Little Echoes Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children settle well in the calm environment. They develop warm, caring relationships with staff and develop friendships with each other from a young age. Babies enjoy looking at a book together of photographs of their families. This helps them to learn each other's names and develops their awareness of other family members, such as brothers, sisters and pets. Children who need extra help in their learning and development make very good progress. Staff have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of their needs and how to support them. Children behave well and follow the familiar routines with ease. Staff provide clear boundaries and expectations to children, along with plenty of praise and encouragement. Children develop good levels of confidence and happily approach adults for help.

Children enjoy a good range of toys, resources and activities that support their learning and development. They make choices about their play and activities. For instance, toddlers make song choices from different picture cards with images of nursery rhymes. Children are keen to learn and play. They take part in activities with enthusiasm and interest. For example, older children enjoy experimenting by rolling cars down lengths of drainpipe.

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

• Staff understand children's starting points on entry and regularly assess their progress. This helps staff plan for what children need to learn next and close any gaps in learning. Staff know the skills and knowledge they expect children to learn and develop. This helps children become ready to move rooms and on to school. For example, children develop their dressing skills over time. Babies learn to pull off their socks and toddlers learn how to take off their shoes and coats. The pre-school children gain the skills to manage these tasks independently.
• New children, and those returning since the nursery reopened after a closure due to the pandemic, settle in well. Effective settling-in processes support children to feel safe and secure. These include a number of visits with and without their parents, which are tailored to each child's needs.
• Overall, staff are very thoughtful in how they support children's individual needs. For example, staff completed training in yoga and provide regular sessions, which helps to support children's well-being. In particular, they used these sessions, along with other support, to help prepare a child for a stressful event in their life. However, some staff do not fully understand how to support children who speak other languages at home, to help them use and develop these alongside English.
• Staff work very effectively with parents and external professionals when needed, to ensure children receive any additional help they may need. Parents speak highly about the service and communication they receive. This includes information they received when the nursery was closed, such as activities to try at home. Parents and staff share information well, including through daily verbal handovers, along with written assessments about children's learning. This helps staff and parents to support children consistently.
• Overall, staff provide good interactions with children to support their learning. However, at times, although quieter children are happy, staff do not fully engage them during some activities, such as small-group discussions. Staff help young children to learn words, for example naming the fruit for snack and encouraging children to repeat these. However, on occasion, staff working with babies do not consistently respond to babbling, to help further support early language skills.
• Leaders and staff have reflected on the quality of the provision effectively since their last inspection, in order to make consistent improvements. Leaders provide regular times for staff to discuss their work and the children they care for, for example during team and individual supervision meetings. Staff receive support for their ongoing professional development, including through an online training provider. This helps to support their practice and children's needs. Staff feel confident in approaching leaders and they feel their well-being is considered.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• increase staff's understanding of how to support children who speak other languages at home, including the benefits of this for children's learning and development
• support staff to develop further awareness of their responses to children, such as engaging with children who may be quieter, and consistently responding to babies' babbling, to help further extend early conversation skills.