Haven Day Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide children with a welcoming and fun environment. As children arrive, they are greeted warmly by the caring staff. Children are happy to attend and keen to start their day at the nursery. Throughout the nursery, staff build strong and affectionate relationships with children. Younger children approach familiar adults for cuddles and reassurance, if they need it. Older children show growing confidence as they talk to visitors about their time at nursery and politely ask their names.

Children demonstrate high levels of independence in their play. For example, they confidently choose books and activities, and take a lead in their own learning. Older children pour their own drinks, find their cutlery and use the toilet independently. Children are proud when staff praise their good behaviour and acts of kindness towards others.

All children benefit from opportunities to develop their physical skills. Younger children learn to navigate small steps and ramps. Staff teach children how to roll a ball to their friends. They encourage older children to use spades to plant seeds in the garden, which helps them learn about the natural world. Staff support children's developing imaginations. They engage children in a range of role-play activities, including making pretend ice creams in the outdoor mud kitchen.

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

• The ethos of the nursery is to use 'in the moment planning', which they describe as enabling children to follow their interests and ideas. Staff give children the space and time to make their own decisions about what they want to do. Staff are organised well and use their teaching skills to support children in what they choose to do. As a result, children are active and motivated learners, who make good progress.
• Special educational needs coordinators demonstrate a good knowledge of supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Managers and staff are passionate about providing every child with the very best early education. They work in close collaboration with parents and carers and professionals to ensure children with SEND receive the greatest support at the earliest opportunity. Staff set realistic, yet challenging, targets to enable children with SEND to make their own individual progress.
• Staff support children's behaviour in effective ways. They give praise and recognition when children do the right thing. When children make a mistake in how they behave, staff clearly explain what they have done that needs to be changed and the impact of their actions. This helps children to understand why they need to behave in a certain way.
• Children have many opportunities to explore the world around them. For example, children and staff at the nursery have a strong relationship with the neighbouring residential home for older people. Children regularly attend the home to sing with them. Children learn to build relationships which contributes to their social and emotional skills.
• Staff place an importance on children's health. Managers, staff and children have created a balanced and nutritious menu. They also incorporate regular exercise into the curriculum, such as through fun classes that involve dance. Children stretch, wave their arms up high and shake their bodies. This support for children's personal development helps to instil positive attitudes in children towards maintaining good and healthy lifestyles.
• Overall, staff promote children's communication and language well. They expose younger children and babies to purposefully modelled language. Children enjoy opportunities to join in with familiar stories. Older children are exposed to new words in context to broaden their vocabulary. However, there are times when some staff ask children questions and provide them with information in quick succession. This does not consistently give children enough time to process language or enable them to respond to share their own thoughts or ideas.
• Parents speak positively about the nursery and the progress that their children make while attending. They are grateful to the staff for the help that they receive, for example, with toilet training and behaviour management. However, managers do not ensure that all parents are aware of their children's key person and what their children need to know next.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more opportunities for children to use their language and communication skills, such as by using more effective questions and giving children time to think and respond
• build further on partnerships with parents to ensure that they know who their children's key person is and understand how to provide continuity in their children's learning.