Little Explorers Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, safe and thoroughly enjoy the time they spend at the nursery. They form secure bonds with staff and are relaxed in their care. Babies are content and quickly soothed at times when they do become upset. Staff work closely with parents to ensure that babies' home routines are closely matched at the setting to provide continuity in their care and learning. Staff and leaders have created an exciting learning environment both indoors and outdoors to ensure that all children are well-motivated to play, explore and make new discoveries.

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress in their learning. Older children have high levels of confidence and develop excellent social skills. They eagerly join in small group games and cooperatively play together. For example, they close their eyes and concentrate while a friend from around the circle takes the toy they are holding. They then use their reasoning skills to work out and name the friend who took the toy. Toddlers learn to take turns and happily play alongside their friends in the sand.

Staff support children's health well and follow good hygiene routines. Children benefit from nutritiously balanced meals and snacks. Older children understand about the importance of regular hand washing and when to do this.

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

• Leaders and staff have successfully addressed the actions from the last inspection to ensure the safety and welfare of children who attend. Leaders have developed an effective approach to self-evaluation to identify and address areas for further development.
• Leaders closely monitor staff practice and provide effective supervision, coaching and training to ensure that all staff understand their roles and responsibilities. This has helped to raise the quality of children's education programmes. For example, leaders provided all staff with training to ensure that they have a secure understanding of how to support the learning for babies. Staff say that they feel well supported in their roles.
• There is an effective key-person system in place. Staff use observations of children to identify what they already know and can do. Overall, they plan well for their learning and have clear learning intentions. This includes providing targeted support and intervention programmes for children with SEND. However, staff do not plan as comprehensively as possible to ensure that each child's main learning priorities are considered fully and planned for.
• All children benefit from many opportunities to be physically active. Leaders and staff have created a challenging learning environment for babies to help them to progress well with their physical development. Babies enjoy sharing a small space with a friend in a seesaw and know how to shift their weight to create the rocking motion. They learn how to safely climb up steps and down ramps. However, leaders and staff do not give the fullest consideration to the sequence of knowledge and skills that older children need to gain, to fully challenge them with their larger muscle movements.
• Staff skilfully support children's communication and language development. They know how to adjust the language and questions they use to support children at different stages of their development. Babies stop what they are doing to listen to songs and rhymes. They confidently join in with actions. Toddlers listen attentively to staff and understand the language associated with colours. Older children give clear instructions, such as how to use a skipping rope. They provide detailed descriptions of their family members and pets.
• Staff work closely with parents and have frequent discussions with them about their child's progress and well-being. Leaders have recently started to welcome parents back into the setting, following the ease of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents say how staff have particularly helped children to become more confident in social situations.
• Children behave well and staff have high expectations of them. Toddlers calmly and positively respond to staff's gentle reminders about what is expected from them when they try to take equipment from another child.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the education programme and planning to support older children's physical development, to more precisely challenge them to build on their knowledge and skills
• use observations of children's achievements to plan more comprehensively for each child, to help extend their learning even further.