Dunky's Day Nursery Warrington

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with a warm and welcoming environment. As a result, children enjoy coming to nursery and separate from their parents well. In the classrooms, children are keen to learn as they explore the highly resourced environment. All are confident as they readily allow visitors to join their play. Staff form strong bonds with children, which helps them to feel safe and secure.

Staff promote babies' communication and language development through songs and rhymes. They sit with younger children as they join in with a 'what's in the bag' session. Older children learn to share and take turns because staff support them to manage their own emotions. This helps them understand the nursery's rules. Staff have high expectations for behaviour. They are positive role models and never miss an opportunity to praise a child's achievements or behaviour. Consequently, children have good levels of self-esteem and behave very well.

The curriculum includes mindfulness activities, such as yoga, to help children regulate their emotions. In addition, staff create a calm and positive social environment. Staff provide children with opportunities to develop their gross-motor skills. For example, in the garden, children learn to negotiate space and climb obstacles as they run around in the fresh air. Staff provide opportunities for children to learn the benefits of being healthy. They provide nutritious meals and encourage children to join in with regular exercise. This helps children to understand how to keep their bodies healthy.

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

• Leaders have developed an ambitious curriculum that is tailored to the needs and interests of the children. This includes a focus on promoting children's independence skills. However, staff sometimes do things for children that they can do independently, such as putting on hats or washing their hands. As a result, children are not able to practise and develop these skills in readiness for their transition to school.
• Staff take time to get to know children and their families. They gather detailed information from parents, which helps them to understand and plan for children's individual care and learning needs. Staff also share information with parents that helps them to extend their children's learning at home.
• Staff observe and assess children's development. They use this information to plan exciting opportunities for children based on their unique needs and interests. This helps to ensure that all children are supported in their individual learning journeys.
• Staff interactions are thoughtful and engaging. For example, as children explore a birds nest as part of a carpet activity, staff encourage them to describe how it feels. This supports children's communication and language as they talk about textures and the world around them.
• Occasionally, staff do not sequence children's learning to build on their existing knowledge. For example, children are introduced to syllables without first developing a secure understanding of vocabulary. This does not build on children's capabilities and leads to some gaps in children's knowledge.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported well. Staff work in partnership with a range of external professionals and parents. This enables them to devise tailored plans for children with SEND. These plans include strategies and targets that cater for children's individual needs. As a result, children with SEND make good progress from their starting points.
• Managers and staff work effectively as a team. Staff benefit from a management team that is supportive and cares about their well-being. Managers and staff are highly reflective and regularly review policies and procedures. This helps to ensure that children are receiving the best care.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff provide parents with photos and updates on their children's progress, which keeps them up to date with children's learning. Parents are positive about the nursery and praise the supportive and warm approach of the staff team. Staff seek and act on the views of parents to help identify areas to improve. For example, to further promote inclusivity, the nursery has updated its menus to ensure that meals for children with allergies closely resemble the meals offered to other children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently recognise when children can do things more for themselves to support children's developing independence skills
• support staff's knowledge of how to sequence children's learning so that their teaching builds on children's existing knowledge and skills.