Earls Barton Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have close relationships with staff and arrive happy to see them. They settle quickly in the home-from-home environment and rapidly grow in confidence. Children enjoy developing their creative skills from a young age, and happily make choices in their play. They smile and giggle outside, as they use their whole body to paint on the wooden fence. They learn to dip their hands in paint and rub them together while discussing the different colours with staff. Children follow staff instructions to make marks on the fence and practise large physical movements, including stretching up high on their toes. They show deep concentration as they investigate a variety of different materials in the paint, such as pinecones and rice.

Children listen closely to what staff ask them to do and are eager to try things for themselves. They learn good self-care skills from a very young age. Staff teach children to wipe their nose and wash their hands independently, making sure they put their tissue in the bin. Children develop a caring nature with encouragement from staff. Staff praise children as they hold hands and help each other get cups and plates ready for dinner. Children wait patiently for their friends before eating and say 'please' and 'thank you' when responding to each other.

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

• Staff know the children's individual care needs and interests well. They spend time playing alongside children and observe them as they play to find out what they need to learn next. They plan strategies to support children with any gaps in their development, including those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff find out what learning and experiences children may not get elsewhere to be able to plan opportunities for them.
• Staff plan activities based on what children are interested in. They focus on the different skills children, as a group, can develop during an activity. For example, staff cut vegetables up for children to paint with, as they have been talking about healthy foods during the morning. Children develop their hand muscles, squeezing out paint from a bottle and gripping different food items. However, staff do not always consider what children, as individuals, already know and can do. This means some activities are not challenging enough for some children, and they lose focus after a short period of time.
• Staff support children to develop their communication and language, encouraging them to share their ideas with each other. Pre-school children discuss what they look like with staff, while they use play dough to make faces. Children confidently identify each others similarities and differences, such as their different hair and eye colour. Staff explain new vocabulary to them, including how an 'oval' looks like a rugby ball.
• Children know and follow the routines of the day. They happily tidy away resources and explain to visitors, 'it is time to tidy up now'. Children line up, without needing prompting, ready to go outside.
• Staff teach children how to be polite to others. They say 'well done' as children hold the gate open for their friends. However, at times, two-year-old children struggle to understand what behaviour is expected of them as staff are not consistent in setting boundaries. Therefore, some children display challenging behaviour, such as running inside and distracting others during story time.
• Staff work closely with parents and carers to support children with all aspects of their learning and development. Parents comment that 'communication is exceptional' and children are always 'treated with care and respect.'
• Leaders are passionate about making sure children are ready for the next stage of their learning. They hold frequent meetings to find out what is working well for children, and identify any improvements they could make. Leaders provide staff with training about how children develop. However, leaders do not always identify the individual training needs of staff when planning development opportunities. Therefore, they do not always help individual staff improve further, to be able to deliver a consistently high-quality curriculum.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop a sharper focus on what staff intend children to learn during activities to provide more appropriate challenges for all children
• develop staff's understanding of how to effectively manage children's behaviour to provide more clear and consistent behaviour support for two-year-olds
• strengthen the monitoring of staff practice to provide more targeted professional development, enabling individual staff to develop the knowledge and skills they need.