Daisy Fays St Ives

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle well and thoroughly enjoy their time at nursery. Key workers greet children warmly as they arrive, and regularly consult with parents to ensure that there is an ongoing exchange of information between nursery and home. Children form strong bonds with staff from the outset. Children are eager to get involved in the activities on offer to them. They enjoy exploring the stimulating and well-resourced environments, both indoors and outdoors. Staff work closely with parents to get to know children and their wider family. Parents are complimentary about the care and education their children receive.

Children play together cooperatively and behave well. They build close friendships and learn positive social skills during their time at the nursery. Staff promote positive behaviour well and are good role models for children. They use a range of successful strategies that help children understand and manage their feelings and emotions.

Children make good progress in their learning and development during their time at the nursery. All children, including those who speak English as an additional language and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are well supported by staff and progress well in this inclusive nursery. Staff help children develop a good range of self-care skills, which prepares them very well for starting school. The committed and well-established staff team offers a continuity of care for children.

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

• Leaders have addressed the actions identified at the last inspection. They self-evaluate effectively and continually reflect on what they do well and what they could improve on further. Staff are supported well in their roles and benefit from a range of training and professional development opportunities that help to continually extend their knowledge and enhance their skills. This helps to continually raise the quality of care and education the children receive.
• Leaders work with other agencies and early years professionals to coordinate support for children with SEND, to ensure children receive a continuity of care and that their welfare needs are met.
• Staff know children well and capture their interests effectively in the activities they plan for them. Staff observe and assess children's development accurately. They plan next steps for children to minimise gaps in learning and to build on what children can already do and already know. This offers children good extension and challenge.
• Staff place a high emphasis on promoting children's communication and language skills. Practice has significantly improved in this area since the last inspection. Staff have developed a range of successful teaching strategies that they have embedded into everyday practice. This is helping children to become confident speakers and enhancing their vocabularies. For example, they have created spaces in the environments that encourage more opportunities for children to talk, and they successfully engage children in more conversation as they play.
• Staff give parents tips and ideas of things that they can do to extend their children's learning at home. For example, they give children book and rhyme packs to enjoy at home with their families and have a book borrowing system that gives children access to a wider range of literature. This is helping children to develop a love of reading.
• On occasion during transition points, such as when coming in from outdoors and preparing for lunch, staff do not always ensure that children's learning and engagement is promoted consistently. As a result, at these times children do not have as many opportunities to practise their independence skills and they can become distracted and lose focus.
• Staff do not always organise whole-group times as well as they could to enable all children to benefit fully from the experience. This means that, sometimes, group activities do not suit the differing needs of all the children taking part.
• Staff boost children's self-esteem well. They celebrate children's individual achievements. Children feel proud when they perfect a skill and persevere at tasks showing determination and a strong sense of belief in what they can do.
• Children benefit from spending time outdoors. Toddlers enjoy playing with water, pouring, emptying and transporting it around the garden. Pre-school children play imaginatively in mud kitchens and enjoy planting activities. Babies climb and cruise around outdoors and enjoy exploring sand. Staff set out garden areas in a stimulating way with activities that help promote exploration, physical skills and learning about nature.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation of transitions throughout the day to ensure that children remain consistently engaged in their play and learning, and have opportunities to fulfil tasks for themselves
• improve the planning of group times and adapt these experiences to suit the different abilities and needs of the children, to enable all children to be more involved and benefit fully from the experience.