Debbie's Day Care Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time in the nursery. They confidently move around, selecting equipment and activities that interest them. Children welcome staff, who join their games and explorations. They listen to new information staff share with them, helping to build on what they already know. Children frequently take books to staff, who willingly read them their favourite stories. This contributes to children's expanding vocabularies and levels of concentration. In the garden, children make the most of opportunities to climb and to ride on tricycles and scooters, helping to develop their skills in coordination while strengthening their muscles.

Routines, such as washing their hands and putting on their own coats, help children become more independent. They happily help to tidy the garden and play rooms and understand the importance of keeping themselves and others safe. Staff remind most-able children to allow others to help and have a go themselves. This helps to promote sharing and taking turns.

Group activities are popular. Children enthusiastically join in the actions to a familiar story about hunting for a bear. They crowd around staff to demonstrate their understanding of words, such as 'under' and 'behind'. They move a teddy to the place described by staff and crawl or wriggle under obstacles themselves. This contributes to children's developing understanding of position and space in a memorable way.

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

• The nursery holds an integral position within the heart of the local community. The manager and staff have a deep and respectful understanding about the needs of the people who live and work in the area. Parents are made welcome in the nursery and say they feel able to seek support from the manager and her staff. The positive relationships help to ensure that continuity of care and education at home and in the nursery are maintained.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. Staff work closely with professionals from other relevant agencies to help produce a detailed individual plan that supports their learning needs. Key persons are assigned time to give one-to-one support to those children who require dedicated support. This helps to ensure that children make good progress.
• Staff act as positive role models. In return, children behave well. They follow simple rules and show how they respect and are kind to others. Staff provide children with opportunities to make decisions for themselves and as a group. For example, children ask or point to photos of equipment and toys they would like to use. As a group, they choose the food they would like to eat at snack time during the following week. This helps children begin to understand concepts, such as democracy.
• Staff have access to a wide variety of online training courses. In discussion with the manager, they select courses that support their specific roles or broaden their general knowledge and understanding of how children learn. This helps to ensure that staff provide good quality care and education.
• Children who speak English as an additional language quickly settle in the nursery. Staff use key words given by parents to help communicate with children. Visual timetables and pictures of resources help children identify what they like and what is going to happen during the day.
• Staff are keen to support children while they explore and experiment. However, at times the enthusiastic staff quickly provide solutions to problems or tell children what will happen next. This limits time for children to develop their own ideas and thinking skills.
• Staff regularly discuss children's progress with parents in great detail, gathering information from home alongside their own observations. However, staff do not sufficiently support children's individual steps in learning during group activities. This hinders children's ability to make the best possible progress in their education.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• encourage children to solve problems and predict outcomes for themselves and with their friends
• shape activities to precisely reflect what individual children need to know and understand next.