Hove Village Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and excited to start their day. They receive warm welcomes from staff and are eager to greet their friends as they get stuck into a variety of activities on offer. Leaders have taken action following the last inspection to address curriculum weaknesses. As such, staff have a greater understanding of how to implement a broad and balanced educational programme that is tailored to the individual needs of children. For example, children are engrossed in an Arctic ice activity. This is planned on children's interests stemmed from their rooms' focused story. Children delight in working out how to use tools to smash the ice. Staff provide a verbal narrative to guide children to think of other ways to melt the ice. Children share their own thoughts and ideas as they use warm water to speed up the melting process. These opportunities enable children to build on their thinking skills and recall knowledge they have already learned.

Staff plan an array of activities and play experiences for children to select from. However, there are some occasions where some staff do not provide the same level of interaction and engagement to extend children's learning. This is because teaching practice has yet to be fully embedded. Despite this, children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning and are making good progress in their ongoing development.

Staff recognise the importance of children feeling emotionally secure. They work hard to develop nurturing and secure bonds with all children. Staffing arrangements have been strengthened to ensure children are cared for by familiar staff. This provides greater consistency and helps children feel safe and establish a good sense of routine.

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

• The dedicated leadership team, in collaboration with staff, has worked diligently to make the necessary improvements since the last inspection. Leaders are reflective and proactive in their evaluation of the nursery. They recognise their strengths and areas for continued development. Staff report positively on the training, support and coaching they receive to enable them to continually improve their personal effectiveness. In turn, this positively impacts the outcomes for children.
• Leaders have strengthened arrangements to ensure children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive targeted interventions to help them catch up. However, due to the inconsistencies in teaching practice, this also impacts some children with SEND.
• Staff across all age groups recognise the importance of developing children's communication and language skills. They achieve this through a variety of strategies. This includes singing songs and providing core texts they revisit regularly to help children become familiar with much-loved stories. This exposes children to new words and helps extend their range of vocabulary. Additionally, staff provide activities linked to core texts to help children make connections in their learning.
• Leaders have taken action to address weaknesses in the key-person approach. As such, staff have a greater understanding of their key children. However, processes in place to ensure learning and development information is shared between staff are not fully effective. Nevertheless, staff make good use of their time to get to know children to create positive relationships.
• Overall, children behave well. Staff are positive role models and appropriately explain behavioural expectations to children. This helps children to begin to learn about their own and others' emotions. However, there are some minor inconsistencies between the rooms in how children are being supported at mealtimes. This includes children not having opportunities to practise independence skills consistently as well as staff not always recognising when children need additional support. Despite this, children are supervised during mealtimes to ensure their safety.
• Staff ensure children have opportunities to learn about life beyond the nursery through regular trips to local amenities. For instance, children delight in trips to the beach and local green spaces. Staff plan these trips to help children learn about the natural world and to make real-time connections in their current learning.
• Children have opportunities to develop their gross motor skills. For example, children delight as they move their bodies in a variety of ways during yoga classes. Children are keen to show adults as they practise the yoga positions they have learned. This helps children develop their core muscles to strengthen skills such as balance and dexterity.
• Leaders continue to seek a variety of ways to work in partnership with parents. This includes listening to parental feedback to drive ongoing improvements. Furthermore, staff provide regular information about what they are teaching children and suggestions to support further learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the consistency of teaching practice across all staff to ensure all children, including those with SEND, have their learning and development needs precisely met
• review key-person arrangements to ensure all information is shared effectively between staff
• strengthen mealtime arrangements so children receive consistent support to promote their independence skills.