Didsbury Village Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are kind and caring. They support children's emotional well-being effectively. Staff get to know children and their individual characteristics well. They use a range of resources to help children to identify and talk about their feelings. Children develop their confidence in understanding their emotions. Staff enhance children's physical well-being. They use a range of movement and sensory experiences. Children climb, balance and manipulate materials, such as sponges and beads. This helps to build their strength and coordination. Children enjoy being active and develop good control over their bodies.

Staff deliver a curriculum that extends all children's learning. They follow children's interests, such as in dinosaurs and minibeasts. Staff provide children with problem-solving tasks, such as building bridges for the creatures. Children are engaged in their play and make good progress in their learning and development. They demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. Children take pleasure in exploring different materials, such as jelly and paint. They enjoy investigating and show curiosity. Children sustain their attention in activities for extended periods. Staff offer children praise and encouragement, recognising the efforts children make. Children demonstrate confidence in testing out their own ideas.

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

• Staff provide individual support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children who are learning English as an additional language. They use appropriate vocabulary and visual prompts to help improve children's understanding. Staff support children who require extra help well.
• Staff access training to help them to improve their practice. They attend safeguarding briefings and take part in internal development sessions. This helps staff to improve their knowledge. However, the monitoring of staff's practice is not consistent across the setting. This means that staff do not consistently deliver high-quality interactions and build on what children know and can do.
• Staff offer a wide range of educational opportunities. Children visit local places, such as the fish shop and the museum. They take part in experiments, such as testing materials with magnets. Staff use these experiences to help children to gain knowledge about the world around them.
• Staff build children's language knowledge. They use puppets, role play and story maps to support children's vocabulary and storytelling. Children learn a good range of words and enjoy stories. However, staff sometimes ask questions and answer them too quickly. This limits children's opportunities to think about the question asked and respond appropriately using the language they have.
• Staff support children's personal, social and emotional development effectively. They use sand timers to help children to know when it is their turn. Children play board games where they follow instructions and cooperate with each other. Children use their knowledge of how to interact to engage positively with their friends.
• Staff teach children about life in modern Britain. They support children to learn about different festivals. Staff explore different family structures with children through the use of books and jigsaws. Children develop their respect for others and understand about similarities and differences.
• Staff implement a secure educational programme to develop children's physical skills. Children navigate climbing frames and obstacle courses. They use tools, such as tweezers and rolling pins, to build hand strength and control. This helps children to develop their gross and fine motor skills.
• Staff work closely with parents and carers to support children's care and education. They communicate regularly and work together to respond to children's individual needs. Staff involve families in decision-making. Children settle quickly into the setting. They benefit from consistent support between home and nursery.
• Staff collaborate effectively with other professionals. They liaise with specialists to help children to receive the support that is appropriate to their needs. Children receive coordinated support and continuity in the approaches to their learning and development.
• The provider did not notify Ofsted about a temporary change in premises for a group of children. This is a breach to requirements. However, the provider did ensure the temporary space was suitable for children and undertook appropriate risk assessments.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the monitoring of staff's practice to ensure that teaching is consistently effective
• extend opportunities for children to think about the questions they are asked and give children time to reply.