Imperial Day Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled in this welcoming nursery. There is an effective key-person system in place. This helps children to form firm attachments and promotes their well-being and confidence. Key persons have effective methods of developing relationships with, and seeking information from, parents so they know the children well. This helps children to feel safe and secure. This is demonstrated in the children's confidence to approach and interact with visitors to the nursery.

Staff plan appropriate next steps for children's development that build on what they already know and can do. Staff are effective in engaging with other professionals when needed. They make referrals to speech and language therapists and signpost parents to support from other professionals. Staff implement recommended strategies to support children in the nursery. This ensures that all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make progress in relation to their individual starting points.

Children are provided with experiences to broaden their knowledge about the world around them. For example, they have regular trips in and around the local community. They visit the park, beach and local theatre.

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

• The manager is dedicated and committed. She has a clear and ambitious vision for the nursery which is shared with the staff. Staff are reflective and seek to continually improve the nursery and make enhancements where necessary based on the needs of the current cohort of children.
• Babies and toddlers have opportunities to develop their communication skills through stories and singing. They clearly express their wants and needs by using simple words and phrases. Pre-school children demonstrate their well-developed communication skills when they work together cooperatively to decide on the roles they will take on in their superhero role-play game. During play, they have conversations with their friends where they share information about their families and places they have visited.
• Staff support children to learn skills for the future, such as to be independent with their self-care skills. Babies and toddlers are encouraged to wash their own hands and use cutlery to feed themselves. Older children wipe their noses and eagerly help to tidy up and sweep the floor after messy activities.
• Staff provide a wide range of interesting activities and experiences for the children. Overall, staff interact well with children during their play. However, some staff require further support to raise the quality of their interactions to a consistently high standard.
• Children generally behave well and interact positively with others. They are polite and are reminded about their manners when required. However, when children display unwanted behaviours, staff do not consistently provide suitable explanations to enable children to develop a deeper understanding of the rules and boundaries. For instance, they remind children not to throw sand without explaining to them why this could be dangerous. As a result, children do not gain a clear understanding about why the rules are in place to enable them to self-regulate their behaviour.
• Staff understand the importance of effective partnerships with parents and the positive impact this has on children's well-being and learning. Parents speak highly of the nursery. They are kept informed about their children's next steps and are provided with ideas for activities that will help to support their children's learning at home. They report that their children have made progress in their development since starting at the nursery. Parents are invited into the nursery to take part in activities and are encouraged to join in with pumpkin carving competitions and sports day races. This helps families feel part of the nursery community.
• Staff benefit from an approachable and encouraging manager. She is a good role model. Staff welfare and well-being is well supported. The manager monitors staff practice and provides ongoing support through supervision meetings and training sessions. Staff morale is high and teamwork is effective. This means that children are cared for by happy and motivated staff.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop their interactions to raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high level
• improve consistency in how staff support children's understanding of the impact of their behaviours and why there are rules in place so that they can learn to self-regulate their behaviour.