Kingfisher Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and ready to learn. Key staff greet children at the door and warmly welcome them in. Children quickly settle in their own rooms, find their friends and eagerly engage in the many exciting activities on offer for them. Babies actively explore the environment. With support from the staff, they scale low-level equipment and attempt to take their first steps. Toddlers show good levels of concentration and perseverance. For example, they turn wooden shapes to fit them into a shape sorter. Pre-school children demonstrate good small physical skills as they make meaningful marks using pens. In addition, they confidently use tools, such as ink stampers and scissors. All children, including those who are funded or have special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress.

All children build strong attachments to their key person. This is because staff implement individualised settle in sessions and take time to get to know children and their families. Babies look for staff as they move about the room. Toddlers, fondly embrace staff and enjoy sitting with them to read a book. Older children are confident and self-assured. Staff help children to understand the rules and boundaries for the nursery. They consistently use age-appropriate explanations for any unwanted behaviours. As a result, children behave well and are kind and considerate.

Partnerships with parents and other agencies are a strength at this nursery. Staff act quickly to ensure those children who need extra help get the right level of support they need. The special educational needs coordinator diligently works with staff and parents to ensure targeted learning plans are put into place. Staff share children's next steps with parents, which helps to continue children's learning at home. As a result, any emerging gaps in children's learning quickly close.

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

• The senior leadership team have high expectations for the nursery and what they want children to achieve. The new manager is passionate and committed. She has already identified areas of the nursery she wants to improve further. She has discussed and agreed an action plan with the provider to achieve these. For example, they want to roll out an even more targeted programme of support to develop staffs' deep understanding of how children learn. This will help all staff to deliver the intended curriculum to consistently high standards across the nursery. That said, support for staffs well-being is consistently strong. Staff report they are extremely happy in their work.
• In the main, staff support children's learning well. Babies and toddlers persist at activities, such as water play, for extended periods of time. Older children confidently join in with games, such as a shape hunt. However, at times, staff do not understand when activities need to be extended or reshaped for children to remain highly involved. As a result, some children disengage, or do not have the opportunity to consolidate their learning.
• Staff have an impact on children's personal development and good behaviour. They work closely with parents to understand children's needs and interests and how those change over time. Staff warmly praise children's achievements and help them to understand and manage their own feelings. For example, children role play and express their emotions and are supported by staff to explore and display how they are feeling. Staff laugh and giggle, and change the laugh to copy children, which gives them great joy and acceptance.
• In the main, staff support children's communication and language well. Babies and toddlers actively take part in favourite action rhymes and songs. They love to sit on staffs' knees, snuggle in and listen to a story. When reading with older children, staff encourage them to 'growl like a bear' and predict what might happen next. In addition, staff model positional language. For example, when building with blocks, they ask children to place them 'on top', 'underneath' and 'side by side'. As a result, children are developing a wide vocabulary.
• The curriculum for mathematics is securely embedded. Staff weave mathematical concepts throughout their play and during routine times of the day. For example, older children help staff to complete a head count before children move from outdoors to inside. Younger children are challenged to find numbers in the environment. Staff model counting and number language to babies. For example, they count out how many pats they can make in the water. Consequently, children develop well in mathematics from an early age.
• Babies and toddlers are encouraged to feed themselves and help with tasks, such as dressing. Older children relish opportunities to do things for themselves. For example, they scrape waste food from their plates into the bin. Children take part in extracurricular activities, such as music and movement sessions, football, and go for walks into the local community. All of these, as well as having access to a well-equipped outdoor area, help children to develop good physical skills and support their continued good health and well-being.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop the intended curriculum to take better account of the unique ways in which young children prefer to learn, and shape activities accordingly so children remain highly engaged and focused
• strengthen current arrangements for staff coaching and supervision to help staff raise the quality of staffs' educational practice to a consistently high level across the team.