Hornby Day Nursery Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff instil children with the confidence to get involved and always try hard. A key focus is finding each child's talent and helping them thrive. To support this, leaders source additional activities, such as dance and sensory play, to enhance children's range of experiences. Children demonstrate their happiness and feelings of security through close bonds with staff, and they are confident to approach visitors to show them their nursery.

Staff show children respect. They teach and trust them to make good decisions from the youngest age. For instance, staff support babies to calmly play with water indoors while older children work together to carefully create a 'shop' using real produce. Children understand the high expectations of them. They reciprocate the respect shown to them by behaving well and taking care of each other and their nursery.

Skilled staff help to embed children's learning through interesting discussions and activities that build on prior knowledge. For instance, children recall what a combined harvester does, how flour is made and how they made their own bread and soup. Staff plan a broad range of activities to link children's learning. For example, children use fruits such as pineapples and pears to paint with as they learn about colour and texture. Children demonstrate a mature level and breadth of understanding and develop solid foundations on which to build their future learning.

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

• The manager, who is also the owner, is passionate about the ongoing development of the nursery. She strives to consistently deliver the highest standards of care and learning. The manager's dedication is reflected in the high esteem she is held in by the many families she supports. Parents value the manager's effort to continually involve them in children's learning. Her meticulous approach translates to the highest quality of teaching and education.
• Staff work well as a team and are dedicated to their roles. All staff are involved in planning for children's learning and share their plans with parents. For instance, they create fun learning packs for parents to support children's learning at home. Training in areas of intrinsic value to individual staff members boosts their knowledge and skills and benefits children's learning as a result.
• Staff support children's physical development well. Babies have plenty of space and support to practise their new physical skills. Older children learn to manage risk and develop core strength as they negotiate the steep slope of the field outside. Daily access to outdoor play and learning helps enhance children's overall well-being.
• Children happily spend time independently looking at books. They enjoy the outdoor library area and are excited by visitors to nursery who come to read to them. Staff's continual narration of children's play helps children hear and practise an extensive vocabulary. Children are confident communicators, which helps give them an excellent foundation for the next stage of their education.
• Staff weave the curriculum for mathematics throughout all areas of the provision. For instance, snack trays include number prompts for children to count pieces of toast and fruit. Staff and babies count busses and bicycles as they go by the window. As a result, children count with confidence and demonstrate a sound understanding of early mathematical concepts.
• Staff help children develop their personal skills. They learn about their feelings and how their behaviour affects others. Older children help their younger peers to prepare for school, discussing routines and expectations. Children learn key life skills and are well prepared for their move on to school.
• Staff help children learn about their community as they create artwork for an auction to support fundraising for the village church. Bilingual staff read to children in their home language. This helps children learn about life in our diverse world.
• Staff monitor children's progress continually, swiftly identifying emerging gaps and implementing strategies to support them in conjunction with parents. Staff seamlessly incorporate children's changing interests into teaching to capture their imaginations. For instance, when parents mention an upcoming holiday, staff immediately reflect this in planned activities. The effective and ongoing communication with parents enhances the consistency of children's learning. This helps children make excellent progress in all areas of learning.
• Leaders work tirelessly to access support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). For example, additional funding is used to allow more focused attention from staff. The manager and the special educational needs coordinator support staff well so that children with SEND have a skilled team around them. Along with additional input from external agencies, this helps children with SEND to make the best possible progress from their individual starting points.