Little Oaks Day Nursery Penn

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly welcome children into this bright and friendly nursery. They get to know each child well and forge strong and caring relationships with them. As a result, children are happy, settle quickly and demonstrate that they feel safe and secure in their environment. Staff understand and recognise that each child is unique, and they respond appropriately to their individual needs. For example, they know that the two pre-school rooms are very different and that less confident children thrive in the quieter room.

Staff provide children with a range of interesting activities and resources to promote their curiosity and motivate them to learn. As a result, children concentrate for periods of time at their chosen activity and are keen to try new experiences. Staff recognise any gaps in children's learning and development and swiftly put in place additional intervention if needed. As a result, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress from their individual starting points.

Staff are positive role models. They have high expectations for children's behaviour. Children learn to share, take turns, and respect others. Strategies and support are put in place for children who struggle to regulate their behaviour, to enable them to manage their feelings in a safe environment.

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

• Significant changes have been implemented since the last inspection. The newly appointed manager has introduced initiatives, such as regular supervision meetings and individual action plans, to help staff to develop their practice. Staff are eager to share the changes they have made. They say that leaders and the manager are very supportive and value their ideas. As a result, their confidence has grown.
• Leaders and the manager monitor staff practice and provide ideas to help them improve. Staff have attended copious amounts of training to support their professional development. Leaders and the manager ask questions to consolidate staff's learning, and encourage them to share what they have learned with others. That said, there is scope to monitor the impact of the changes even further, to ensure that they are fully embedded into practice, so that the quality continues to be raised even more.
• Leaders and the manager have an extremely good understanding of what they expect children to learn at each stage of their development. They share this knowledge with staff. They check staff's understanding of the curriculum and how they implement it for the children. Staff recognise the intent of the activities they have planned and know which children's next steps they meet.
• Children thoroughly enjoy the activities on offer. Younger children enthusiastically hunt for animals in the sand that staff have innovatively put in a suitcase with pictures of the sea, so it resembles a beach. Older children work together as they make a zoo for the animals and transport them in trucks. Babies listen to the story of 'Dear Zoo'. They reach to lift the flaps in the book to reveal the animals, copy staff as they make the noise of the animal and wave goodbye as the animal goes back to the zoo.
• All children are beginning to learn mathematical concepts. Younger children count five little ducks as they sing the corresponding song. Older children compare sizes as they build towers with cylindrical blocks. They compare which is the tallest and which is the shortest. They follow shape patterns on a card and can match the correct colour and shape. Some children are beginning to recognise two- and three-dimensional shapes as they draw a house on paper and then construct it using a box.
• Children develop their imaginations. They play in the role-play areas, where they dress up and pretend to rock and feed their babies or work on the construction site. Children enjoy messy activities. They relish using paints to create pictures. However, sometimes the organisation of activities does not fully enable all children to make the very best of their learning opportunities. For example, when children paint at an easel, the size of the paper is too small. Consequently, children paint the easel, which is then wiped clean, and they have no record of what they have painted.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) and the nursery area SENCo are extremely knowledgeable. They work closely with other professionals to ensure that children with SEND and their parents receive the support they need.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• monitor the recent changes to ensure that they are wholly embedded into practice, so that quality continues to improve
• organise activities, so that they fully support children's learning and help them to make even better progress.