Little Acorns Baby Unit And Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Babies thrive in the safe and nurturing environment that staff provide. Staff are highly skilled and well trained in their work with babies. They know babies and their families incredibly well. Staff use this information, together with their professional knowledge of typical child development to plan effectively to inspire babies' curiosity. Babies are extremely well settled and ready to explore. Staff intuitively adapt the environment to meet babies' emerging needs and interests. They strive to mirror babies' home routines because they understand that each baby is unique. This helps children to settle well and form strong bonds with their key person. Babies are confident to seek reassurance should they feel upset. Staff ensure that babies' needs are promptly met and this helps to build trust and high levels of self-esteem.

Staff are ambitious for all babies. They are highly focused on helping babies to learn and develop. Babies have plenty of space, both indoors and outside, to practise physical movement. They receive lots of praise and encouragement that helps them develop positive attitudes and to keep trying. Staff follow babies' emerging interests to develop communication and language skills. Babies show understanding and start to repeat words they hear such as whisk, lemon and squeeze as they re-enact making pancakes with play dough.

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

• The experienced and well-qualified provider has established an effective curriculum that helps children achieve developmental milestones and build on what they know and can do. The provider is ambitious for all children, developing the curriculum to help prepare each child for what comes next. The provider's vision for children is shared by all staff who implement the curriculum exceptionally well. The child-centred approach ensures that all children receive tailored support that helps them build firm foundations for their future.
• Staff act as excellent role models for babies. They are calm and reassuring, model respect towards each other and the babies, and use polite language consistently. Staff seek babies' consent throughout every aspect of care and play, showing that they value children's voice in matters affecting them. This helps babies to build a strong sense of self-being and confidence to express their choice.
• The transitions when babies move to the toddler room at the sister nursery are handled extremely sensitively to help them manage change positively. Staff ensure parents are fully involved in the arrangements. Staff from the sister nursery attend the baby unit regularly to help babies become familiar with them. Babies' existing key person accompanies them to many taster sessions in the toddler room. This provides babies with a familiar adult to help them settle in the new environment. Staff consider babies' emerging friendship groups and arrange for friends to move together.
• Staff help babies to begin to understand behaviour expectations and self-regulation. They help babies learn to share. When exploring play dough, staff ensure there is a wide range of resources to model how to share and take turns. Seeking babies' consent they help them to share the frying pan and take turns to use the whisk, constantly narrating babies' actions and offering praise.
• Staff identify babies' emerging friendships and take this into account when organising small group activities. Older babies show that prior learning about sharing is becoming embedded as they sit with their friend and look at books together, or hand toys to one another.
• Parents are extremely positive about the care their babies receive. They say that they receive detailed information from staff about their baby's day and how to support the next stage in learning at home. Parents value the high-level care and education their baby receives, that enables them to go to work with confidence that their baby is happy.
• Staff state that they thoroughly enjoy working at the baby unit. They say that they are a 'work family' and that they are extremely well supported to gain professional qualifications and training that help them to fulfil their roles. Staff say that they feel valued by the provider. They display high levels of professionalism and pride in their work.