Little Angels Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive excited to start their day at this homely and welcoming nursery. Friendly and familiar staff greet children warmly. Children put their belongings away and seek out their friends to play. The outdoor area is accessible all the time for children to explore. Children do this with interest and curiosity. They choose from a range activities available to them. For example, children choose to work together to make bridges and balance beams with planks and crates outside. This promotes their cooperation, communication, perseverance and physical skills. Children begin to discover what they are capable of doing when they work together. Babies enjoy exploring the sand trays outside. Staff cuddle and comfort them when they need reassurance. This helps children to feel settled, safe and secure.

Children have very good behaviour. This is because staff model good communication skills. Staff have high expectations of every child. They want children to build on what they already know and can do through appropriately challenging activities. Staff encourage children to take turns and to be patient. They listen to children and give them time to think and respond. As a result of this, children learn to listen to each other. This helps them to develop mutual respect for others.

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

• Managers and leaders have a focused vision for what they want children to learn here. They aim for children to have a high level of well-being and resilience. This is to prepare them for the next stage in their learning, including school. This helps children to develop confidence in themselves.
• Staff have good knowledge of how children learn. They plan activities to help children to make steady progress and embed their learning. For example, children make numbers in the flour tray as staff support them to count out loud. This helps children to build on what they already know and can do and promotes learning mathematics in an enjoyable way.
• Children learn good communication and language skills. Staff quickly identify if a child needs support with this. They put in place strategies that support each child and their family while they access external support. This means children make consistent progress.
• Children show high levels of motivation in their play and learning and behave well. This is because children learn through activities that have been carefully planned to their interests and developing skills. For example, staff encourage children to try again while threading spaghetti strands. This helps children to learn to persevere.
• Mealtime routines are not consistent across all age ranges or throughout the day. Staff pour children's drinks, serve their lunch and snacks. They also cut up children's food most of the time. When staff do give children the opportunity to do these tasks, children are unsure of how to do them. This is because the teaching of these skills is not consistent.
• Supporting staff is an important part of how leaders and managers ensure consistent well-being for everyone. Staff report a balanced workload. They say they can comfortably talk to the management team about any issues or concerns. As a result, staff feel confident in their work.
• Leaders and managers ensure staff training is up to date and relevant. They discuss with each individual staff member what training they can do to further improve their knowledge to benefit children. Leaders and managers support staff to ensure training is targeted. This helps staff to build on their good practice.
• Parents are extremely complimentary about the service they receive and the care of their children. They speak very highly of the staff and say they go above and beyond to support their child. They know what their child is working on to make progress. This helps parents to be more involved in their child's early education.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to effectively help children to develop independence and self-care skills consistently across all age ranges, particularly during meal and snack times.