Devonshire Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provider and staff provide offer a warm and welcoming, home-from-home environment for children. The rooms are incredibly well organised and the resources on offer spark children's curiosity and imaginations excellently. Staff build incredibly secure relationships with children through effective settling-in sessions and provide resources that children can take home to support this process. For instance, children delight in taking home the settling-in box, containing photos, books and toys to familiarise themselves with the room.

Staff support children to be confident from an early age. As a result, by the time they move into the older age groups, children are ready to explore and learn. Children are given lots of encouragement and praise and learn an affirmation of the week. As a result, all children have fantastic attitudes towards learning and a strong belief in themselves.

Staff know the children incredibly well and provide fun and engaging activities. They allow children to make their own decisions, testing out theories through trial and error. Staff are with them as children explore and support and extend their learning, following the children's lead. For instance, children delight in exploring colour mixing outdoors in the rain. They use different tools such as brushes, pipettes and their hands to decorate fabric, looking at the different colours and what they have made.

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

• Leaders and staff have an excellent understanding of their curriculum and how children learn. They plan meticulously for each individual child's needs and next steps in their learning. For example, children are excited about babies being born and new life. Children watch in awe at real caterpillars as they turn into cocoons and confidently talk about what will happen next. Children explore the idea through a range of media, from making caterpillars in dough, to painting butterflies with paint. Older children are encouraged to co-research with the staff. If they want to find out something they don't know, children and staff work together to find it out. For example, through looking at books, visiting the library or researching online.
• Staff provide excellent support for children learning English as an additional language. For example, staff have set up sound buttons that children can listen to as part of celebrating their home languages in the setting.
• Staff place a strong focus on school readiness and independence. From babies, children are encouraged to be independent, as they learn to feed themselves. As children get older, they learn new skills such as serving themselves and pouring their own drinks. Before children start school, staff encourage them to be able to dress themselves, preparing for sports session in the summer term so children know what to expect when they move on to school.
• Staff are excellent role models for positive behaviour. They encourage children to learn about their emotions and how to regulate them. They have set up a variety of strategies to support sharing and turn taking including visual aids, sand timers and a calm area. As a result, children behave incredibly well and are kind and considerate to each other.
• Leaders and staff are incredibly reflective. They are constantly reviewing what they are doing through regular peer observations to look to what they can do to improve the outcomes for children. Leaders also review feedback from staff, parents and senior managers. Plans for the future include more workshops for parents and a renovation to the building and the introduction of a children's kitchen.
• Leaders and staff provide excellent support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The work really closely with other professionals and parents to ensure all children's individual needs are met. Staff identify any gaps in children's learning and quickly address any concerns through close monitoring, using different toolkits. They work together to introduce different interventions to support children's language and attention skills and, as a result, all children make exceptional progress.
• Staff form excellent relationships with parents. Starting with in-depth settling-in sessions, staff build close relationships with parents and take them on a journey as their children move through the nursery. Parents are kept up to date with their children's learning through an online application. Staff also provide parents with a lot of support. For example, they have recently held a workshop for supporting positive behaviour. They provide parents with a wealth of resources in their home library. These include advice on potty training and books and activities for children to do at home.
• Staff have lots of opportunities to attend fun and exciting training to improve their practice and skills. For example, staff have recently completed emotional literacy and self-regulation training to support children's emotional development. Leaders value their staff team and their well-being and have introduced a variety of incentives to keep staff happy in their roles.