Cornerstone Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have a lot of fun in the nursery. They play cooperatively and explore a good range of activities which interest them and help them learn. For instance, babies are encouraged by staff to explore paint and baskets of toys which have different textures. This helps them to strengthen the muscles in their arms and develop warm relationships with staff. Toddlers sing songs and delight as they select pictures from a bag to accompany each song. They learn to take turns and the noises animals make. Older toddlers have fun exploring a range of natural resources, such as bark and lavender. This helps them to learn about volume and sharing as they scoop and pour their chosen materials together. Pre-school children have good opportunities to develop their imaginary play. For example, they dress up in their realistic home corner and look after their 'babies'. All children feel safe and confident to explore their surroundings.

Children develop positive relationships with each other. They learn the 'golden rules' at the nursery from a young age, such as using kind hands and listening ears. Staff ensure that children are appropriately challenged to develop their independence skills. For example, children in each age group have targets such as using cutlery to eat, drinking from a cup and learning to use the toilet. They play cooperatively and explore a challenging learning environment which links to children's interests and the skills that they need to learn to progress in their development.

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

• Managers have worked hard to address the actions and recommendations from the previous inspection. They have implemented a range of initiatives to raise the level of teaching. Managers encourage staff to undertake training to learn more about delivering a varied curriculum. For example, following a training day, they have implemented a new 'curiosity approach' to children's learning. Children now use more natural and recycled resources. Staff explain that this encourages more imaginative play and say that the children love real-life items to explore, including toasters, vegetables and a microwave.
• Children have many opportunities to learn as a group. Overall, these experiences are positive, such as reading, singing and playing with beanbags. However, on occasions, children are distracted by staff's requests to complete other tasks, which means that they miss out on some of the learning experiences offered.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents are encouraged to contribute to their children's learning through the use of online learning journals. Staff create home learning packs to help parents to address changes positively with their children. For instance, they share resources to learn about potty training. Parents report that they are happy with the progress their children make. They are impressed by the standard of healthy home-cooked food and the support given to children who speak English as an additional language.
• Children have a focus week each term. This helps staff to find out what children know and can do. Parents contribute to the assessment and share information about their children's interests at home. Following focus weeks, staff plan for children's learning effectively and identify the progress children are making.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language skills. For example, staff read lots of books and sing songs with children in all the rooms. However, staff do not always recognise the potential impact that the use of dummies, other than when comfort is required, can have on children's emerging language development.
• Children have many opportunities to develop their creativity and explore different media and materials. For example, they make pancakes with felt and paper resources. They recall how they made pancakes the day before with staff and discuss their favourite toppings. Children explore 'dinosaur eggs' and feel the consistency of 'gloop' underneath as they play imaginatively in the pre-school room.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation of group times to keep interruptions to a minimum so that children fully benefit from the planned learning intentions
• develop further strategies which enable children to self-soothe and develop their communication skills to the highest levels.