Little Me Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children of all ages are happy, settled and show good levels of emotional well-being. Effective care practices, including robust settling-in processes, help children to settle quickly and feel safe and secure. Children are eager to come into the nursery and are greeted by warm and welcoming staff. They quickly become engaged in the interesting activities and play harmoniously alongside their peers.

Children demonstrate a positive attitude to learning and have fun as they play. They are eager to explore, investigate and find out new things. Following the last inspection, leaders have improved the planning and implementation of the curriculum to ensure that it is ambitious, sequenced and builds on what children know and can do. All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language, develop the knowledge and skills they need for the next stage of learning.

Children's communication and language skills are good. Staff place a strong focus on supporting their speaking and listening skills. They sit at children's level, provide a dialogue for younger children and engage in two-way conversations with older children. Singing and stories are an integral part of the everyday routines. Children enjoy listening to stories and demonstrate what they know in an age-appropriate way. Babies point to familiar animals they see in books, and older children predict what might happen next. For instance, they tell staff that the wolf will not blow the brick house down as it is too strong.

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

• Leaders and staff have worked hard to improve practice and provision significantly since the last inspection. They have adapted the learning environments to ensure children are engaged in their learning. Staff have undertaken extensive training to develop their knowledge and skills. Leaders have an effective oversight of the setting to support staff in their roles.
• Leaders have a clear and ambitious vision for providing high-quality inclusive care for all children. Staff complete regular assessments to enable them to evaluate what children know and can do and identify gaps in their learning. This enables them to provide targeted support when needed. They work effectively with parents and other professionals involved in children's care. This helps to ensure that all children receive the support they need to reach their next steps in learning.
• Overall, staff interact well with children. They engage in conversations with them and ask them age-appropriate questions to find out what they know and can do. However, on occasion, staff do not encourage the less confident children to join in with group activities so that they fully benefit from the learning experiences.
• Staff provide a good range of resources to support children's physical well-being. Children enjoy the time they spend outdoors and are physically active during their play. They ride bikes with confidence, balance on beams and manoeuvre around obstacles with ease.
• Staff organise daily routines to ensure that children remain interested and purposefully engaged in their play. However, at times, staff do not take account of what children can already do when they try to teach them new tasks. Occasionally, this means that they expect children to do something they are not ready for. For example, staff encourage younger children to pour their own drinks, but they do not check that all children have first built all the skills they need to do this.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents speak highly about the kind and caring staff and comment on how much their children enjoy attending the nursery. Staff provide regular updates on children's learning and development and make suggestions on how parents can support learning at home.
• Staff act as positive role models. They set clear rules to help children understand the boundaries and expectations of the nursery, such as being kind to others and listening to adults. Children behave well. They happily complete tasks, such as helping their friends to tidy the toys, and show good levels of respect and tolerance for others.
• The management team shows the highest regard for staff, ensuring they feel appreciated. Staff well-being is a priority for leaders, which helps staff in fulfilling their roles and developing their practice. Staff work well as a team.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to focus more on encouraging all children to join in with activities where appropriate
• improve staff's understanding of how to build further on what individual children know and can do.