Magic Roundabout Nurseries Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff create a nurturing and home-from-home environment that excites children to attend nursery. They help children to form secure attachments and develop positive attitudes to their learning. Staff model exemplary behaviour. They use core texts to help children to explore their emotions. Children learn to associate colours with feelings, which enables them to articulate their emotions clearly and develop emotional awareness and self-regulation skills. This approach helps children to develop excellent and essential social and personal skills. Children demonstrate exemplary behaviour. Staff demonstrate an exceptional knowledge of each child's interests and next steps in learning. They expertly use this understanding to plan engaging and purposeful learning experiences.

From the baby room to the pre-school room, children make exceptional progress from their starting points in development. Staff place a focus on building strong foundations for children's future learning. In the baby room, staff prioritise babies' sensory exploration and secure attachments. As children transition to the pre-toddler room, staff encourage children's language development, with expectations for using two-word phrases before moving to the toddler room. Staff provide investigative and exploration activities to help children to enhance their fine motor skills, vocabulary and hand-eye coordination. In the toddler room, staff promote children's growing language with open-ended questions and descriptive language. While in pre-school, children explain cause and effect, expanding on their ideas. Staff provide activities, such as junk modelling, clay carving and working with real vegetables. This encourages children's creativity, risk-taking, problem-solving, and excellent language and communication development.

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

• The curriculum is carefully designed to develop key knowledge and skills across all areas of learning in a clear, sequential manner. Leaders and staff regularly assess children's progress, using data and feedback from parents and staff to refine and improve the provision. They use this information to make timely adaptations to meet children's evolving needs and enhance their learning outcomes. Additionally, staff's focus in the pre-school room on school readiness builds children's confidence, such as by providing workshops for parents to support smooth transitions on to school for their children.
• Leaders and staff skilfully integrate cooking activities into the curriculum to promote children's fine motor skills, problem-solving and mathematical concepts. Younger babies engage in sensory experiences with utensils to aid early motor development, while older babies and pre-toddlers build confidence through tasks such as stirring and pouring. As children progress, activities become more complex, incorporating measuring, counting and concepts of size, weight and volume. For toddlers and pre-school children, staff use cooking activities to foster children's independence, risk-taking and key skills, such as sequencing, counting and measuring.
• Staff provide exceptional nature-based learning opportunities, which allow children to explore the natural world. For example, children observe and collect leaves for creative activities, helping them connect with their environment and develop creatively. Staff encourage babies to explore nature, which supports their sensory development and curiosity. This approach promotes children's emotional, physical and intellectual growth in an engaging way.
• Staff expertly support children's physical skill development, ensuring that they make excellent progress. For instance, younger children and babies benefit from outdoor areas designed to meet their developmental needs. These areas feature rock climbing stations and a variety of bicycles suited to different stages of physical growth, including balance bicycles and tricycles. Additionally, staff offer practical experiences, including a woodwork bench with real tools, such as hammers, allowing children to learn safety skills.
• Staff build strong partnerships with parents, celebrating their backgrounds and cultures. They offer weekly multicultural events, where parents read stories in their own language. This helps to boost children's self-confidence, pride, and understanding of diversity and respect.
• Leaders and staff plan outings that deepen children's understanding of key themes, including healthy choices. Staff use visits to the supermarket and the local market to teach children about healthy eating, for example, as they select fresh produce for cooking activities. They take children on art-focused trips, such as to national galleries, to support the artist of the month study. Children take part in community visits and recycling activities to broaden their awareness of their environment and sustainability.
• Leaders are dedicated to fostering a supportive culture, prioritising staff's development through high-quality coaching and training. Effective supervision sessions allow leaders to identify staff's strengths. Staff feel valued, well supported and enjoy working at the nursery.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are exceptionally well supported. Leaders collaborate with external professionals to provide tailored support. They regularly review children's individual plans, in partnership with parents, and provide ongoing staff development to ensure children with SEND make continuous progress.