Horizons Day Nursery & Pre-school

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create an extremely caring and nurturing environment in which children feel safe and secure. Babies form strong bonds with their key person. Staff adapt feeding and nap times to fit in with babies' routines at home. This helps babies to settle very quickly. They join activities with enthusiasm. They demonstrate growing strength and coordination as they crawl through tunnels and dive into the ball pool.

Children's behaviour is exemplary. Staff have very high expectations for all children. Children are highly sociable. They quickly learn the rules to simple games, such as 'Simon says', and explain them to their friends. Children understand how to keep safe. They show concern for their friends as they remind each other to hold onto the rail as they walk down the stairs.

All children make incredibly rapid progress across all areas of learning. This includes those children in receipt of funding for free early years education and those whose starting points are lower than their peers. Children's learning is deeply embedded. They can make links between current and previous experiences. On a trip to the shops with staff, they look at fruit and vegetables and describe enthusiastically how they grew tomatoes in the nursery garden. Children enjoy many rich opportunities to learn about different cultures and their local community. They learn about different festivals and go on numerous outings in the local area. For example, they frequently visit the local library, shops and parks.

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

• The leadership team demonstrates exceptional passion and determination to provide the best possible care and education. The manager is particularly astute in her assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's development. She has, as a result of her assessments, constructed a highly ambitious and well-structured curriculum.
• Staff use highly effective teaching strategies to implement the curriculum. They receive incredible support for their well-being and professional development. The manager provides exceptional support and guidance to develop their skills. For example, the manager has coached staff to use open-ended questions to successfully encourage children to think deeply and express their ideas.
• Staff are sensitive to the needs of all children. They provide quiet encouragement for children who are apprehensive about joining in with activities, ensuring they rapidly develop the confidence to take part. This ensures that all children have equal access to the curriculum.
• Children make remarkable progress in their language and literacy skills. Staff read to children with such expression and intonation that children become deeply engaged in stories. They snuggle into the cosy reading area, where they have a wonderful time singing songs and listening to their favourite stories. Children very confidently use newly acquired vocabulary to explain what they have learned. When mixing ingredients to make volcanoes, they predict that it will 'erupt' and throw their hands in the air to demonstrate.
• Staff consistently weave mathematics into daily activities. Children count spontaneously as they go up and down stairs. They tell staff when there is one stair left and say 'that will make 10'. Staff skilfully provide more challenging activities for children who are particularly interested in numbers. Children rapidly grasp simple number operations as they add and subtract using plastic blocks.
• Children display markedly high levels of independence and resilience. When attempting to put on their coats, they repeatedly try to fasten them and refuse help when it is offered, saying, 'I can do it'. Children have an excellent understanding of how to stay healthy. They explain to staff that they must wash their hands before snack time to wash away the germs. Younger children are closely supervised by staff as they brush their teeth after lunch. Children discuss with staff that they need healthy teeth to eat crunchy food like bread sticks.
• Partnerships with parents and other professionals are superb. Parents appreciate the small and homely nature of the setting. They receive targeted information on how to extend their children's learning at home. Where there are concerns that a child may have special educational needs and/or disabilities, parents are quickly signposted to other agencies for support and assessment. Reception teachers are invited into the nursery to support children's transitions to school. Teachers report that children are exceptionally well prepared for this next stage in their learning.