Cybertots Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff support children to make an excellent start at the nursery. For instance, they carry out home visits to build very positive relationships with children. The long-serving staff team takes great care to find out about children's interests and babies' routines, which they expertly link to nursery practice. Children are very content, deeply secure and highly confident. A comment from parents read during the inspection described the nursery as a 'hugely caring and nurturing environment'. Staff have high expectations of children and manage their behaviour very successfully. Children behave in very positive ways and share and take turns very well. For example, they independently use sand timers to wait for their turn to use wheeled toys outdoors.

The curriculum is inspiring and consists of a wide range of innovative and vibrant activities. All children make exceptional progress. Staff help children to gain an excellent understanding of the world. For instance, following a recent trip to an aquarium, children excitedly play pretend fishing in the sea. Children say, 'Sharks like to swim in warm water', while others passionately describe stingrays and swordfish. Staff grow raspberries and tomatoes with the children and teach them about sustainability by using stored rainwater to water them. Staff support children's creative development in excellent ways. Children make mesmerising liquid motion lamps using oil and coloured water. They select from a wide, interesting and flexible range of materials and textures to create whatever they choose, such as collages, paintings and three-dimensional models.

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

• Staff support children's communication, language and literacy skills exceptionally well. They make expert timely interventions in children's play to introduce ambitious new words, such as 'abseiling' and 'colony'. Children browse excitedly through a wide variety of high-quality books and become absorbed. In relation to this, staff extend children's learning by providing imaginative activities for children to retell the story. Children are highly articulate.
• Children have exceptional mathematical skills. For example, they deeply engage in problem-solving as they excitedly build a pretend campfire in the woods. They work cooperatively together and, using addition and subtraction skills, they work out how many more sticks are needed for the pretend campfire. Staff working with younger children count toy ducks in water and sing number songs and rhymes with children to support their number skills. They use mathematical language such as 'big' and 'small' to introduce mathematical vocabulary to children.
• Staff teach children about difference in excellent ways, for example by preparing meals from around the world with children. They sing songs and play traditional instruments from different countries, as well as featuring an exotic fruit each week for children to taste. Staff value each child highly ,and children gain an excellent awareness of difference.
• Children gain excellent independence skills. They show this as they independently place their completed artwork on drying racks and tidy up diligently after play. Children, including younger ones, serve themselves from communal bowls at lunchtime and pour their own drinks. Without any adult prompts, children scrape their bowls and put them away at the end of mealtimes.
• Staff work exceptionally well with parents. During the inspection, parents stated in written comments, 'The manager and her team go above and beyond to support parents and children'. Staff provide excellent opportunities for parents to support children's learning, including workshops for parents on managing children's behaviour and on school readiness. Furthermore, children borrow high-quality, fun board games to play with their parents at home to enhance their learning. Staff use highly effective, flexible ways to keep parents informed about children's progress.
• The manager is deeply committed to the continual development of staff, the curriculum and the environment to provide children with the best learning experiences. She keeps abreast of the latest early years research and applies this to the nursery. For example, she ensures that the nursery wall displays are balanced and calm to support children's concentration skills. The manager meets regularly with staff to discuss work and provide bespoke support where needed. Staff have excellent opportunities to attend a wide range of courses to promote best outcomes for children.
• The manager has an acute understanding of the strengths and areas for development of the nursery. She sets ambitious goals for improvement, such as continued focus on open-ended, flexible resources to support children's creative and intellectual development.
• Staff make highly effective use of the natural outdoor environment to promote children's physical development in excellent ways. For instance, children skilfully climb up trees and carefully balance on chopped-down tree trunks under staff supervision. They develop small-muscle control as they collect and balance sticks on their pretend campfire. Younger children enjoy using their well-equipped nursery garden where they bounce on mini trampolines and climb on low platforms.
• Staff teach children exceptionally healthy routines. For example, they carry out highly engaging, creative activities to show children the effect that soap has on destroying bacteria when washing hands. In relation to children's dietary needs, the nursery chef provides well-balanced, nutritious meals and snacks to support a healthy lifestyle. Staff promote children's oral hygiene in excellent ways, for example through creative activities, discussions and songs.