Hillside Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and well cared for in a safe and secure environment. They confidently leave their parents when they first arrive, and they settle quickly. Babies develop strong bonds with their key person and enjoy lots of reassuring cuddles. Staff are nurturing, attentive and supportive, which helps children feel safe and secure. Babies develop their communication skills as they copy sounds and attempt single words they hear. This helps babies to communicate effectively. Toddlers and pre-school children are confident communicators. They engage staff and visitors in conversations about their interests and seek help where they need it.

Children develop good physical skills, inside and outdoors. They practise climbing, balancing, and running. Staff support them to manage risks safely. Children learn new skills, such as how they can use their arms to help them balance as they walk on planks and learn how to change direction. Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. They manage children's behaviour well. Staff share their expectations with children and explain why certain behaviour is not acceptable. Children's behaviour is good.

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

• Leaders' and managers' intent for the curriculum is clear for all children. Overall, staff design a curriculum that builds on what children already know and use their interests to inform planning. However, some staff are less clear on what skills and knowledge they want children to gain through the activities that are planned for them.
• Staff know their children well and use their observations and assessments to effectively plan for what children need to learn next. Assessments are accurate, and any identified gaps in children's learning are closing. Staff share their observations with parents verbally and using an online learning journal.
• All children make good progress from when they first start. The special educational needs coordinator supports staff and works closely with parents and other professionals to identify, plan and coordinate support for children who may need extra help. However, staff do not consistently support all children who speak English as an additional language to communicate effectively and use their home language.
• Children have many opportunities to be physically active using the spacious nursery garden. For example, children play excitedly with the brightly coloured parachute. Staff manage this activity well, giving clear instructions and allowing children time to fully explore and enjoy the experience. They engage children in spontaneous singing about bunnies sleeping as children lie together underneath the parachute, they eagerly await the instruction to jump and hop.
• Children eat freshly cooked, healthy, and nutritious meals, according to their specific dietary needs. Children enjoy finding out about significant cultural traditions and learning about them with their friends. They enjoy cultural food tasting days that represent the home diets of their friends at nursery. This helps children understand the differences between each other and the world they live in.
• Children play imaginatively in the mud kitchen and talk about the pies they have made. They are delighted as they fill tins with soil mixture and stir the soil with real kitchen utensils in the outdoor mud kitchen. Children learn about windy weather. For example, they use colourful chiffon fabric outside and dress up as superheroes or their favourite princesses. They giggle with delight as the fabric blows in the wind.
• All staff introduce children to a wide range of songs, rhymes and stories that build on their previous learning and experiences. Staff are skilled at capturing children's interest in stories. Children listen intently as staff read in an expressive way. This supports children to develop a love of books and reading.
• Partnerships with parents are well established. Parents talk positively about the procedures that were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although they continue to wait outside the nursery, they are confident in the progress their children make and know how to support their learning at home.
• Staff state that they are well supported to fulfil their roles by the new provider. Purposeful supervision meetings and training has a positive impact on experiences for children as staff apply their new-found knowledge and skills.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff's understanding of how to implement the learning intentions for activities, so they are clear on what skills and knowledge they want children to gain
• support children who speak English as an additional language further to hear and see more words from home, so they continue to increase their vocabulary and confidence.