Jackalberry Daycare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are cared for by staff who really enjoy what they do. Children engage in a range of activities that inspire them to play and learn alongside their peers. Opportunities to enhance their physical development are extremely good. Children have lots of fun and really love being outdoors. They readily participate in experiences such as junk modelling, riding on bikes and playing a game of chase with one another.

Babies are cared for by staff who have a naturally nurturing nature. Through gentle interactions from the staff, babies explore their immediate environment and are very settled. Children aged two and above are generally supported by staff as they play. Most children are settled and many share secure attachments with the staff who care for them. Pre-school children share extremely strong bonds with one another. They develop secure friendships and frequently create their own games.

Children learn about the importance of oral health. Activities staff create inspire their engagement that helps them to look after their teeth.

There is a real buzz of conversation throughout the nursery. Children readily share their experiences with one another, and they like to tell staff about events in their own lives.

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

• The management team place a high emphasis on reflective practice. Management frequently reviews the pressures on the staff team. They accurately identify ways in which they can support them in their role and help them to manage their general well-being. Management has recently devised and introduced a policy with regard to menopause, identifying support that is on offer to staff.
• The management team also successfully identify how they can support children and their families and protect our environment through active recycling. For example, they have created a 'love me again rail'. This includes clothing, such as raincoats, wellington boots and other items of good quality, that families no longer have a use for.
• Staff training supports them to understand changes in statutory guidance and expected practices within the nursery. Team meetings ensure staff understand, for example, the difference between teaching and assessment.
• The arrangements for transitions to school are extremely smooth. Management liaises with schools post each September intake to ascertain how that cohort has settled. They ask reception class teachers questions about what they feel the nursery has done well in order to aid the transition and what they can do better.
• Parents also acknowledge the arrangements for transitions to school as a key strength.
• Children who speak English as an additional language are effectively supported. All parents are asked for information about any other languages their children may use at home during the settling-in periods. Children are supported effectively to understand their uniqueness and how they differ from one another. Age-related activities are organised by staff that support children to begin their understanding of black history and Ramadan. Children enjoy having mehndi patterns painted on their hands.
• Staff plan activities that stimulate the children's interests. Using an egg in cups of fluids, such as water, milk and fruit juice, children explore the process of change. As a result, they understand that the sugar in fruit juice will stick to their teeth just as it does to the egg.
• Children aged two and above are generally supported well in their play. That said, there are times when staff do not support them in using the resources to ensure maximum impact effectively. For example, some children struggle to use the drumstick attached to a drum during the group's welcome song. Also, some staff do not always consistently support children over lunchtime to manage their emotions when their favourite member of staff leaves the room.
• Parents are keen to express their views on the service they receive. They especially appreciate the relationships the staff share with their children and express how happy their children are to attend.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support children who are less settled more consistently over the lunchtime period to manage their emotions
• make sure staff help children gain the maximum impact from the resources they use, for example, how to use and manipulate musical instruments.