Leaps and Bounds Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff plan a variety of activities for children to develop their small-muscle skills. These activities help children practise the skills needed for early writing. For example, pre-school children use their fingers and hands to smear coloured paints over tables. Staff demonstrate how to use toothbrushes, scrappers and rollers to make patterns in the paint. Children learn how to use these tools to make marks, giggling at the changing colours on their hands. Other children develop concentration skills. They use glue spreaders to stick glitter and sequins onto their pictures. Toddlers enjoy squashing and squeezing the dough. They tell the staff they are making pizza and worms. This supports children's developing creativity.

Staff encourage children to develop their muscle strength and coordination. Babies learn to crawl and pull themselves up on play equipment. Older babies sit with staff, rolling balls back and forth. Toddlers dig in the sand, where staff help them fill buckets to make sandcastles. Staff talk to older children about the beach. This encourages children to recall their experiences of holidays. Pre-school children push themselves along in bubble cars, where staff help them consider how to move around obstacles safely. Children show kindness when they notice friends are stuck on climbing equipment. They stop their play and help staff suggest how their friends could move their feet to get to different parts of the climbing frame. This helps children to problem solve.

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

• Staff are positive role models and support children to use good manners, share and take turns. When children have minor disagreements over resources, staff help them find similar items to help them play together. Children are polite and say, 'Excuse me' when they need to move past people. Staff identify pre-school children who have been especially helpful. Children beam with pride as they sit at the 'top table' with their chosen friends.
• Staff provide opportunities for children to develop their independence skills. At mealtimes, pre-school children are supported to pour drinks, serve themselves dessert and scrape their leftovers in the bin. Older babies recognise it is lunchtime, as they attempt to 'help' staff set up their highchair. Staff notice when toddlers struggle to use cutlery. Staff build on children's skills and demonstrate how to use the cutlery correctly. This helps children do as much for themselves as possible.
• Overall, staff support children's developing language and communication skills. Pre-school children confidently express their views and opinions to staff. For example, children use books to search for different types of birds. Staff help them pronounce the names, where children say which birds they like and why. Staff use descriptive words with babies as they look at books, such as 'fuzzy' and
• 'soft.' However, staff do not always consider appropriate ways to limit younger children's use of dummies during the day. This affects children's ability to use new and acquired language.
• Staff help children develop their early mathematical skills. They encourage children to count and recognise colours, sizes and shapes. Staff line up 10 green bottles on a beam, where they help children consider how to put them in number order. Children sing with staff as they count down the green bottles, safely knocking them off the wall.
• In general, outdoor play consists of stimulating learning experiences, which children eagerly engage with. For example, babies and toddlers benefit from a balance of child-led and adult-initiated play. However, staff do not always plan and provide the same level of rich learning experiences for pre-school children. On these occasions, children do not fully engage in outdoor play and sometimes wander around the play area, unsure of what to do before they return indoors.
• Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the setting. They use words such as 'remarkable' and 'attentive' to describe staff. Parents state their children are thriving as staff help them get ready for school. Staff work closely with parents and other professionals to create individual plans for children that are tailored to their needs. This includes children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to promote children's speech and language skills even further by reducing the time children use dummies
• build on how staff plan the outdoor provision for pre-school children.