Innova Park Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The curriculum is varied and enables all children to make good progress from their starting points. Staff provide activities that capture children's imagination and develop a love for books and stories. For example, they re-enact a favourite book, 'Brown Bear', as they wave coloured ribbons in the air pretending to be different animals. Staff provide effective support for children's developing social skills. For example, at circle time, staff help children to learn the names of their friends and the staff.

Children gain a good understanding of healthy lifestyles. Staff encourage them to follow good hygiene routines, such as regularly washing their hands and encouraging them to make healthy food choices. During snack time, children have discussions with staff about the fruits they are eating and comment how these are good for them. Children are developing good levels of independence. They pour their own drinks and wash up their plates and cups after snack time. Children enjoy physical activities and fresh air when playing outside. Staff offer good support to help children understand their emotions, and how to manage these. Children behave well. They benefit from the frequent praise staff give them and show pride in their achievements.

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

• The manager and her small staff team know what they want children to learn. They continually monitor children's progress and identify what they need to achieve next. Children show a positive approach to learning and are extremely eager to explore. This means that they acquire the skills, attitudes and abilities to prepare them for the next stage of their development or school.
• Staff work well with other professionals to meet children's individual needs. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. All children make good progress in relation to their starting points. The manager carefully considers how to spend any additional funding that children receive to meet their individual care and learning needs.
• Staff's interactions with children are good and they promote children's communication and language development well. However, at times, staff ask children questions and present lots of information in quick succession. Children are not always provided with enough time to think and respond. This limits their opportunities to think and share their thoughts and ideas.
• Children have many opportunities to develop good physical skills. They run, balance and climb and ride wheeled toys tricycles in the well-equipped outdoor area. Staff provide a variety of activities to develop children's fine motor skills. For example, they use tongs to pick up lemon and lime slices and squeeze them to make juice. Children use paintbrushes to make marks and rollers and cutters with play dough. This helps them to build the muscles they need for early writing.
• Children understand familiar routines, and staff have high expectations for all children. This results in happy, active children, who have a positive attitude to learning. Children's good health and hygiene are effectively promoted. For instance, staff successfully enable children to become increasingly independent in self-care and hygiene practices, such as washing their hands after using the toilet.
• Children's personal, social and emotional development is well supported, and they form good relationships with staff and their peers. Staff are good role models and have high expectations of children's learning and behaviour. Positive behaviour is encouraged and praised. Children behave very well and are eager to learn.
• There are good partnerships with parents. Staff communicate well with parents, providing them with information about their children. Staff provide ways that parents can extend children's learning at home and work with them to help children achieve milestones.
• The manager leads their small staff team well in a programme of reflective practice and ongoing improvement. Staff benefit from a good range of opportunities to help keep their knowledge and skills up to date. They attend training and participate in regular staff meetings. Staff have a positive attitude towards continuous professional development and have access to ongoing training and development courses, including music and movement training.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to recognise when to give children more time to process their thoughts and ideas when responding to questions.