Little Acorns Day Nursery Eastleigh

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and separate from their parents with ease. Staff gather information from the parents at the beginning of the day and provide feedback at the end of the session. This helps to ensure children feel safe and secure. Staff support children's independence well and children confidently hang up their coats and bags on their pegs.

Staff plan activities based on the children's interests and use their new curriculum, which is currently being embedded across the nursery, to further develop children's skills and knowledge. Babies and toddlers enjoy listening to simple stories. They like to touch the different textures in the board books when staff allow them to feel the 'animals' as they read to them. This helps babies and toddlers to feel engaged and develops their sensory skills as they explore the materials.

Staff support children well to understand the behaviour that is expected. Children learn to share, take turns and collaborate as they play. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress from their starting points.

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

• The senior leadership team has a clear vision for the development of the nursery and is ambitious in its plans to develop the provision. They monitor staff performance through supervision, and staff access in-house training opportunities. This helps to ensure they regularly update their skills. Staff report they feel supported, and their well-being is good. They work well together and are deployed appropriately to meet the needs of the children. Staff communicate effectively with each other and this helps to provide consistent care and support for the children.
• All children enjoy a range of activities inside and outside. They are keen to join in and they show excitement in their learning. Staff promote mathematical language as they encourage the children to count during activities. However, at times some activities are not planned fully effectively to take all children's needs into account. For example, on occasion the pre-school group is too large for all children to be involved, and they sometimes struggle to stay engaged.
• Staff provide many opportunities for children to develop their physical skills. For example, older children take part in obstacle courses. They persevere as they throw the bean bags into the hoop. If they miss, they try again, concentrating hard on the target until they succeed. Younger children navigate the climbing frame and practise their physical skills and coordination, throwing balls to the staff to catch.
• Staff identify children with SEND swiftly. They seek additional help to ensure children make the best progress. Staff use the skills and knowledge they have gained through training to help parents to support their children at home. They develop links with other agencies and work well together to address concerns early. For example, they have worked with parents to help to support children's behaviour in the home environment.
• Younger children understand the daily routine and transitions are managed well. Staff carefully plan lunchtimes in small groups and children are well supported. However, due to the volume of children in the preschool room, transitions for older children take a long time. A large amount of time is spent queuing and waiting, which leads to children becoming bored and distracted. This does not consistently meet all children's needs.
• Staff support children's language development well. For instance, they read stories and use Makaton sign language. In addition, staff enrich children's vocabulary by singing to them in different languages and encouraging the children to join in familiar songs. Children are becoming confident communicators.
• Partnership with parents is good. Staff find out about children's interests and development prior to the children starting at the nursery. They share information about individual children's development with parents using an online platform. A book lending library and 'communication bags' with ideas, help to support children's learning at home. This joined-up approach enables children to progress well.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen group activity planning for the pre-school room, to help all children take part more effectively
• review the lunchtime transitions to ensure routines are well structured and consistently meet the needs of all children.