Happy House Preschool & Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy in this welcoming, spacious and well-organised nursery. Staff greet families with smiles. Parents share information about their children so that staff are well informed for the day ahead. For children who are reluctant to come into nursery, staff use positive strategies of encouragement. Children start their day with a cuddle if they need it. The well-established key-person system shines through the setting with children feeling safe and secure.

Children's behaviour is encouraged by staff who are good role models. They give gentle reminders to younger children who are learning about manners. Older children are polite and respectful. Children have positive attitudes towards their learning. For example, they enjoy walking across a rope bridge, using their balancing skills, and persist until they reach the other side. They are praised by staff at every stage.

Children love playing outdoors. They use push-along toys to travel around the path, confidently climb the rope ladder, and show delight in going down the slide. They use magnifying glasses to explore and go on a minibeast hunt, and use their mathematical skills to count the eight snails they found. Children also help staff to sweep the path to make it safe to walk along.

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

• The nursery manager is passionate and aims to provide the best experiences for children at the nursery. Supervision and appraisals support staff within their roles and training is identified to build their professional development. However, it is sometimes not clear what staff need to do to improve their teaching. For example, occasionally, some staff do not implement sufficiently challenging activities to extend children's learning. Therefore, this does not support them in providing the highest level of teaching that builds on what children already know and can do.
• Children have access to a vast selection of resources. The environments are spacious, and provide children with opportunities to develop their physical skills. For example, children enjoy using peg boards to create pictures using their matching skills. They use creative resources to make marks and enjoy connecting sensory tubes together. Consequently, children develop their hand muscles in preparation for learning to write when they are ready to do so.
• Parents speak highly of the nursery staff. They say they feel supported. Parents and staff feel that communication is good. Parents are aware of who cares for their children and the progress they are making in their development. Information boards, newsletters and the nursery app further support partnerships between home and nursery. This helps to provide a consistency of care for children.
• Communication and language are supported well throughout the nursery. Children hold conversations with staff and each other. For example, when playing in the water they ask each other, 'Would you like to play with me?' and remind each other, 'Put your apron on'. Children enjoy the current theme of minibeasts. They enjoy looking at books and learning about new bugs. Staff introduce new words such as 'wiggly worms' and 'beetle'. Children point at the spaghetti swamp and say, 'I found worms'. Consequently, children develop their understanding of the world.
• Independence is supported well by staff. Children confidently navigate their way around the learning environments. They serve themselves breakfast and attempt to put on their own coats. Children are supported to be independent when going to the toilet and know to wash their hands. As a result, children are learning to manage their self-care.
• Children are encouraged to be healthy. They have ample opportunities to play outside. Snacks and meals provided by nursery include fruit and vegetables. Children bring packed lunches, and the nursery provides information to encourage parents to supply healthy options. children can access their own drinking water throughout the day. Children are building a knowledge of healthy lifestyles.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make the most of supervision, focusing more precisely on staff's teaching to support them in providing sufficiently challenging activities that build on what children already know and can do.