Footsteps Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at this welcoming, safe nursery. They happily leave their parents at the door and quickly settle, supported by caring staff. Children are making friends and developing their social skills. For example, older children play cooperatively with each other and get involved in imaginative play as they plan a puppet show performance.

Staff have high expectations for all children. They encourage children's learning and praise kind behaviour. Children are aware of the boundaries and behave well. Children are confident to chat to staff, and they share pleasant conversations over mealtimes. This builds children's communication skills and widens their vocabulary. Together, they explore the number of seeds within an apple core and discuss why apples grow on trees. This builds children's critical-thinking skills and helps them to understand the world around them.

Children participate in the various activities and demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. Babies make swirling patterns with their fingers in the sand. Toddlers select different-coloured bricks and sort them into colour groups. Older children learn to care for living things and are careful and considerate as they feed their pet snails. All children make good progress from their starting points.

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

• The manager has a clear vision for what they want children to learn. There is a strong focus on developing children's independence and building confidence in their own abilities. This is put into practice by staff throughout the nursery, and children are increasingly encouraged to 'have a go' at new things. For instance, staff engage a group of children in making potions using water and a variety of different ingredients. They ask, 'Who hasn't made a potion yet?', and children take turns to pour water from a jug, while other children stir with a spoon.
• Children of all ages develop a love of books. Babies look at picture books with staff. Older children and toddlers sit and listen as staff read stories to them. Staff encourage children to talk about the pictures and to guess what happens next in the story. Children confidently share their ideas.
• Staff prioritise children's emotional security. They provide effective support when children first start and when they transition to new rooms. Staff in the pre-school room have introduced a 'tranquil trolley', where children select resources and reflect on their feelings during the day. Children behave very well.
• Older children develop their muscle strength as they pull themselves up a climbing slope. They laugh with their friends as they take turns to slide down the slide. Babies show determination as they crawl or shuffle to select their own resources. Toddlers show agility as they carefully crouch down to pick up colourful balls. They excitedly play a game with staff and race balls down a pipe. This helps children to develop their hand-eye coordination.
• Overall, staff deployment is effective. Staff engage with children during their play to build on what they want children to learn next and to develop their interests further. However, on occasion, staff within the toddler room undertake daily chores for long periods, which takes them away from the children. This does not support all children to receive consistent, high-quality interactions.
• Staff comment that they enjoy working at the nursery. They have regular staff meetings and training opportunities. The manager regularly observes staff practice. However, the feedback given to staff does not always focus precisely on increasing and improving their individual knowledge and teaching practice.
• The nursery chef provides healthy, nutritious meals and snacks throughout the day. Mealtimes are sociable occasions, and independence is encouraged in all age groups. Older children serve their own food and pour their own drinks. Babies and toddlers are encouraged to feed themselves and to experience different foods.
• Parents praise the staff team and feel well informed. They welcome the detailed information they receive, online and in person, about their children's learning and development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• improve staff deployment to provide children with consistently high-quality interactions without disruption, particularly in the toddler room
• enhance arrangements for the monitoring and supervision of staff, to provide staff with precise feedback and targets that will help them develop their childcare knowledge and teaching practice.