Daisychains Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and their parents are warmly greeted at this family-friendly nursery. Staff provide children with cuddles, comfort and praise. Babies are nurtured and content. This supports their emotional well-being successfully. Staff plan activities to interest and inspire children. For example, babies delight in trying to catch leaves and fish projected onto the floor. They remain engrossed watching as they move about. This encourages their attention and concentration well. Staff plan a curriculum to support children's confidence effectively. For example, older children wash their own faces after lunch and check in the mirror that they are clean. This encourages children's self-care skills positively.

Staff work well together to ensure that children have a secure start and a smooth transition on to their next stage of learning. They share information about children's next steps to support them in settling in. Older children are provided with a range of opportunities to develop key skills for school. For example, staff help children to identify different letter sounds in their names. Children eagerly find pencils to practise making letter shapes. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are very well supported. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to ensure that they make good progress from their starting points. All children thrive.

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

• Staff successfully prioritise encouraging children's independence. Older children demonstrate this well by putting away their lunch boxes and helping staff to tidy away. Younger children point at pictures to identify what drinks and snacks they would like. Staff praise children when they do this, which promotes their confidence and self-esteem effectively.
• Children benefit from staff who provide toys and resources based on their interests. For example, older children enjoy using magnifying glasses to look closely at leaves, which is based on their fascination with bugs. Babies enjoy snuggling up with staff to share stories about their favourite animals. This helps to develop their knowledge and understanding.
• Staff ensure that children know the routines of the nursery well. Children respond positively to staff's instructions to get ready for lunch, quickly finding their places. However, during key transition times, such as lunchtimes, staff do not always provide children with enough activities to engage them fully. This impacts on their focus and behaviour.
• Children with SEND are well supported. Staff use pictures and sign language to help them know what is happening next and to aid their understanding. Staff are instrumental in accessing further advice and support to ensure that children with SEND make good progress in their learning and development.
• Children develop their physical skills effectively. Staff encourage babies to walk and crawl, which supports their core strength. Older children enjoy creating obstacle courses with blocks and planks outside, learning to balance. This successfully promotes children's gross motor skills.
• Staff prioritise children's number knowledge effectively. They encourage children to count when rolling cars down guttering, modelling 'one, two, three'. Older children enjoy throwing beanbags into buckets, excitedly exclaiming how many they have. This helps to develop children's mathematical understanding well.
• Children are provided with opportunities to work together. Older children talk avidly about what colours they have made when exploring paints. However, staff do not always recognise when they can extend children's language skills further, such as by introducing new vocabulary or building on conversations with children. This impacts on the amount of progress children can make.
• Leaders and managers are passionate, proactive and hardworking. They prioritise staff's well-being effectively. Staff are well supported in their roles. They have strong partnerships with other professionals, outside agencies and the local community to support children and families, especially those with SEND, very well.
• Communication with parents is very good. Information is shared in a range of ways to enable parents to know how to help their children at home and what their next steps are. Parents appreciate the ideas they get to support learning at home. For example, they talk highly of the healthy eating recipes they get and the 'book and bath' bags to help their children get ready for school. They say that the nursery is very flexible and inclusive.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance support for staff to help them identify opportunities to encourage and extend children's language skills even further
• review and improve transition routines for older children to support their engagement and focus.