First Chapter Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are excited to arrive. They receive a warm welcome from staff, who greet them at the door. Children show that they have developed secure attachments with the kind and caring staff as they separate with ease from their parents and carers. Consequently, children settle quickly into their nursery routines.

Leaders have taken swift action to address the weaknesses raised at the last inspection. Leaders have ensured that all staff, including apprentices and those that are new to the setting, have undertaken a range of professional training to help them understand their roles and responsibilities to safeguard children. Children are safe at this setting. The manager has strengthened the curriculum. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), enjoy a wide range of well-planned learning activities that ignite their curiosity and imagination. When outside, staff encourage children to be physically active through team games and using fixed apparatus, such as swings and slides. Staff set clear expectations for behaviour and children behave well. They share and wait their turn during group activities. Staff model how to treat others with respect. Children are kind and caring and say please and thank you to each other. Children are making good progress in their learning and development.

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

• There are effective arrangements in place to support all staff to continually improve their practice. Staff have undertaken recent training to help them improve the curriculum for children. However, on occasions some staff do not precisely sequence the curriculum. This does not help some children to build on what they know and can do. All staff say they feel well supported and staff morale is high.
• Staff model language effectively. Babies babble in response to adults' interactions and singing. Toddlers learn new words, such as 'starfish' and 'seahorse', as they play alongside chatty adults in the water trough. The oldest children engage in deep and meaningful conversations with their friends and those that care for them. This is because staff share books often and talk about the world around them. These strategies enable children to develop appropriate language skills.
• Staff provide many opportunities for children to be physically active. Children independently choose where they take their learning as they move freely between different learning environments, both indoors and outdoors. When outside, babies and toddlers make marks on the floor with large chalks and water spray bottles. Staff teach children how to make the swing move through bending and stretching their legs. Inside, toddlers work hard to squeeze the pegs onto paper plates. Such activities help develop children's small- and large- muscle strength.
• Parents speak highly of this setting. They feel well informed about their child's learning and development and are very complimentary about the love and care their children receive. Parents are enjoying the new stay-and-play sessions provided by the staff. They comment on how the sessions have helped them to understand their child's day at the nursery and in building closer relationships with the staff team.
• Children develop well personally, socially, and emotionally. Children are allocated a key person who provides the link between the setting and home. Staff support children to learn how to become independent in dressing, toileting and eating. Furthermore, when children are transitioning to school, staff facilitate visits from their teachers to help prepare them for the move to school. Children are developing the skills they need for future learning.
• Staff promote children's knowledge of mathematics well. Staff take many opportunities to support children to count and recognise colours and shapes throughout their daily routines and planned activities. For example, staff use mathematical language, such as 'big' and 'small', to help children compare and sort sizes of the toy minibeasts into containers.
• Staff build and develop respectful relationships with children. As a result, children show that they know and understand what is expected of them. For example, they turn on their listening ears to await instructions from staff members. Additionally, children line up and wait to be counted before they go outside for group time. Children are learning to be respectful of each other and those around them.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• precisely sequence the curriculum to build on what children know and can do.