Happy Days Nursery (Broadmeadow) Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and enjoy their time at this welcoming and friendly nursery. They form strong relationships with their familiar key person and members of the caring and calm staff team. Children are increasingly independent. Staff provide sensitive encouragement that enables children to try new things and attempt tasks for themselves. For example, milk is served in small jugs to enable toddlers to successfully pour their own drinks. Children show confidence and are keen to get involved in play. Activities closely reflect children's interests and home life experiences. Parents and staff contribute comments about children's achievements to the 'Proud Cloud' board. This boosts children's sense of pride. Children play well with their friends. They show that they understand rules and expectations, such as waiting for their turn on the slide.

Children benefit from a broad and interesting curriculum. All children, including those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, make good progress. Staff have high expectations of what children can achieve. They make good use of any additional funding to support individual children's needs. Staff engage well with children during their play. There is the sound of children chattering in each of the playrooms, as staff constantly involve them in discussions. Children listen well and respond with thoughtful questions and comments. Children benefit from lots of opportunities to play outdoors. They develop physical skills, such as how to use a balance bike and climb up narrow steps.

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

• Increasing safeguarding knowledge for leaders, managers and staff has been a priority for this nursery since their last inspection. Successful engagement with outside agencies, training for staff, and reviews of internal procedures have ensured that improvements have been made that help to keep children safe.
• The leadership team has an ambitious vision for the nursery. Staff, parents and children contribute to decisions that are made. Leaders demonstrate a reflective and positive approach to change. They have carefully considered the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, they have made adaptations to the curriculum to focus on supporting children's personal, social and emotional development. The effect of this is evident in the high levels of confidence and self-esteem that children demonstrate.
• There is a strong focus on children's interests when planning activities. This helps to ensure that children are keen to learn. For example, a floating and sinking activity encourages pre-school children to consider the properties of objects and materials. Staff monitor children's progress effectively. However, occasionally, staff do not fully consider children's individual stage of development during an activity. This sometimes means that children are not provided with the opportunity to extend their learning as much as possible.
• Parents are very happy with the care the nursery provides and report that children are keen to attend. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, drop-off and collection arrangements have been adapted to improve safety for both children and adults. The nursery has introduced additional ways to ensure communication with parents continues to be effective. For example, staff share videos of the nursery playrooms with parents, so that they can see the rooms where children are cared for.
• Children enjoy books and stories. Staff provide exciting activities to further support children's interest and understanding of books. For example, the youngest children have great fun as they 'splosh' through trays of water and 'squelch' through 'mud' made from cocoa powder. Staff encourage children to use language from the favourite book, as well as introducing new words to describe how things feel, smell and look. However, staff do not always consider how they can support all children to express themselves, particularly when their spoken language is still developing.
• Staff follow effective procedures to support children's health. Children enjoy nutritious meals, in line with any individual dietary needs. They learn how to keep themselves healthy through discussions and activities. For example, pre-school children are participating in a project to help them learn how to brush their teeth thoroughly.
• Staff offer good support for children's emotional well-being. They provide cuddles and reassurance when children need it. Staff act as good role models to help children to learn good manners and how to be polite and respectful to others.
• Leaders and managers are proactive in providing support and coaching to staff. This helps to ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities well.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more opportunities for children who are acquiring language to express themselves through different means
• ensure all staff have a good understanding of children's individual learning needs, so that children are challenged as much as possible throughout all their activities and play.