Doves Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at nursery and develop secure relationships with staff and their peers. For example, toddlers show compassion and care towards babies. They recognise when babies are new to walking and hold their hands to support them as they take steps. This builds trust between children, who find new ways to enjoy each other's company. Children form secure attachments with staff as they seek comfort when upset and regularly invite adults into their play. This demonstrates that children feel safe and secure.

Staff support children's developing communication skills well. For instance, they use simple words and communication aids, such as objects of reference, to help children communicate their needs and desires. Staff regularly introduce new words to help build children's vocabularies. For instance, toddlers learn the word 'delicious' as they sit with staff and look at recipe books. This helps all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language, to develop the skills they will need to be effective communicators.

Children develop positive attitudes towards their learning as they work in collaboration to find solutions to their problems. For instance, children think critically as they attempt to connect a variety of items to a toy crane. They listen and act on each other's ideas and take turns to give instructions. They take on their own roles. For example, one child is responsible for fitting the items to the crane's hook, and the other child operates the crane. Children encourage each other and celebrate successes.

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

• Leadership and management are effective. Staff benefit from regular supervision that prioritises their well-being and ongoing professional development. This helps to promote the continuous improvement of the nursery. The manager and their staff team create a curriculum that captures children's interest and focuses on what they need to learn next. Staff use observations to identify potential gaps in children's learning. They work in partnership with parents and other professionals to address these swiftly. Staff provide parents with regular updates, including children's next steps in learning. This helps parents understand how they can further support children's learning at home. As a result, all children make good progress from their starting points.
• Children develop a love of stories. They select books of interest and enjoy being read to as they snuggle up with friends. Staff make story times fully interactive, inviting children to finish off familiar phrases. Toddlers share their favourite books with baby dolls, using pictures and what they remember to retell the story. They make sure they position the book in a way that their dollies can see. This helps children gain an understanding of early literacy.
• Staff help children develop an understanding of new concepts through good-quality interactions. For example, staff help children learn when containers are 'full' and 'empty' when playing with water. Children regularly practise their counting skills, with the encouragement and support of staff. For instance, they use staff's fingers to help count the correct number of holes in an ice cube tray after filling it with water. Children giggle as they speed up their counting, causing staff to splash as they match children's speed.
• Staff support children to learn about the world around them. For example, before planting seeds, staff share and discuss children's drawings of daffodils from the previous week. Staff test what children remember, such as the different parts of plants. They extend children's knowledge further as they read stories about planting and introduce new vocabulary, such as 'trowel', 'rake', and 'watering can'. Staff help children identify similarities between plants and people when discussing what living things need to grow strong and healthy.
• Children have lots of opportunities to develop their physical skills. For example, they practise wide arm movements as they draw on large-scale paper attached to the wall. They develop their hand strength and pincer grip in the water tray as they use pipettes of various sizes to collect and pour water into test tubes. Children exert themselves in the garden as they run, climb, and jump. This helps children develop the physical skills they will need for future writing.
• Overall, children behave well. Older children follow instructions, take turns, and adhere to the rules. However, staff do not consistently promote children's good behaviour across all age groups, particularly those who are developing an awareness of others. For example, on occasion, toddlers push one another and snatch toys, which staff fail to address. This means that some children take longer to understand the impact their behaviour has on others.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide young children with the support they need to make good choices, helping them to understand the impact their behaviour has on others.