Edenberries Day Nursery And Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with a safe and welcoming learning environment. They greet them warmly on arrival and provide lots of individual attention. This helps children to settle in quickly and build affectionate bonds. Children show that they feel happy and secure as they chat away to the staff and play amongst their friends. Staff have high expectations of children. They are positive role models and ensure that children understand the setting's 'golden rules' for behaviour. Children respond well to the staff's gentle guidance. They use polite language, such as 'please' and 'thank you' and treat others with kindness and respect.

Leaders and staff provide a broad curriculum and want children to achieve all that they can. They teach children a wide range of skills and knowledge in readiness for their next stages in learning. For example, staff understand the importance of books for children's learning and development. They provide cosy reading areas for children of all ages and set aside time to share books with children each day. This helps children to develop a love of stories and an interest in reading from an early age. Staff consider children's interests when planning the activities. Children are motivated to investigate the stimulating resources, such as sand and wooden blocks. They become highly engaged and demonstrate good imaginations as they build 'houses', using sand as 'cement' to hold the blocks together.

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

• Staff monitor children's progress closely and swiftly identify where they need extra help with their learning. They work in partnership with parents to draw up individualised plans and seek support from other professionals when needed. This early intervention helps all children, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to make good progress.
• Children benefit from a language-rich environment. Staff sing, read and talk with children throughout the day. They introduce them to new words and use questions effectively to encourage children's speaking. Staff provide additional support for children who speak English as an additional language and children with SEND. This includes using visual prompts such as pictorial timetables, to help them understand the routines and express themselves.
• Overall, staff promote children's physical development well. For instance, they provide activities such as obstacle courses, to help children build their balance and coordination. However, staff do not ensure that activities to promote children's smaller muscle movements are always appropriate for their stage of development. For example, preschool children are set the task of cutting along wavy and zig-zag lines. This is too difficult for some children and others have not yet mastered how to hold scissors effectively. Therefore, they lack motivation and are keen to move on quickly when another activity is offered.
• Children and staff come from a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds, this is respected and celebrated in the setting. Staff ensure that resources and activities reflect children's experiences at home. This supports children's self-esteem well. Staff also teach children about their community and the wider world. For instance, children discuss the types of homes that they live in and go on a walk around their local area to look at the range of buildings. This helps children to learn about their similarities and differences to others.
• Staff teach children about good hygiene, such as washing their hands before eating. They help them to learn useful skills, such as how to drink from a cup. However, staff do not always consider how to support children's understanding of healthy lifestyles and personal care even further. For instance, staff do not consistently encourage children to try the fruit available at mealtimes and only provide spoons for them to eat with. This means that some children do not benefit from the healthy options available and do not learn to use a range of cutlery.
• Leaders and staff form an enthusiastic team. They reflect on the provision together and make positive changes. For instance, they have plans to increase parents' involvement, such as by introducing coffee mornings to help share information on the curriculum.
• Parents describe the managers and staff as friendly and approachable. They are well informed about their children's daily experiences and receive regular updates about their progress. Parents appreciate staff's advice on issues such as children's language development. They describe how their children's speech has progressed rapidly since they joined the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to provide an interesting and more precisely sequenced curriculum to promote children's physical development, in particular their fine motor skills
• consider how to further support children's self-care skills and understanding of healthy lifestyles.