Harvey Road Day Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this nursery. Staff are successful in their aim of creating a family environment, and their attention to welcoming each child as an individual plays a significant part in helping children to settle. Children build strong bonds with staff, responding to their positive attitudes and approaching activities with confidence and curiosity. For example, children experiment as they paint ice blocks. They note how the paint sets on the ice and is washed off with warm water. They persevere as they re-paint the ice. They confidently refer to reference books to find out about icebergs.

Staff are very good role models and gently support children in understanding how their behaviour affects others. Children show a mature understanding as they label their emotions and discuss their feelings. Staff ensure that all areas used by children are safe. Ongoing explanations and sensitive discussions help children to understand how to keep themselves safe. For instance, older children understand that their bodies are private. Interesting opportunities support children in understanding healthy practices and developing their physical skills. For example, children stretch, balance and develop control as they participate in yoga sessions. They access related books and often lead these sessions.

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

• Staff show that they genuinely enjoy their work and are united in their commitment to building further on the good standards of care offered at the nursery. Staff receive practical supervision and report that they feel very well supported. This aids them in reviewing and developing their practice.
• Staff fully understand the nursery's practical curriculum and the learning intention of each of the activities. They recognise what children have learned and offer them further play opportunities that build logically on their learning and support all children in making good progress. Practical monitoring successfully aids staff in checking children's progress and enables them to quickly respond to any weaker areas. Staff use additional funding effectively to further promote children's learning
• Staff's attention to detail in promoting a homely atmosphere helps to ensure that children feel valued, secure in the knowledge that their contributions are respected. For instance, children have special places to put 'treasures' they have found in the garden and know that these will be safe. They put models they have made on a special shelf, knowing that these will not be disturbed and they can return to them.
• Thoughtful daily opportunities support children in developing good language and communication skills. Younger children use simple sign language to aid early communication. Staff make good use of group story times to introduce new vocabulary, such as 'snow' and 'freeze'. Group games, such as rhyming games, offer children opportunities to experiment with words. They laugh as they talk about a 'fox in a box' and a 'bee in a tree'.
• Children of all ages show a love of books. Younger children gather round as staff read, eagerly joining in with the actions when staff introduce associated songs. Older children access a wide variety of reading materials. For instance, they enjoy looking at supermarket magazines and cookery books. They eagerly re-tell favourite stories, often acting these out in person or using props and puppets.
• Staff know the children well and their interactions are usually of a very good quality. However, this is not consistent and, on occasion, staff do not always fully support children to build on their play and learning and so extend their development to the optimum.
• Thoughtful daily practices aid children in understanding and respecting differences. For example, children make their own displays depicting their national flags and greetings in other languages. They share photographs from home, talking about family compositions, traditions and recent events.
• Staff build good relationships with parents. They communicate well so that parents know what their children have been doing and can build on their learning at home. Parents speak highly of the nursery. They report that they can see how the activities support children's development, for example, in language and communication.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop their teaching skills further to enable them to consistently extend each child's learning to the maximum.