Little Journeys Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy, safe and secure. They have good bonds with staff and eagerly involve adults in their play. Children confidently make decisions about what they want to play with and learn. For example, they decide they want to draw a butterfly and later announce that they want to cut out a butterfly mask. They gain a sense of responsibility and recreate familiar experiences of growing caterpillars to butterflies through their play. Children are keen to learn and show their interest in the activities provided. They develop a love of books as they share stories with staff, talking about the characters. For example, children identify and describe the food found in their story and enthusiastically recall the new word 'cocoon'.

Children are kind and caring towards each other. They help their friends to find their coats. Children behave well and staff have high expectations of them. Staff support them to settle after closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff know children well and have strong relationships with them. Babies approach staff for reassurance, snuggling into them. Staff talk to children about family events and sing favourite songs and rhymes as they eat lunch together.

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

• Staff provide a broad, varied early years curriculum. The learning experiences are, generally, exciting and engage children, who spend long periods of time concentrating on what they are doing. Staff plan group activities outdoors for children to focus on specific skills that they need to learn. However, staff, at times, do not recognise when a planned activity links directly with a child's current learning goal. As a result, children move away and do not get the best learning experiences possible.
• The provider and manager conduct regular supervision meetings with the staff. These meetings are used to consider ways in which staff can develop and identify what they are doing well. The management team encourage staff to observe and evaluate one another to help identify any possible areas for development. However, there are some small gaps in staff's knowledge, which have not been identified.
• Staff have a detailed knowledge of each child. They know what they want children to learn in the long term and use their observations and assessments of children well to inform planning. They identified where children needed additional support as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. They planned specific activities to successfully help children to catch up in their learning, particularly in communication and language.
• Children listen carefully to staff and show that they are independent. For example, older children hang their coats and bags on individual pegs and are resilient when they try to put on their own coats. Babies learn to feed themselves and are encouraged to make choices about what they play with.
• Children learn to follow healthy lifestyles. Staff provide healthy, home-cooked food and make sure that drinking water is readily available for children. They cater for children's individual dietary needs and allergies. Staff plan opportunities for children to plant their own flowers and vegetables and care for the nursery snails.
• Staff encourage children to take appropriate risks. For example, when babies are experimenting with how their bodies can move, staff ensure the area around them is safe. They hold their hands as they move from side to side and attempt to explore the sensory play with their whole bodies.
• Staff support children's emotional development well. They work closely with parents and have effective systems in place to have discussions about children's achievements at home and at the nursery. They effectively prepare children for changes in their lives, such as having a new baby at home and their move to school. This helps to provide continuity and supports their continued learning at home.
• Parents fully recommend the nursery. They appreciate the close contact and regular communication they receive. Parents particularly appreciate how happy and eager to learn their children are. They welcome the good guidance that staff provide and say they are 'welcoming and approachable'.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to ensure that their interactions consistently promote children's individual developmental needs within group activities and outdoor play
• sharpen systems in place to identify areas of development for staff, targeting any gaps in their knowledge and further building upon their understanding of the curriculum they deliver.