Golden Valley House Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a caring and supportive environment at this nursery. Children enjoy their time here and happily separate from their parents. Children have the freedom to choose what they want to do and confidently access the resources on offer. Parents feel well informed about what their children are doing and how they are progressing. They praise the level of communication that the nursery provides and feel that their children are well cared for.

Staff monitor what children can do and what they need to learn next. They carefully observe children to find out what their interests are. They use this knowledge to plan activities that motivate children to learn and make progress. Staff understand that some children learn best in a smaller group. They provide a quiet room to enable one-to-one and small-group activities to occur. During these times, staff focus more closely on specific skills that they would like children to develop. This might include learning how to take turns or listen carefully to a story. The quiet room is also used as a space for children that require additional support and reassurance, or those that find the busier nursery environment overwhelming at times. This flexible use of space helps children to feel comfortable and supported at the nursery.

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

• Staff encourage a love of reading. They provide a 'lending library' to encourage parents to share books with their children at home. They create story bags with resources linked to favourite books to ignite children's interests. They use these resources to support children to learn how to retell a story. This helps children to develop the skills that they will need when they move on to school and begin reading and writing stories for themselves.
• Staff support parents to extend their children's learning at home. For example, they provide 'home learning bags' which contain recipe cards and ingredients for children and parents to cook together at home. This supports children to use the life skills that they are learning at nursery in other contexts.
• Staff know and respect the home languages and beliefs of the children that attend. However, staff do not provide opportunities for children who speak English as an additional language to use their home language in their play. Additionally, staff miss opportunities to teach all children about other cultures to develop their understanding of the wider world around them.
• Generally, staff interact well with children to help them develop their communication skills. However, at times, they do not make use of opportunities to introduce new vocabulary. This means that children do not consistently have the chance to explore new words and widen their vocabulary.
• Children behave well at the nursery. Staff support older children to solve minor disagreements for themselves. For instance, children independently suggest problem-solving strategies that staff have modelled previously. For example, children ask to use a timer to signal when it is someone else's turn to play with a preferred toy. This helps children to learn to cooperate and play well together.
• Staff provide small-group activities where children learn to take turns and share resources. For example, younger children experiment with a cornflour and water mix and learn to share utensils as they play. Babies develop early social skills during circle time activities where staff support them to take turns removing objects from a bag.
• Staff develop children's ability to persevere when faced with a challenge. They encourage children to keep trying and celebrate with them when they do not give up. This develops children's levels of confidence, resilience and independence.
• The manager carefully considers the extra-curricular experiences that the nursery can provide. She makes good use of early years pupil premium funding to enrich children's education. Children travel on the bus to the beach, the woods and to a local care home. They support volunteers in local community projects, such as planting flowers in a nearby park. They have opportunities to learn French. Parents appreciate that their children can experience these additional activities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the sharing and celebration of children's home languages and cultures to extend all children's understanding of diversity and what makes them unique
• continue to strengthen staff interactions and focus on extending children's language and vocabulary development.