Eveline Day Nursery Schools Limited (The)

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children at this setting are happy and confident. They receive cuddles and responsive care from staff who know them well and meet their individual needs. Staff interact with children as they play, sing songs regularly and promote a love for reading. They have a clear understanding of what they want children to learn in each room before moving on to the next stage of their education. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress. Staff work in partnership with other professionals to ensure that education, health and care plans are in place for those children who need them before they start school. This helps to ensure that children receive the timely support they need.

Children benefit from various outings in the local community and visitors to the setting. Staff use these experiences to provide vital learning opportunities to help children to learn about the community they live in and the world around them. For example, children in all rooms enjoy weekly song and dance sessions and forest school day trips. Older children enjoy French lessons and visits to a local care home. Staff have clear expectations about children's behaviour. Children know what is expected of them. Staff encourage them to make positive choices, such as helping others, sharing and taking turns. They offer children praise and encouragement. This supports children's self-esteem and independence.

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

• Children enjoy accessing the outdoor area and have lots of opportunities to develop their physical skills. For instance, staff support the youngest babies to take their early steps with walkers and climb stairs to a slide. Toddlers enjoy strengthening their muscles during activities, such as digging in the mud area, pouring water into trays and independently navigating the obstacle course.
• Partnerships with parents and carers are strong. This helps to support children's learning and well-being at the setting and at home. Staff understand their role in providing each child with a sense of belonging and security during the settling-in process. Babies lean in for cuddles when they seek comfort and giggle with staff during peekaboo games. Staff provide parents with regular updates on their children's progress. These enable parents to further their children's learning at home.
• Staff support children to be independent. They give older children tasks, such as to set the table during lunchtime and handing out forks, plates and cups to each other. After lunch, children independently choose their own books to sit with and share with their friends.
• Children understand mathematical concepts securely. Staff encourage pre-school children to use rulers to measure their dough caterpillars and discuss size using terms such as 'small', 'medium' and 'big'. They support younger children to count how many fish are in the water tray and role model language, such as 'one more', 'empty' and 'full'.
• Overall, children have good opportunities to develop their communication and language skills. Babies hear clearly spoken language that is repeated regularly. They hear animal names and their sounds, and then sing related nursery rhymes with staff. Older children enjoy looking at books and listen to their favourite stories being read enthusiastically by staff, who pause and ask questions. Most staff support children's learning by asking open-ended questions, narrating and giving children processing time, actively listening to children. However, some staff are less confident in enhancing their interactions and are less proactive about communicating with toddlers to help them to develop their vocabulary and problem-solving skills.
• Children benefit from meaningful and rich experiences across the curriculum, both in the setting and in the community. Mostly, activities are purposeful and well planned in each room. However, on some occasions, staff are not clear about what they want children to focus on specifically in an activity. This means that sometimes children wait too long for the intended learning and leave the group activities.
• Leaders have an ambitious vision for providing high-quality, inclusive care and education to all. They implement this through strong shared values, policies, practice and support for the team. Leaders want the best for the children in their care. They help those who are new to childcare with support from more-experienced colleagues and offer training. Strong leadership leads to staff reporting they feel valued and appreciated and enjoy working in the setting.
• Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour and conduct. This is reflected in children's positive behaviour. Staff use appropriate strategies to support children to understand turn taking and being kind to others. Children develop their resilience to setbacks and take pride in their achievements.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support less-confident staff to enhance their interactions during play activities to provide toddlers with more opportunities to learn new vocabulary and develop their problem-solving skills
• support staff to consider children's individual learning needs more precisely during group activities to help children to remain fully engaged in their learning.