Elm House Day Nursery Gateacre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children interact positively with staff and their peers from the moment that they enter this calm and well-resourced environment. Staff are excellent role models for children and they plan exciting and stimulating activities to enhance their learning. Children are confident to invite the inspector to play with them and they introduce her to their teachers and friends. Children are highly engaged and demonstrate a positive attitude to learning. For example, older children are excited to find a 'Gruffalo' under the 'scrambled snakes' that they are exploring. They point out its 'terrible teeth' and the wart on its nose. Children recall information and demonstrate a deeper comprehension of what they have learned.

Toddlers develop their ability to take turns as they wait patiently to roll the ball down a 'clik clak' cascade. Staff offer praise as children eagerly await their turn. Children learn social skills, such as cooperation and respect for others. Babies develop their fine motor skills as they grasp and reach for instruments in the music box. They laugh and dance as they shake musical bells. Babies learn to express their emotions through musical stimulation. Outdoors, children develop their core strength as they run and ride bikes and cars. They increase their understanding of nature and the world around them as they use small trowels to dig for worms.

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

• Communication and language are well supported at this setting. Children develop their vocabulary through back-and-forth conversations with staff and their peers. They hear a wide range of songs and nursery rhymes. Babies 'quack' as they listen to staff singing a nursery rhyme about a duck. However, staff do not consistently give children who speak English as an additional language the time that they need to process and express new vocabulary and concepts.
• Staff skilfully engage children with stories, using props and different intonations. All children are encouraged to explore books independently. Older children develop their understanding of emotional literacy as they tell the inspector about the character in the book who 'is feeling happy because she is sliding down a rainbow'. Children are developing their early reading skills.
• Children regularly go out into the local community and are exposed to new environments and rich experiences. They join staff and parents for a sponsored car wash to raise funds for a charity. Children visit a local care home and listen to older residents playing musical instruments. This connection with the wider community increases children's confidence and develops their social skills through interaction with a variety of community members.
• Parents speak extremely highly of the staff at the setting. They are kept informed about their child's care and learning through daily conversations and a secure online platform. Parents feel that children are happy and safe at the setting.
• Staff work in partnership with parents and other professionals to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This ensures that individual needs are identified, and bespoke 'play plans' are swiftly implemented to close gaps in learning. All children make good progress from their starting points.
• Children use mathematical language in their play. For example, they talk about the number of sides that a shape has and use their fingers to demonstrate how many monster puppets there are. Children talk about searching for a long worm in the garden, and staff support them to use mathematical concepts in everyday situations.
• The staff and management team have designed a developmentally appropriate curriculum that gives children opportunities for physical and cognitive growth. For example, toddlers strengthen their small muscles as they roll and stretch play dough in their hands. Older children put their coats on a named peg and scrape their plates after lunch. Children develop independence as they work towards being ready for school.
• Children are extremely respectful and polite to adults and their peers. They listen and respond to requests and instructions. They play collaboratively and describe to each other what they find in a sensory tray. Older children ask their friends if they are okay when they are quiet. Children say that they have lots of friends and love their nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• create an environment where children who speak English as an additional language are given time to process and practise new English vocabulary and concepts.