Heron Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, feel safe and settle well at nursery. Children are provided with lots of reassurance and cuddles as and when needed. Staff rock babies in their arms and soothingly talk to them. As a result, they develop good bonds with the attentive staff. Toddlers show good concentration and coordination skills when they fill and empty containers. Pre-school children are busy learners and show good levels of independence. For example, they help themselves to resources, such as paints, and hang their coats on named pegs. Managers continuously adapt the nursery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to help keep children safe. They soon hope to restart visits to schools with children and parents. Parents can now enter the nursery with their children. This helps children to be confident and prepared to enter the next phase of their learning.

Children make good progress at this nursery. They demonstrate a positive attitude to learning and are motivated to investigate the stimulating learning environments. For example, children play with dough of progressively firmer consistencies. They enjoy exploring coloured dough and pipe cleaners. They roll and squeeze the dough, and shape it around the pipe cleaners. They stretch and pull the dough, helping to gradually strengthen the small hand muscles needed for them to become capable writers.

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

• Staff have a good understanding of how young children learn. They get to know children well and plan a curriculum full of exciting activities. For example, older children enjoy building with large blocks and sand in the construction area. Staff encourage children to count and estimate how tall they will make the tower. However, when children's interests move away from the planned activity, staff are less effective in providing these children with support. This means some children have less opportunity for their learning to be extended.
• Managers and staff are proficient in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They work in partnership with parents and other agencies to ensure that children and families get the help they need.
• Staff help children to develop their language skills. They listen to children and talk to them throughout the day. Children enjoy singing nursery rhymes. They are eager to listen to stories, and staff successfully read stories to children in a way which keeps them engaged. Children have time to respond to questions, which helps to develop their critical thinking skills. However, staff do not always introduce a wider vocabulary into children's independent play to support them further with their language development.
• Children who speak English as an additional language are helped to make connections in their learning. For instance, staff use a variety of resources to help children to develop in English and their home language. They use these along with visual cards for routines to help children's understanding. The manager specifically tracks the development of children who speak English as an additional language to ensure they are not left behind.
• The manager and staff share a wealth of information with parents, such as on toilet training strategies. They actively encourage parents to extend their children's learning at home. Parents comment that they are very happy with the care their children receive. They describe the nursery as a very nurturing environment.
• Children are caring towards each other and are learning about how to share resources and wait their turn. For example, older children practise brushing a set of pretend teeth. They share the toothpaste and wait patiently for a turn. Staff talk to children about why it is important to clean their teeth twice a day.
• Staff successfully broaden children's experiences. Children relax when spending time with the nursery dog and enjoy the therapeutic benefits that brings. They have discovered how the dog needs to be looked after and this has supported children who have been frightened of dogs and has developed their confidence.
• Staff feel that managers support them well with their professional development. They benefit from purposeful supervision meetings, observations of their practice and plentiful training opportunities. This helps them to reflect and continually improve.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• adapt teaching to extend children's learning further during free-play activities
• support all staff to model new vocabulary to enable children to consistently hear and practise new words.