Happy Days Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and settled. They build respectful relationships with key people. This helps them to feel safe and secure. For example, young children ask for specific staff to support their sleep routines, and they receive time to finish their play before they move on to the next part of the routine. This shows staff have high expectations for children's learning. Children are curious, and they demonstrate positive behaviours through cooperative play with peers. For example, children learn that when they swirl their hand, a button falls out of the cup they are holding.

Older children benefit from a free-flow environment. They make independent choices as to where they want to play. When children prefer to participate in activities indoors, their views are accounted for, and staff explore other ways to promote their physical development. All children can make good progress.

Children display secure fine motor skills, which they use to enhance their mathematical performance. For example, children count with their fingers to represent number, and they select a variety of small buttons to learn about order, size and shape. They identify that the 'five-pointed shape' is a 'star', and they know that 'stars are found in the sky'. This demonstrates prior knowledge and an understanding of concepts previously taught.

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

• The nursery is well established within the community. This means staff know families well, and they work hard to maintain partnerships with parents and other professionals involved with the family. For instance, when children attend two settings, staff work closely with other key people to ensure a collaborative approach to support children's learning and development.
• Staff gather information from parents about their children when they first join the setting to inform planning. Online systems help to further strengthen the sharing of information with parents. Parents say that 'staff are extremely supportive,' and they provide parents with advice and constructive support to help meet their family's needs.
• Staff know the children well, including children who are not based in their room. They regularly discuss children's learning, and leaders implement a secondary key-person system that helps children to continue to learn in the absence of their key person. However, leaders do not fully identify the specific skills and knowledge staff acquire, which are worthy of sharing with less-experienced staff. As a result, methods of teaching can vary. This does not help children to reach their full potential.
• Children's language development is a primary focus from an early age, including for children who speak English as an additional language. Staff complete a 'communication screening' to assess children's understanding of language and create targeted next steps to enhance children's speech during play. Additionally, staff introduce familiar words to children in their home language and read stories which link to children's experiences. This helps children to create comparisons between languages spoken and languages taught.
• Children are growing in their independence. For example, once babies have grasped bringing a toy to their mouth, staff plan more experiences to practise their hand-to-eye coordination, such as having their own spoon at mealtimes. This helps babies to practise feeding themselves and develop the skills they need to be self-sufficient at the next stage of their learning. As a result, older children independently get themselves a drink when they are thirsty, and they are confident to eat their food with the appropriate cutlery.
• Children who receive additional funding, such as pupil premium, benefit from purposefully bought resources, such as 'emotion cards' that help children to discuss their feelings. Staff confidently identify children at risk of falling behind in their learning, and they engage in close partnerships with outside agencies, such as speech and language therapists, to share observations. This early intervention means children's needs are quickly met and barriers in learning are overcome.
• Overall, leaders carry out an effective programme to manage staff performance. For example, they work in the rooms with staff to deliver the curriculum. This helps leaders to oversee good practice. Leaders identify that since the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been limited opportunities to further upskill staff. However, staff have continued to complete required mandatory training.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• mentor and share good practice with less-experienced staff to enhance the continuity of care and build on the quality of education throughout the setting.