Manna House Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders focus on helping all children to benefit from early education that meets their specific needs. They work closely with organisations and charities in the local community that focus on helping children and their families. Leaders make good use of funding to ensure that all children have equality of opportunities in their education. This helps to provide all children with a safe and caring play environment where they gain a secure foundation in their learning.

An effective key-person system helps babies and young children to form close bonds with staff. For example, toddlers awake happily from their afternoon sleep and greet staff with cuddles. Staff understand the care routines and preferences of babies, which helps to provide comfort and continuity with home. Babies are content and develop the confidence to play, explore and learn.

A key focus of the curriculum is to help children to learn boundaries and develop an understanding of routines. Staff provide children with clear guidance about what is expected of them, and children behave well. This includes developing a sense of responsibility and helping with key routines of the day, such as tidying up. Pre-school children develop good social skills, and staff encourage them to collaborate with their friends. Staff include a range of enjoyable games and activities in their planning that encourage children to build friendships and interact with others.

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

• Leaders consider their strengths and identify some aspects of their practice to develop. They plan to extend even further the already good provision for children who speak English as an additional language.
• Leaders monitor the quality of teaching and have thorough arrangements for supporting new staff. They prioritise staff training to ensure staff understand fully their duty to keep children safe. Leaders provide effective coaching and training that help staff to improve their knowledge and skills. For example, recent training has focused on extending the knowledge and skills of staff working with babies and for the provision of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff enjoy working at the nursery and feel well supported in their roles.
• Parent partnerships are strong and staff value the contributions from parents. Leaders and staff spend time getting to know families so they gain a better understanding of each child and their needs. Parents speak highly about the service provided and explain how staff are 'amazing' with their children.
• Leaders have identified an overview of the learning aims for children in the different rooms. They carefully consider the provision to support children's emotional regulation and create quiet areas where children can process their feelings. However, leaders have not broken down the curriculum into a precise sequence of knowledge and skills that children need to gain to provide a fully clear direction for learning.
• Staff have a good understanding of each child. They make effective use of their observations of children's learning and discussions with parents to inform their teaching. This helps all children to make good progress and gain the skills they need in readiness for school. Children are well motivated to play and sustain their concentration on activities that interest them. However, leaders and staff do not plan all the learning environments as well as possible to progress children's knowledge and skills consistently in all areas of learning.
• The provision for children with SEND is a particular strength, and leaders focus diligently on seeking support from outside professionals when children need additional support. They show integrity in providing children with any required one-to-one support while funding is being arranged through the relevant agencies and local authority.
• Staff enhance children's play with quality interactions, especially to support children's communication and language development. They successfully engage children in their play and motivate them. They use a range of strategies, including the use of books, songs and commenting on children's play, to help children to become confident communicators. Staff implement targeted support and focused adult-led activities when children need additional help with their language skills. There are clear and effective strategies to support children who speak English as an additional language.
• Leaders ensure that children's health is promoted and provide nutritious food and snack options. Children's individual health requirements are met well. Staff implement good hygiene routines to help limit the spread of germs and teach children about making healthy food choices. For example, pre-school children play games to plan a healthy meal.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• refine the curriculum so this is fully ambitious and precisely sequences the knowledge and skills that children need to gain as they progress through the development milestones
• plan the learning environment to reflect a breadth of learning experiences and an ambitious curriculum to help children make the best possible progress.