Ever After Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly welcomed by staff as they arrive at nursery. This helps them settle quickly because they are reassured by caring and interested adults. Staff organise the space effectively and offer well-planned and accessible areas, both indoors and outdoors. They embed a routine which gives children extensive time to play and explore the wide range of activities and rich environment. This means that children are engrossed in their learning. Staff use effective strategies to support all children to make choices about their day. For example, a large visual timetable, 'The Treasure Map', is used as a reminder of the routine and what is happening next. There are plenty of cosy spaces and areas for children to calmly look at a book, snuggle up with staff or quietly play with a favourite resource. This helps children to self-regulate.

Staff make excellent use of the large garden to fully benefit children's learning and progress. As a result, children relish being outdoors in the fresh air. They thoroughly enjoy the expansive range of exciting and motivating activities which cover all areas of learning. With meaningful interactions from staff, children are encouraged to be imaginative and explore during their play. For example, they investigate the large pumpkins and are inquisitive as they scoop out the seeds and flesh. They talk together about the pumpkins, recalling how they grew their own earlier in the year.

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

• Leaders and staff have worked hard to address the actions and recommendations raised at the last inspection. They have accessed a wide range of training, sought focused support and coached staff to improve the curriculum. Furthermore, they have reviewed the environment to better support the learning needs of the children and to make best use of space and time.
• There is a clear curriculum for children which is designed to build on skills over time. Staff plan appropriate and focused intentions for future learning based on what they know children can do. However, staff do not always use the wide range of activities offered to children to fully support these learning intentions.
• Children's communication and language development is encouraged, as they are given lots of time to engage in conversations. They enjoy singing songs and nursery rhymes, taking it in turn to sing to, or with, their friends and staff. They enjoy books frequently because staff have provided book baskets in all areas and read specific stories as a weekly focus.
• Children benefit from many opportunities to develop their physical skills. They pour their own drinks from jugs at snack time and balance on wooden beams laid across crates. They join in circle games in the garden and follow instructions to hop, jump and curl up as small as they can. They skilfully use a range of tools to paint Halloween pictures with brushes and sponges.
• Children learn about being healthy in a variety of ways. Staff help children begin to recognise how they feel when they have taken part in exercise. For example, they stop to notice that they are breathing faster after they have jumped around. They discuss healthy foods as they enjoy a snack of fruit together.
• Children explore mathematical ideas as they play and discover. For example, they count scoops of seeds from a large pumpkin. They work together with staff to solve the problem of how to balance a pan on their stick fire in the well-equipped mud kitchen area. However, staff do not use enough mathematical language as they engage in activities with children. As a result, children do not hear enough mathematical language as they play.
• Staff's good knowledge and understanding of child development means that they can make prompt and accurate decisions about children's progress. They swiftly put in place additional plans to help children who need extra support. They seek advice and guidance from professional partners to assist them in meeting the needs of children.
• Parents are very happy with the care and education that their children receive and are complimentary about staff. They comment that they feel fully informed about what their children enjoy doing every day. Furthermore, they appreciate the information they receive through the online communication tool about their child's development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on staff's teaching skills so that learning intentions are consistently supported during play and activities
• provide more opportunities for children to hear the language of mathematics as they play and learn.