Cottage Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are extremely happy at this homely nursery. They show high levels of self-esteem as they carry out self-care tasks. Older children eat with a knife and fork, they work together to tidy away after lunch and toddlers know to clean their own faces. Staff embed a routine that enables children to revisit and recall new learning. For example, staff use prompts throughout the day to encourage children to count and use new vocabulary. Children have good manners and learn how to be courteous to each other. They wait for their friends to get their food before they start to eat lunch. Even the very youngest children know how to follow the routines of the day and follow instructions very well. Staff provide challenging activities that children eagerly take part in. For example, pre-school children have a go at writing their name and concentrate well as they sound out letters of simple words. Toddlers hunt for shapes in the room and match them to giant shape templates. Staff make learning fun. They incorporate memorable actions and phrases during activities to help children to retain new knowledge.

Staff place great importance on getting to know about children's individual needs. Right from the start, staff make home visits, so children and families feel secure. These visits, coupled with nurturing and caring support for the youngest children, in turn provide a strong basis for ongoing positive relationships for children and their parents with their key person.

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

• Staff develop children's communication skills well. They ask children questions when reading stories to help children to think about the characters, such as 'I wonder why he is angry?' Staff remodel language to ensure children learn the correct pronunciation of words. Babies enjoy listening to staff sing about dinosaurs stomping and lions roaring. Older children watch with delight as staff dress up in costumes and read stories to them. They excitedly join in and engage in purposeful play and learning for long periods of time.
• All children make good progress in their learning. Those that need extra help receive appropriate support. The nursery special educational needs coordinator works with other professionals to support children's development. Staff carefully plan activities to help children to develop new skills.
• Staff routinely support children to build on prior knowledge and make links in their learning. For example, following a comment made by a child about making 'pizza soup', staff use this to extend learning further. They make 'pizza collages' and practise recalling knowledge of shapes that represent the pizza toppings and colours of the ingredients.
• Children develop healthy lifestyles. They eat home-cooked, nutritious and appetising food. Children say they eat their lunch to help them 'to be strong' and drink water which 'helps to keep their teeth clean'. They visit the local park and practise climbing skills. They successfully navigate tricycles on the pretend road in the outdoor area. Children's physical skills are developing well.
• Overall, staff teach children about the wider world. Parents visit the nursery to talk about their job roles, such as a doctor and vet. They learn about familiar festivals, such as Christmas and Easter and perform in concerts during these times. However, staff do not always provide meaningful teaching for children to develop an awareness of different cultures, festivals and ways of life that are less familiar to them.
• The dedicated and passionate owners, who also manage the nursery, are supportive of the staff team. Staff have completed mandatory training around safeguarding, signs of abuse and first aid. This ensures they have sound knowledge to keep children safe. More experienced staff role model good quality teaching to help apprentice staff to improve practice. However, they have not recently accessed training opportunities to help to raise the quality of their teaching to the highest level.
• Parents are highly complimentary of the nursery. Many of the families have used the nursery for a number of years. They comment it is a 'home from home haven' that their children love to come to. They regularly receive video clips and photos to show children's achievements and learning. They appreciate the partnership they have with the nursery to support their children's ongoing needs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the curriculum to help children to consistently understand differences and similarities of people, cultures and communities different to their own
• provide staff with further training opportunities, to help them to develop their teaching to the highest level.