Happy Days Nursery and Preschool

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The bespoke settling-in process helps children make strong attachments with staff when children start at the nursery. Staff work hard to establish close relationships with key children to foster a sense of trust and emotional security. They form caring, warm and secure connections with children, allowing them to feel safe enough to explore and join in with play.

Leaders have designed a rich curriculum that inspires all children to learn. The curriculum is well sequenced and carefully designed to help children build on their knowledge and skills as they move from one room to the next. Children develop resilience and curiosity, which helps them transition smoothly to the next stage of their educational journey.

Children relish playing outdoors and get plenty of fresh air and exercise. Staff provide children with opportunities to explore their physical capabilities. They organise the environment to enable babies to develop their core muscles as they pull to stand on low-level furniture to join in with activities. Older children have opportunities to build the strength in their hands and fingers in preparation for early writing. They use their thumb and fingers to squeeze water out of pipettes and manipulate dough into shapes.

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

• Children make good progress in their communication and language skills. For example, younger children eagerly join in with sing and sign sessions to build on their language development and physical movement. Staff model new words, repeat key sounds and comment on what babies are doing during play. Staff interact with older children and introduce more complex words, such as 'slicing'.
• Staff receive regular training opportunities and engage in frequent peer-to-peer observations of good teaching practice. This helps less experienced staff develop their skills. However, how staff support children in their learning is not always consistent. For example, staff can sometimes direct children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to another activity, rather than enabling them to follow their own ideas. As a result, children do not fully benefit from consistent teaching that enables them to think creatively and experiment.
• Children develop good independence skills. For example, they put on their own coats, and older children serve themselves meals at lunchtime. Staff are respectful at nappy changing times, and they use this time to support younger children with their self-help skills and language.
• Children learn how to use mathematics purposefully during play. For example, children count and place conkers onto a weighing scale. Staff explain that they need to balance both sides so that the pointer is in the middle, meaning the items weigh the same. Children spend time adding and removing items, thinking carefully about how to balance the scale. They take turns and work together to find the right solution.
• Children receive lots of praise and encouragement that helps them to feel valued. They are provided with opportunities to learn how to manage risks for themselves. However, when children encounter difficulty with a task, for example, working together to carry a small plank between them, staff can sometimes step in too quickly to do this for them, as opposed to letting them persevere and try again to develop confidence in their own abilities.
• Parents are complimentary about the care and education their children receive and particularly value the well-structured settling-in process. Staff provide ideas for parents to build on their children's learning at home, for example, providing books and resources, such as story sacks, to encourage story time through reading at home.
• The setting is actively involved with the local community. For example, a food bank has been set up to address immediate needs and reduce financial pressures on families. Children learn about different faiths, cultures and festivals from around the world. This forms part of the curriculum planning to help children gain a greater awareness of the world around them.
• Children sit and listen attentively during group times. Staff give children gentle reminders about how to behave and what is expected of them. This helps children to be courteous and to behave well. For example, while playing at the water tray, children wait their turn and ask politely when they want an item, saying, 'Please can you pass that to me?'

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide children with more opportunities to develop their creativity, curiosity and thinking through their own independent exploration
• provide children with greater freedom to carry out tasks and safely take risks to allow them more opportunities to experiment and develop confidence in their own abilities.