Mama Bear's Day Nursery

Inclusion: Strong standard

Staff monitor children's progress very carefully and put in place swift support to help close any gaps in learning. They liaise with parents and carers and external professionals to seek advice and to implement targeted support. Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and families who need additional support at home effectively and consistently.

Parents are included in the decisions made about their children. Staff respect their views when putting in place specific targets to help close the gaps in their children's development. Parents appreciate the guidance they receive to support their children's learning at home and to focus on specific areas of development that their children need extra help with.

Staff make adaptations so that all children are included in the nursery, such as having activities lower to the floor so all children can join in. They use additional funding effectively, such as to provide additional resources to ensure staff receive additional training and gain pertinent advice from relevant professionals also supporting children. This helps to reduce any barriers to children's learning very successfully. It also means gaps in children's learning are closing rapidly.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Staff support children's early mathematical skills. They sing number rhymes with the younger children and help older children to link numbers and counting. Staff help children to understand mathematical concepts, such as 'one more'. They encourage children to recognise numbers, which the older children do confidently. Staff extend children's learning by getting them to match the number of objects to the relevant number. Children use pens to write the numbers on whiteboards. This helps children to develop their early mathematical skills and their hand muscles.

Staff promote children's language development effectively. They use simple language with the younger children and build on this by introducing new words. Staff encourage all children to sing and listen to stories and to engage in conversations. This builds on children's confidence to share their ideas. Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities to develop their communication skills. They use a range of hand signs and visual aids to support them to understand what is going to happen next. Children respond well to these and begin to use them to communicate their wants and needs.

Staff help children learn how to share and take turns. When children do not want to share, and push other children out of the way, staff explain to them they need to use their 'kind hands'. This results in children playing together and sharing the resources.

Staff offer children plenty of opportunities to develop their physical skills outside. Children climb and balance, use tricycles and negotiate space well. However, some younger children show a keen interest in climbing and demonstrate that they want to practise this skill further, such as by climbing on the furniture. While staff take them to the soft-play room for physical sessions, there are few structured opportunities for them to embed these skills indoors on a daily basis.

Achievement: Expected standard

Typically, all children achieve well from their starting points. Gaps in children's learning, including for those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), close over time. Overall, children develop the key skills they will need for starting school. Outdoors, children develop their physical skills, including balance and coordination. They have plenty of opportunities to strengthen their hand muscles, such as through using writing and drawing equipment, using cutlery and manipulating play dough.

Children learn to express themselves well. Older children engage in conversations, listen to others and are interested and engaged in the activities provided. Children with SEND use visual aids to support their communication. Children enjoy joining in with number rhymes and songs, which supports their communication and language development. Children, including babies and toddlers, independently look at books and sit turning the pages to look at the pictures. This supports their early literacy skills.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Generally, staff help children learn the expectations and rules in the nursery. They remind children not to throw the toys, for example, and provide them with a reason for not doing so. Children mostly respond well to this and adjust their behaviour accordingly. Staff support children to share and take turns, such as when using resources and playing games. They help children to develop respect for others, and this means children show care for their friends. For example, they invite them to join in when they hold hands and dance during singing time. Staff praise children for their acts of kindness and when they join in with group conversations. Children show they are comfortable with the staff and have formed secure relationships with them. Children are confident to request activities and to invite staff into their play, for example. This helps to boost children's self-esteem. Children are developing some of the key skills they will need for starting school.

Children show that they enjoy their learning. They are engaged in the activities and staff support them to persevere, such as when they serve too much food on their plate. Staff encourage children to try again and to think about how they can put less on their plate.

Leaders and staff monitor children's absences carefully and help parents and carers to understand the importance of regular attendance for their children. All children regularly attend nursery. This helps them to become ready for the routine of starting school.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Staff remind children of the rules they need to follow to help keep themselves safe. For example, they remind children not to climb on the furniture. Staff provide a range of healthy and nutritious snacks and meals for children. They promote children's growing independence. Young children begin to learn to use spoons as they start to feed themselves. Older children use forks and serve their own meals. Staff encourage children to put on their own coats before going outside.

Staff help children to manage their emotions. Staff are currently undergoing training to further strengthen this aspect of their practice. They know children well and support them when they become overwhelmed. For example, staff help children to calm through offering them alternative activities, such as using the sensory room or the emotions board.

The key-person system is effective in helping children feel secure in the nursery. Young babies show they feel safe as they explore the resources, knowing there is a special adult for them to turn to for reassurance if needed.

Staff sit with children at mealtimes and use this as a social time. They provide some activities to help children to learn about the foods that are good for them and those that they should have in moderation. However, staff do not consistently support children to learn about the benefits of healthy foods. This limits children's understanding of how food affects their bodies and how to make informed, healthy choices.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Staff report that they feel well supported in the nursery. When the nursery recently won an award, all staff received a gift for this achievement. This helps to boost staff's morale and has a positive effect on their wellbeing.

Staff have regular one-to-one meetings and reflect on their practice to identify their strengths and areas for development. Staff report that they are eager to complete training to develop their confidence in how they support children to learn to manage their emotions more consistently as a team. Leaders have a well-rounded oversight of the curriculum and how this is delivered to support all children's progress in the nursery. They have started to implement training to support staff's practice in supporting children to manage their feelings. Leaders know that this is not yet fully embedded across the nursery.

Parents and carers say they are very pleased with the nursery. They comment that their children thoroughly enjoy attending. Parents say that they are pleased with the progress their children are making, particularly their language development, and say that they use new words at home and sing songs. However, leaders have not ensured that staff are fully confident to help parents understand the importance of their children gaining some of the key skills they need for starting school, including toilet training, in a timely manner.