Crigglestone Day Care

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are eager to enter the nursery and explore the activities. Staff prioritise children's happiness and safety. They ensure that the environment is safe and secure for all children. Staff are nurturing and kind, which helps children to build strong relationships with them. Children show they feel safe and relaxed as they snuggle closely up to staff to read books.

Leaders plan a curriculum that is ambitious for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This helps all children to make progress and be ready for the next educational stage.

Staff maintain high expectations of all children's behaviour. The majority understand the rules and enjoy playing with other children. A few children need additional support, for example, to resolve minor disagreements or to wait their turn. In such instances, staff quickly and sensitively help children. This supports them to develop their social skills and start to understand emotions.

Parents of older children no longer enter the setting as they did pre-pandemic. Instead, they have daily chats with staff at the door and via an online app.

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

• Children develop small muscles in their hands as they complete inset puzzles and threading activities and draw pictures and build models. Additionally, they develop large muscles as they run, splash in puddles, climb the slide and dance to music. These activities help children to develop their balance, strength and coordination.
• Leaders are aware of the strengths and areas for improvement within the nursery. For instance, they have prioritised mathematics and developing children's speaking and listening for staff training and development. Staff engage children in counting and shape recognition activities. Older children count how many children are at nursery as they register their attendance. Leaders use additional funding well to support children's learning. For example, they purchase numbered beanbags to support children to recognise numbers.
• Staff are extremely effective at teaching babies and younger children new words. They share books and use puppets to act out stories with children. This enhances their speaking skills, including children learning English. However, staff do not consistently plan opportunities to teach older children ambitious words and enhance their play through talk. Leaders are supporting staff to develop their talk so that it is of the highest quality across the setting.
• Children develop independence skills through well-planned routines. For example, babies learn to feed themselves using a fork. Older children scrape their plates and pour their own drinks at lunchtime. They independently put their coats on and learn to fasten them. These experiences help children to gradually become more independent as they move through the nursery, preparing them for school.
• Staff provide home-cooked nutritious meals for children, catering for those with food allergies. Staff ensure that portion sizes are appropriate for children. Older children help to prepare snack, cutting fruit carefully under close supervision of staff. Children learn about good dental hygiene and brush their teeth daily at the nursery. These experiences help children to learn about making healthy choices.
• Leaders work well with others. For example, they seek support and advice from health visitors and the area special educational needs and disabilities coordinator (SENDCo). This ensures that they gain the information required to meet the needs of all children and to support their families.
• Parent partnerships are strong. Parents speak highly of the nursery. For example, they state how impressed they are at children's memory of Ramadan, which they learned about in the nursery. Feedback from parents and staff aids self-evaluation and improvement planning.
• Parents actively share their child's learning as they start the nursery. Regular assessments shared via an online app, which was introduced by leaders to ease staff's workload, foster continuous communication. Moreover, parents receive guidance on supporting children's learning at home. For example, they take home bedtime books for babies, which enhances parental involvement in their child's learning.
• Overall, staff provide a wide range of experiences, such as music, growing plants and going for walks. However, chances to use technology and to educate children and families about online safety are overlooked.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• plan more effectively to support older children's communication skills to maximise their learning
• help older children to develop an understanding of online safety.