Dragonfly Day Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their nursery day. They say goodbye to their parents and carers at the main door, where they are greeted by friendly and welcoming staff. Children quickly become engaged in play in one of the well-organised and exciting nursery rooms. Staff are inventive in their presentation of activities, which helps to capture the children's interests. Children form small friendship groups and enjoy the company of their peers. Staff know the children well and chat to them about their home life, siblings or pets to help them to settle when they arrive.

Staff help children to link their behaviour to the nursery's 'golden rules'. This helps children to understand their feelings and to be kind and caring towards each other. Children show the impact of this as they are often seen offering and giving each other hugs. Staff use clear, polite and positive language around children and when speaking to each other. Children mimic the staff's positive role modelling. This helps to create a culture of respect. Children are provided with good opportunities to learn about each other's cultures and beliefs through discussion and planned activities. Parents are encouraged to visit the nursery at specific times to share stories and celebrations from their home culture.

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

• Since the last inspection, the management team has further developed their responsibilities and defined their roles. Swift action was taken following the last inspection to review and improve the procedures for managing children's health and dietary needs. They have sought appropriate training to help staff to improve their teaching, especially in respect of their interactions with children and their questioning skills.
• The management team works effectively together to run a consistently good nursery. They value their staff and work hard to give careful consideration to their well-being and contentment. Staff and managers report that they feel well supported and really enjoy working at the nursery. Staff comment that they can input ideas and suggestions about how to further improve the nursery or to tweak practices for the better. They say that they are always listened to.
• Parents spoken to comment on how happy their children are at the nursery. They praise the kind and caring staff and comment that a real strength of the team is the effective communication they receive about their child's day. Parents are provided with good information about upcoming events and ways in which they can continue to develop their children's learning at home through regular newsletters. The nursery management shares recipes of children's favourite meals with parents and provides a clear menu, so that they know what their children are eating each day.
• Staff help to develop children's speech and communication skills from a very early age. They name objects in everyday play and encourage babies to repeat or name things, such as model animals. Staff working with the older children use their planned circle time to encourage children to sing familiar songs and to talk about events that happen at home or things that they have learned in the nursery. They introduce new words, such as 'mechanic', when talking about people who help us. Children recall relevant words, such as 'dissolve', when talking about things that disappear in water.
• Children enjoy some outdoor learning when they visit the nursery garden. On occasions, they go for walks in the local community. During the winter months, however, the provision for such experiences is reduced to short, planned outdoor play sessions. Managers and staff are mindful that this does not always enable those children who learn better outdoors to fully benefit.
• The nursery management team has procedures in place for working effectively with other agencies and other settings that children attend. They prepare a transition report for any children moving from their nursery to another setting or to school. However, procedures for seeking information from other settings when children move from another early years provision to this nursery are not so secure. This means that key persons may lack important information about what children already know.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on the provision for outdoor play and experiences to provide more learning opportunities for those children who prefer to learn outdoors
• strengthen procedures for obtaining information about children when they first start at the nursery, especially for children who previously attended another early years provision.