Millie's Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily at the nursery. They are greeted warmly by staff and respond positively to their nurturing attention. Children are eager to join in with play and choose from the wide variety of activities available to them. They enjoy visiting the shop set up in the role-play area. Children are learning to recognise numbers and how these correspond with coins. They also understand that payments can be made digitally, as they pretend to pay with toy credit cards. Effective play activities, such as this, promote children's mathematical development.

Children are learning how to develop healthy lifestyles and the importance of exercise. They have many opportunities for physical play, including riding on tricycles outside. Children persevere as they practise their skills, such as using pedals. Staff give encouragement and praise. Children are pleased when they succeed. Children develop an awareness of how to keep themselves safe. For example, they know to wash their hands after digging for worms. Children's behaviour is good. They show kindness to their friends. When they see other children struggling with a task, they are quick to offer help.

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

• Children make good progress in their learning. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language. Staff make accurate assessments of children's abilities. This helps them to identify any delay in children's development.
• Promoting language development is a key focus across the nursery. Staff introduce new vocabulary to the younger children as they engage in activities. For example, they use clear words to describe children's actions, such as 'squeezing', 'spreading' and 'sprinkling'. Older children chat confidently to visitors. For example, they explain who the people are in the pictures they draw.
• Pre-school children listen with interest to familiar stories and join in with the repeated phrases. Staff follow up stories with practical activities, such as baking. Children enjoy learning how gingerbread is made as they mix ingredients together. They talk about the story, as they bake, and demonstrate their understanding of the sequence of events.
• Children are developing good skill and control when using their hands. Young children spend time exploring how different fasteners work as they open doors on puzzles. Pre-school children draw detailed pictures and are proud to show how they can write their names. These skills provide a strong foundation for the children to build on throughout their education.
• The provider has rigorous recruitment procedures in place to help ensure staff are suitable to work with children. New staff talk positively of how the thorough induction procedure helped them to fully understand their roles and responsibilities. Leaders monitor staff's practice through regular supervision meetings. They identify suitable professional development opportunities that enable staff to continually enhance their knowledge and skills.
• Leaders are proactive in accessing extra support for children who are eligible. They use additional funding effectively to support individual children's needs. Ongoing assessments of the progress children are making show that gaps in their learning are closing.
• Parents speak positively about the staff and the nursery. Staff share their good knowledge of children's development with parents. They help parents to know how to support children's learning at home. Parents appreciate the consistent care the staff have provided to children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Leaders and staff regularly reflect on their practice and look for ways to continually improve. An ongoing development plan helps them to track the improvements they make. Staff work on action plans for the areas they work in, reflecting on the needs of each child.
• On the whole, staff interact well with children. They support and extend children's learning as they play. However, some staff do not always identify when quieter and less-confident children need more support to help them to engage fully in activities.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• give quieter and less-confident children the support they need to engage fully in their learning.