Happy Days Truro City

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff have created a warm, home-from-home environment where children are safe and secure. Children enter the nursery with joy, eager to find their friends. Staff focus on helping children's emotional and social growth. They understand that strong relationships are key to children's learning and development. Happy and curious, children often invite staff to play alongside them. In the outdoor area, toddlers run around with the staff. They build coordination skills and learn what it feels like to be out of breath. Babies find comfort in cuddles with staff. They smile as they play with sand, developing their senses and enjoying its feel between their fingers.

The curriculum is good, with a strong focus on nurturing children's individual creativity and imagination. Staff help pre-school children play a game. They guess the name of an animal from clues, like 'an animal with two long legs and wings'. Staff speak in a way that children understand. They enthusiastically use their voices to engage children who eagerly join in the game, pretending to be the animal they guessed. Children move their arms and legs like the animal. For example, they flap their arms and run to pretend they're flying like a bird.

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

• Toddlers and pre-school children are good communicators and eagerly explain what they know and can do. In daily 'sign and sing' sessions, staff help babies learn sign language and improve communication. Babies join in with enthusiasm, moving to the music and copying the signs. Toddlers explain with pride that they are creating potions from water, lemon and mint. They build hand strength by squeezing water into pipettes. Then, they pour it between containers.
• Staff have created a curriculum that prepares children for their next learning stage. Staff help children of all ages develop a love of books and read to children often, helping them understand experiences beyond their own. However, pre-school activities are not always well planned and implemented. For example, when children try to cut up fruit for snack, most struggle with the task. Children tell staff, 'I cannot do this', but staff respond, 'It is ok, you have tried your best,' without showing or helping them to achieve the task. As a result, children do not make the best possible progress in their learning and development.
• There is a strong emphasis on teaching children to be independent. Older children hang up their coats and bags themselves. Staff guide pre-school children in developing personal skills, such as recognising when they need to wipe their noses. Older babies pour their own drinks, which helps build their hand strength and coordination.
• Children are curious and eager learners. They concentrate well and listen to instructions. When staff explain that children should wear a hat in the sun, they keep them on. However, when children have trouble sharing or taking turns, staff sometimes say 'share' without explaining why. Staff do not always help children understand how their behaviour affects others.
• Staff help toddlers understand mathematics. For example, they count down from five during favourite songs. Children learn about sequence and shape by completing wooden puzzles with staff's support. Toddlers learn to recognise the numbers one to four. They explore quantity by making balls of dough that match the numbers on a board.
• Staff report that they are happy in the team, and that they feel supported by leaders and valued in their roles. Staff take regular training courses. A recent course boosted staff's confidence in reviewing and reflecting on their skills. Staff say this positively affects their teaching and improves outcomes for children.
• Parents' feedback is positive. Parents say communication is effective and that they feel well informed about children's activities. Staff guide parents on childcare issues, such as toilet training. Parents recommend the nursery to others.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the planning and support of pre-school activities, helping children persevere with challenges and make even better progress
• support children to understand how their behaviour impacts on others.