Little Green Dragons Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this wonderful, warm and welcoming environment. Staff are exceptionally experienced and have a wealth of knowledge and understanding of how children learn and develop. Staff are friendly, loving and nurturing. This embeds strong positive relationships between the children and their key persons. Children feel happy, safe and secure. They explore the well-resourced environment with confidence and enjoyment. Children laugh and giggle and are happy throughout their day at the setting.

New children are quick to settle. Staff carefully plan inviting activities for the children based on their knowledge of what the children like to play with. Staff skilfully build on children's prior knowledge and what they know and can do already. Children are friendly and welcome visitors into their play. They offer visitors a cup of milk as they sit with them at snack time.

Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. Staff can identify when children are in need of additional help. They carry out regular assessments of the children to make sure all children are making progress. Staff work well with external agencies to provide the best possible outcomes for all children.

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

• Babies enjoy picking out toy farm animals from a basket. Staff encourage the children to name the animals and sound out the sounds that they make. Babies smile and giggle as staff make animal noises. They then begin to copy and say 'moo' as they hold a cow. This helps the children to form sounds and supports early communication and language development.
• Children enjoy playing with play dough. They manipulate the play dough using their fingers. This helps to strengthen the small muscles in their hands in preparation for future skills, such as writing. The children explore a variety of resources to extend their imagination. They use uncooked pasta in different shapes and sizes, play dough cutters and flour. However, on occasion, staff do not provide resources to children to challenge them fully in their learning.
• Staff support children in their early mathematical concepts. Children experiment by slotting penne pasta through spaghetti pasta. Staff ask, 'how many do you think will fit on there?', encouraging children to think. Children exchange ideas and then test out their predictions. Staff also use mathematical language, such as tall, short, big and small. Some children decide to make a cake; they place pasta in play dough and count their 'candles'.
• Children enjoy exploring the outdoor area. They enjoy picking lavender from the herb garden and hold it to their noses to smell. They share their experiences with their friends and excitedly show them what they find. Children delight at finding a spider in the garden. They watch with fascination as the spider's web blows in the wind, showing their awe and wonder of nature.
• Children enjoy playing with hula hoops. They roll them with excitement across the playground. Staff support learning as they gather the hula hoops and encourage the children to count to 10 before they release them and roll them back to the children. The children thoroughly enjoy this game and shriek with joy as the hoops roll over to them. However, some children become excited and begin to throw the hoops in the air and behind them. Staff do not help children to regulate this behaviour and understand the potential impact of it.
• The manager is passionate about her role and has devised a broad curriculum that includes a wide range of activities and experiences. She provides continuous support for ongoing professional development. She is also mindful of staff's well-being and offers an open-door policy.
• Parents comment they have used the setting for many years, saying that it is lovely to see the same staff. They enjoy the homework packs that the staff provide and feel well supported to continue children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• develop staff's teaching to provide children with resources to fully support their learning
• build on staff's practice to help children regulate their behaviour and understand the impact of unwanted behaviours.