General Day Nursery & After School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children's happiness and well-being are at the heart of all practice in this friendly nursery. Staff ensure children are safe both in the nursery and on their many trips in the local area. Children form friendships with residents of the local care home, where they enjoy dance-based exercise sessions and learn new games together. Children take trips to feed the ducks in specially designed carts.

A strong key-person system enables good communication with parents. Staff plan parents' evenings, which help parents to learn about children's development and how to support learning at home. Staff help children to follow their own interests. When children show an interest in sport, staff plan visits to the local rugby club and meet the staff. When children talk about making cheese on toast at home, staff support them to find the recipe and prepare it for their friends.

Staff have high ambitions for every child in this nursery. The leaders strive to ensure every child has what they need to be able to learn from the curriculum. Children are taught different strategies to communicate, such as using Makaton and pictorials. This ensures all children make good progress and feel confident in their learning. Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour.

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

• Staff weave opportunities for learning into real-life experiences. Children develop language skills as they hear the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'. They develop social skills at the supermarket as they buy ingredients for 'wolf stew'. They learn about healthy eating and where vegetables come from as they help to prepare their food. This makes learning meaningful for children.
• In the main, staff support children to learn from the curriculum. They provide opportunities for children to learn through play as children set up camp under the trees or make dinner in the home corner. During play, staff ask questions that extend children's learning. However, during planned activities, staff do not always precisely define what they want children to learn or how they will deliver this effectively. Consequently, planned activities sometimes do not support children to enhance their learning as intended.
• Staff work in partnership with parents. The cook prepares healthy meals that children can enjoy at home. Staff establish strong relationships with parents, which allows them to offer tailored support for families. Staff encourage reading at home through a lending library and provide practical advice on maintaining routines that support children's good health. Staff encourage parents to understand their children's learning and progress, celebrating their achievements. As a result, children's learning and holistic development are supported to continue at home.
• Staff promote positive behaviour. They give children feedback and praise that motivates them to try harder. However, staff sometimes do not help children to understand their emotions fully. For example, children are reminded to have 'kind hands', but they are not always taught how to understand or resolve their frustrations. As a result, children sometimes find it difficult to meet the setting's high expectations of behaviour. That said, leaders are reflective and are introducing new ways to support progress in this area.
• The curriculum is enriched with experiences that promote children's cultural capital. They visit the local glass museum, learn different languages and find new books in the local library. At Christmas, children, parents and staff wear their pyjamas for a special story evening with hot chocolate and crafts. Children also learn about cultures different to their own. For instance, staff place treats in children's shoes in recognition of St. Nicholas Day. These experiences enrich the curriculum and support children to gain a good understanding of different ways of life.
• Staff consistently promote healthy eating and oral health. Children enjoy infusing their water with fruit and choose new fruits to try for pudding, such as dragon fruit. Staff give parents the option to exchange their children's old bottles and dummies for new free-flow cups. As a result, children begin to understand how to keep themselves healthy.
• Leaders have a clear and ambitious vision for their nursery. They are passionate about providing inclusive care and ensuring that all children's needs are met. Leaders ensure all staff feel valued and appreciated. There is support for staff to further their learning through training and gaining qualifications. Consequently, staff share the leaders' strong values in providing high quality care for all children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• focus training more precisely to support staff to be clear about the learning intentions of planned activities for children
• embed planned strategies to enable children to understand and manage their emotions in order to support positive behaviour.