Jelly Bears Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily and quickly settle at this homely and welcoming nursery. They form secure attachments with staff and display a strong sense of belonging. Children confidently select their photo and self-register each morning when they arrive. Older children independently hang their belongings on their peg before they greet their friends. They choose to play indoors or outdoors in the fresh air. Children have a positive attitude to learning. They choose from a wide range of activities, thoughtfully planned by staff. These relate to their interests and individual learning needs. Children have opportunities to take part in a range of sensory experiences. They use 'chunky' paintbrushes to make marks with a range of different colours and use their fingers to investigate the inside of a pumpkin. They giggle with excitement as they explore the sound of a hollow pumpkin. Children behave well. They know the expectations, especially during daily routines. For example, they quickly tidy up and sit on the carpet ready for group activities. Staff give children plenty of praise and encouragement. For example, they compliment children's manners when they say please and thank you. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the nursery adapted their practice to ensure individuals within the setting remained safe and well. The nursery launched a virtual 'queue app' to enable parents to inform staff that they have arrived at the nursery, to promote social distancing. Additionally, the nursery closed their car park to vehicles to ensure everyone's safety during peak times.

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

• Staff use spontaneous opportunities throughout the day to engage children in conversations. This helps to promote their communication skills. Discussions are natural and promote back and forth conversations. Staff encourage children to reflect on past learning experiences. For example, when discussing the circular shape of a plate, staff ask children if they can remember when they drew circles in the garden.
• Staff effectively support all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to develop targeted plans to help children progress in their development.
• Staff provide good support for children who speak English as an additional language. They gather key words and phrases from parents about their home language to support children's communication and understanding at nursery.
• Overall, parents are happy with the care and education the nursery provide. Staff speak to parents at drop off and collection times. They discuss each child's day and the activities they have enjoyed. Staff also share ideas for children's learning at home. However, recent feedback from some parents state that the communication methods are not consistently strong throughout the whole nursery. In particular, methods to share information about children's learning and progress.
• Staff promote children's social and mathematical skills well. They encourage children to work together, such as collecting toy cars and lining them up alongside a tape measure. Children demonstrate an early awareness of number as they count the amount of cars they have. Staff introduce mathematical language, such as 'longer' and 'shorter'. Children compare the rows of cars and their length as they add and take some away.
• Staff promote children's health and well-being effectively. They remind children to wash their hands when they arrive at nursery, after using the toilet and before mealtimes. The nursery provides nutritious home-cooked meals and snacks. Children learn where their food comes from. They have recently started to grow herbs and vegetables in the garden. Children harvest these and give them to the nursery cook, who uses them to prepare their meals.
• Managers are ambitious and have high standards for the care and education they wish to provide for children. They reflect on the quality of the provision regularly to identify and make improvements to the nursery. Managers monitor staff performance and share their strengths and areas to develop. However, managers do not always monitor and identify individual training needs for staff as well as they could, to develop their practice and quality of teaching to benefit children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide parents with a consistent two-way flow of information about children's learning and development to help support children's overall progress
• build on the existing ways to monitor staff's performance to identify training needs and raise the quality of teaching to an even higher level to benefit children.