Little Acorns Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly welcomed into this family focussed nursery. Staff work closely with families to ensure that home routines are followed and children's interests are woven into planning. They take the time to develop strong and trusting relationships with babies and young children, providing reassurance, comfort and cuddles when needed. Staff support children well during their transition from room to room. They ensure children are already familiar with the room and staff, and ready to learn.

Staff are good role models for children. They show them how to treat each other with kindness and respect. Children generally behave well towards each other. They share resources, offer teddies to comfort their friends and involve them in their play. Staff are engaging in their interactions with children. Consequently, children are keen to engage in activities and focus for long periods of time.

Staff carefully plan for each room to provide all children with exciting activities that cover all areas of learning. Staff are good at adapting resources throughout the week to allow the children time to explore and embed their learning. Staff extend learning for children through thoughtful conversations. Children in the pre-school room are well supported to become independent, confident and able to sit and listen well in group sessions. This prepares them well for moving on to school.

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

• Staff are good at providing a coherently planned curriculum that builds on what children already know and can do. Staff are clear on the expectations for each room and the different skills children need to learn for each developmental stage. Children are well prepared to move through the rooms and onto school, having acquired the right skills to help with their future learning.
• Staff use good explanations and demonstrate activities well for children. They use simple instructions and repeat any words and actions for children to carefully follow and understand. For example, when using the water tray, staff demonstrate how to squeeze pipettes to fill and squirt them. Children giggle as they play together, enjoying taking turns.
• Books and singing songs are frequently used by staff across the nursery to enhance language skills. For younger children, staff repeat vocabulary for them and they learn new words, such as 'more' and 'sharp' when making fruit salad. Older children thoroughly enjoy taking part in group singing sessions where they sing along, dance and copy the actions. Babies enjoy books such as the 'That's Not My' series. However, at other times the chosen books and activities are too advanced for babies. Staff are not consistent at providing babies with appropriate support to develop their language and communication skills.
• Children show great perseverance and focus in their play. Staff are animated and energetic, making each activity fun and inviting. Staff ignite children's curiosity and love of learning with the activities provided. Children explore the different textures and tastes of foods, learning the words 'sweet' and 'sour'. Older children investigate different smells and textures of jelly. Staff encourage children to think about what happens when they mix and squash the jelly.
• Staff are clear and consistent across the nursery with behaviour management strategies. They use high praise to encourage and re-enforce good behaviour. When children's behaviour is less desirable, staff use calm words to help them understand the consequences of their behaviour. Parents are closely involved in supporting behaviour at nursery and ideas for this are shared across nursery and home.
• Leaders work well together and are constantly evaluating the strengths in their staff and the physical setting. They are keen to adapt practice to provide the best care and education for the children. They actively seek appropriate training to support the staff to further their own knowledge and skills.
• Leaders effectively engage with the local community to enhance children's knowledge of the world around them. Children are regularly taken to visit the library, the forest, the old people's home and the local shops and school. They learn about road safety, money and caring for the world around them. This builds children's well-being and a sense of belonging to a community.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the support for staff to be more consistent in promoting communication and language skills effectively in the baby room.