Merry-Go-Round @ Riverside

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nurturing staff team build strong relationships with children and their families. Effective settling-in sessions help children's move from home to the nursery. Parents and children are invited to attend stay-and-play sessions, which staff tailor to meet their individual needs. Staff seek a range of information from parents about children's interests and development to help plan personalised learning experiences from the outset. Children arrive happy, and they separate from their parents or carers with ease. They are eager to play and are motivated to learn.

All children make good progress from their starting points. Staff plan a broad range of engaging play experiences around children's interests to support their learning. They support children's early literacy and communication skills well. Staff read to children throughout the day and encourage them to join in with action songs and rhymes. This helps children to build vocabulary and develop good listening skills. Staff provide pre-school children with daily activities to help them link letters and sounds, laying secure foundations for early reading. They build strong partnerships with parents and encourage them to borrow books from the lending library to support a love of reading at home. Children behave well because staff are positive role models. They speak to children with respect, which children model in their own interactions. Children are confident to express their needs and are learning to share, take turns and use good manners. Babies are very happy and content. Staff are highly responsive to their needs, offering lots of cuddles. They quickly recognise when the youngest children are becoming tired and swiftly settle them to sleep.

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

• Leaders are dedicated to their roles, and they strive to deliver high-quality care and education for all children. Their child-centred approach ensures that children's well-being, development and learning are their priority.
• Leaders have a secure understanding of what the nursery does well and accurately identifies areas for improvement. They recognise that recent changes to the staff team mean the quality of teaching across the nursery is good but no longer outstanding. Although leaders meet regularly with staff to discuss good practice, these opportunities are not yet consistently used to precisely identify gaps in staff's knowledge or skills. This means that professional development is not always sharply focused on individual training needs to enhance the quality of teaching and support children to achieve even better outcomes.
• Staff have a generally secure understanding of what they want children to learn from planned play activities, for example for older children to develop hand strength in preparation for early writing and young children to use single words and associative sounds to build early communication skills. However, staff do not consistently focus their interactions on the intended learning intention. They sometimes introduce too many additional concepts into play activities, which distracts from the purpose of the activity and means staff miss opportunities to embed the intent for children's learning.
• The key-person system is effective. Children form secure relationships with familiar adults who understand their individual needs. Strong partnerships with parents ensure a consistent approach to children's care and learning. Key persons regularly share information with them about children's achievements and work closely with parents to support children's ongoing development, such as potty training. Parents speak highly of the caring staff team. They value their open and regular communication and comment on how well staff know their children.
• Staff support children's good health. They sensitively attend to children's personal care needs and ensure that consistent hygiene practices are followed throughout the day. Staff gently remind children to wash their hands at appropriate times. Young children sleep peacefully and comfortably because staff follow familiar routines from home, supporting continuity of care. They make regular checks on sleeping children to ensure that they are safe and well. This supports both their physical health and emotional security.
• Staff provide children with daily opportunities for fresh air and exercise. Young children develop hand-eye coordination as they fill and empty different sized containers with water. Staff sit alongside them to support their play. They introduce mathematical language such as 'full' and 'empty' to build children's understanding through meaningful interactions.
• Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. Children sit calmly at mealtimes and respond promptly to instructions, for example, to drink to keep hydrated.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff supervisions and reflective discussions to target professional development opportunities more precisely on staff's individual needs to raise the quality of teaching to the highest level
• support staff to consistently focus their interactions on the intended learning of activities to fully engage children and further embed their learning to help them make even better progress.