Cradley Play Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and eager to enter the setting. Their smiles show how happy and secure they are. Babies settle quickly and demonstrate that they feel completely at home in the cosy environment and are happy to go to staff for play and reassurance. Toddlers and older children show elevated levels of confidence and have good relationships with staff. Children are well behaved. They follow rules and understand why they are important. Staff are positive role models and provide consistent and effective support to guide children's behaviour. Children are very well cared for by a team of caring and committed staff. The key-person system ensures that staff know the children in their care very well. As a result, children develop good attachments with them and feel safe and secure.

Older children are provided with a wide range of opportunities to develop strong physical skills and belief in their own abilities. They show great confidence when using the rope swing and climbing wall. Children engage themselves in imaginary play. For example, they repair and wash their tricycles at the garage in the nursery garden. Indoors, they use the role play area and pretend to be veterinary doctors and nurses caring for farm animals and pets who need treatment. Children demonstrate that they know a lot about hospital procedures and enjoy sharing their knowledge with staff and visitors.

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

• The nursery has significantly improved since the last inspection. Leaders have worked hard to raise standards in the nursery and ensure that all requirements are met. All staff, including leaders, have attended additional training so that they have a more in-depth understanding of safeguarding. Leaders have good procedures for vetting the suitability of all staff, and records are now organised and easily accessible.
• The new manager demonstrates passion and provides effective leadership for her team. She conducts regular supervision and provides feedback to staff. As a result, the quality of activities and teaching has improved. However, some group activities do not always have a clear learning intention. On these occasions, some children lose focus and do not remain highly engaged in their learning.
• Staff help children to develop effective communication and language skills. They introduce new vocabulary for children to hear and repeat. Babies repeat the sounds they hear and babble with excitement. However, occasionally, staff are too quick to offer solutions and do not consistently encourage older children to think, predict and test their ideas to solve the problem.
• Children are keen to take part in the activities and show immense pride in their achievements. They quickly become engrossed in activities and experiences that capture their interests. For example, children use rollers and cutters to create strips for the tiger's back. They show good levels of concentration as they attentively manipulate and flatten the dough with their palms. Children imitate the sounds animals make as they find them with their magnifying glass.
• Story time and singing opportunities are captured in every area of the nursery, including outdoor play where older children sit in the boat and look at books with their peers. Staff working with babies sing and read to them with energy and enthusiasm.
• Children develop good independence skills. At lunchtime, toddlers practise and perfect their ability to use cutlery and pour their own drinks. Staff have thought carefully about how they can help babies to develop key skills. The room is organised to support their physical development. For example, babies enjoy pulling themselves up on larger boxes. Staff follow children's emerging interests. For instance, they know the babies' love of musical instruments and singing, so they sing and talk to babies constantly, helping to develop their communication skills.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents warmly describe the friendliness of the staff team and comment that, 'Staff go above and beyond to ensure that children are happy and settled'. Parents are provided with a weekly update, which includes photos and observations of what children have been doing throughout the week. Leaders value the views and comments of parents, which are reviewed swiftly to help identify where improvements can be made.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• further develop staff's use of interactions with children to provide children with sufficient time to think and respond
• support staff to consistently implement activities that have a clear learning intention, to help all children become and remain highly engaged in their learning.