Fairytale Forest Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive confidently and separate from their parents with ease. They settle at the nursery swiftly. Children seek out their friends to play with and are keen to explore activities and resources.

Children show high levels of curiosity. They benefit from exciting opportunities that staff plan for them to learn about the natural world and their local environment. For example, children learn how to care for living things and discuss life cycles. They show excitement as they count and collect eggs from the chicken coup. Children handle them gently to take back to the nursery, so they can be used for cooking.

Children behave well and have positive attitudes to learning. They show good levels of concentration and resilience for their age. For instance, they set themselves self-chosen challenges and practise being able to walk across a balance beam in the outside area. When they stumble, they keep trying and persist until they achieve their aim. Children are proud of their achievements and call out, 'I can do it!'

Babies and very young children are inquisitive and show confidence to engage in sensory activities. They delight in squelching paint on their hands and making marks.

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

• Leaders work extremely closely with the manager. They ensure they have good oversight in how care and learning is delivered to the children. Leaders have a clear vision and ethos about what children need to learn which they weave into all areas of learning.
• Overall, children have exposure to a broad and balanced curriculum. The manager scrutinises the quality of teaching to identify gaps in learning and works with her staff to address this. She has identified that children have gaps in their mathematical knowledge. As a result, staff integrate opportunities to support children learning about mathematics-based concepts. For example, children are eager to participate in a shape hunt. They quickly run back to staff to tell them about shapes they have found in the outside environment. However, on occasion, staff do not fully challenge and extend children's learning in the activities and experiences they provide.
• Children learn about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. They enjoy sports and team games in the large, outdoor space. Children enjoy healthy meals and snacks. They wash their own hands and brush their teeth after lunch. Staff help children to be independent in some aspects of the daily routine. However, the support for children to develop independence is not as consistent as it could be in fully preparing them for their next stage of learning.
• Staff are quick to offer reassurance and comfort to children who become occasionally upset. This helps them recover swiftly. However, staff do not consistently support children to learn about their emotional health. Therefore, children do not always get the support they need in order to empower them with how to deal with overwhelming emotions.
• Children show kindness and consideration to others. They allow friends to join in with their play ideas. Children share and negotiate with one another about how they can use resources together.
• Staff provide good levels of support for multilingual children. They find out key words that children use in their home language and weave these into activities such as circle time. This helps children to learn simple words in other languages and gain an appreciation of similarities and respect differences.
• Leaders ensure children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive swift intervention. They act on concerns and work with parents and outside professionals to ensure children have the support they need to help them make progress.
• Parents speak positively of the nursery and comment favourably about the quality of care that is offered to their children. They comment that communication is effective. Parents receive progress reports that provide them with an overview of their children's progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff understanding of how to challenge and extend children's learning further and help them to make the best possible progress
• develop opportunities for children to practise independence skills consistently, including within daily routines, to help prepare them for their next stage of education
• support staff to develop their understanding of how to help children manage good emotional health and well-being.