Daisy Chain Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff understand the importance of building strong and meaningful relationships with children. They take their time to develop bonds and learn about children's home life. Ultimately, children feel safe and secure in their surroundings. For instance, babies happily go to the staff for comfort and reassurance when new people are in the room. Older children seek out their key person to tell them about their experiences outside the setting.

Children demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. Staff provide babies with activities to ignite their curiosity and support hand-to-eye coordination. For example, babies take turns to roll balls down a tube. They watch the ball travel down and excitedly collect it from the other end. Staff adapt the activity and introduce different-textured balls so that they travel at various speeds. This helps to keep the babies engaged and sustain their concentration.

Older children enjoy the learning opportunities that the outdoors brings them. Their interest in insects is sparked by finding a spider. Staff plan activities that are linked to children's interests and take them on a bug hunt. Children are curious as they dig in soil and peek under equipment to look for insects. They find a worm and put it into a magnifying container to take a closer look. Staff extend children's learning further by using books to help them to learn more about the creature they have found.

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

• Leaders have worked hard to address the weaknesses identified at the last inspection. They work closely with staff to support their learning through training and coaching. All staff have completed safeguarding training. This has secured their understanding of what to do if they have concerns about a child's welfare.
• Staff are skilled communicators. They use repetition effectively to help children to use new words and understand their meaning. For example, staff say 'mix, mix, mix' as babies stir items in a basket. This supports children's acquisition of language. Staff encourage older children to take turns in conversation. They commentate during play and ask the children open-ended questions, giving them time to think and respond. Children who speak English as an additional language are well supported. Staff work with parents to gather words from children's home languages. This ensures that children consistently hear and use familiar words from home.
• Overall, children behave well. They learn to share and take turns with their peers. For instance, babies begin to cooperate as they hand balls to each other to roll down a tube. Older children gather to build a train track. They negotiate and take turns to fit a piece of track. That said, staff do not consistently support children to understand the rules and boundaries or why they are in place. For example, children are not reminded consistently of how to behave during mealtimes or to treat toys with care and respect.
• Staff state that they enjoy working at the nursery and feel well supported. Leaders provide regular supervision meetings to monitor staff's performance and identify training. Staff attend courses that are relevant to the children they care for. For instance, staff in the baby room have recently attended 'Under 2's' training. This has provided them with a greater understanding of safe sleeping and how to settle babies who are new to the nursery.
• Staff provide children with opportunities to develop their independence skills at mealtimes. For instance, older children serve their food and drinks. They also clear away plates and cutlery when finished with their meal.
• Staff carry out observations and assessments of children's development. This helps them to plan activities based on children's interests and next steps in learning. However, when staff deliver activities to children, they do not always focus on the learning intentions that they identified and planned for. Therefore, some children do not fully engage in these activities and lose interest quickly.
• Parents speak very highly of the staff. They praise them for how well they know their children. Parents are particularly happy with the progress their children make in communication and language. They feel well informed and know where their child is in their development. Additionally, staff share activity ideas for home learning to help parents to support children further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff's awareness of how to provide children with consistent messages and support so that children can understand the staff's expectations for their behaviour
• support staff to focus on what children need to learn when delivering activities, to help them reach their full potential.