significant improvement has been made since the previous inspection to help raise the quality of experiences provided for children. Staff greet children as they arrive and welcome them warmly into the setting. They know the children well and recognise when they may need a little extra support or a reassuring cuddle. As a result, children separate from parents with ease and demonstrate that they feel happy and secure.

Staff loosely plan activities based on the theme of a familiar story. They incorporate the seven areas of learning into the activities to support children's ongoing learning. For example, they incorporate size and healthy eating into a role-play activity based on the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. Children can recall the story and act it out in their play. They know that daddy bear's porridge is too hot and baby bear's is just right.

Children behave well and play nicely together. Staff remind them to share and take turns. Children invite staff and their friends to join them in their play. They pretend to make cups of tea and prepare food, which they invite others to share at their tea party. Children enjoy the time they spend in the setting and are generally engaged in their play.

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

• The manager, who is also the provider, has worked hard to make the changes needed to meet the actions raised at the previous inspection. Staff have attended training and now have a good knowledge of how to recognise any safeguarding concerns. The manager recognises and works to staff's strengths and is aware of their well-being. She monitors practice and has regular meetings with staff to provide support and help them to continually improve. However, the recent changes still need to be fully embedded into practice to ensure that the quality remains at a consistently good level.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Staff share information with parents about what their child has been doing, where they are in their learning, and how they can continue to support children's learning at home. Information is shared verbally and through newsletters and a parent partnership book. Parents are pleased with the quality of the care and learning their children receive. They say that children have made progress since they started and are happy and comfortable with staff.
• Staff ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those who speak English as an additional language, receive any additional support they may need. Staff use communication tools to identify any gaps in children's learning, and work with parents and other professionals to implement additional strategies to help gaps to close quickly. Staff engage children in conversation. However, at times they speak quickly to children or bombard them with questions without giving them time to process their thoughts and respond.
• Children enjoy the activities provided. They concentrate as they spread shaving foam on sponges and stick them together to make a house. They mix the shaving foam with paint and are curious as they rub it on their hands to see what colour red and green make. Children excitedly shout that they have made grey. Children are proud of their achievements and are eager to share what they have done with staff, who offer lots of praise and encouragement. This promotes children's self-esteem.
• Children enjoy the time they spend outdoors. They develop their physical skills as they ride on bikes, climb steps and slide. They have fun in the mud kitchen as they mix oats with water and scoop them into bowls and plastic ice-cream cones. They dig in soil and sand and count as they fill plant pots. Children develop mathematical concepts. They recognise that if they add one more to four it will make five and can order bowls in size from big through to medium and small. That said, staff do not consistently organise activities or the daily routines well enough to provide children with choices about where and with what they want to play. At times, children who prefer to play and learn outdoors are not able to do so because the outdoor area is not set up or the door is closed. This results in these children not gaining as much from their learning experiences as they could.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• continue to embed the recent changes into practice to ensure that all children consistently receive high-quality learning experiences
• provide children with more time to process their thoughts and respond to questions
• organise activities more effectively so that all children are able to make choices about where and with what they want to play, including those children who prefer to play and learn outdoors.