Dean Close Little Trees Day Nursery, Tutshill

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and enjoy attending this nursery. Staff are caring and attentive to their individual needs. For example, they know how to engage babies during singing times, such as sitting at their eye level and using facial expressions and positive body language to sustain their interest. Babies smile with excitement as they attempt to mirror the actions of staff and mimic the words to the song. This also helps young children to build secure bonds with their key person.

Toddlers and pre-school children are independent and confident to explore their environment. Staff know how to promote their social, language and communication skills effectively. For example, they engage in meaningful discussions with children about real-life events to build connections. Staff know how to promote children's love of books. Consequently, children develop good concentration skills from an early age while listening attentively to their favourite story.

Staff manage children's behaviour well. They provide clear explanations to help children understand what is expected of them and teach them how their behaviour may impact others. Children make good progress, and staff support them effectively to acquire the necessary skills they need for the next stage of their learning.

Parents are positive about the progress their children have made since attending the nursery. They comment on how staff support their children to learn social skills and develop their language, particularly for those children who are learning to speak English as an additional language.

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

• Leaders are reflective and have made positive changes since the last inspection. They have improved the curriculum to reflect children's interests and promote their next steps in learning. Staff morale is good. Staff comment positively about the support they continue to receive from management, including regular supervision meetings and staff room discussions. Staff benefit from ongoing professional development opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills. For example, they have attended behaviour management training and have introduced visual timetables to help children understand daily expectations and routines.
• Overall, staff know the children well. They find out about their individual preferences, interests and stages of development from the outset. They monitor children's progress through ongoing assessments to help identify and address any gaps in their learning. When delivering the curriculum, staff consider what children need to learn next. However, at times, opportunities to further stretch children's learning and provide more challenge, particularly for most-able children, are overlooked.
• Staff place a strong focus on nurturing children's communication and language skills. For example, during outdoor play in the mud kitchen, children invite staff over to have 'dinner'. Staff skilfully ask open-ended questions to explore how the children prepared the vegetables and the different ways to cook potatoes. This then leads on to a discussion about children's favourite pasta dishes with 'olives' and 'pesto'. These meaningful interactions help to foster children's language development and broaden their critical thinking skills.
• Parents are happy with the education and care their children receive. They comment that they enjoy reading about their children's 'wow' moments via the nursery's online information platform. Overall, leaders promote an open-door policy and value parental feedback. For example, they gather information using parental questionnaires to identify areas for improvement. However, despite this, the nursery has not been proactive in addressing parental requests for more information about children's weekly food choices. Furthermore, children who attend on set days do not always benefit from a varied and balanced diet due to the limited food choices.
• Children develop good independence skills. For example, older children are quick to recognise when the floor needs sweeping following messy play and go and fetch the dustpan and brush. Staff encourage children to develop self-care skills. Young children have a go at putting on their outdoor clothing and shoes and learn to use cutlery during meal times.
• Staff are good role models for promoting positive behaviour. They provide clear and consistent messages to help children understand expectations. Children are kind and caring towards their peers, such as showing concern if someone gets hurt or is upset. Staff encourage children to take turns when speaking in group activities. This allows children to hold space and allow other children to be seen, listened to and heard. Staff are also good role models for promoting respect for others.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• explore ways to build on what children already know and can do to further stretch their learning and provide more challenge, particularly for most-able children
• review children's daily food choices so they benefit fully from a balanced and varied diet and regularly share this information with parents to keep them up to date.