Minnows Children's Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy at the setting and form secure bonds with caring staff. The key-person system is effective. Staff know the children in their care very well. This enables staff to plan the next steps for each child's learning. All children, including those with some additional needs, are very well supported by staff. As a result, all children at the setting make good progress in their learning and development.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour and learning. Consequently, children behave well and have a positive attitude to learning. Children are busy and occupied throughout the day. They enjoy the wide range of stimulating resources and activities.

Children talk about what they like to do at the setting, such as playing with their friends and playing outside. Children form good relationships with their peers and draw pictures for their friends.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, children enjoyed visits to a local care home and being with visitors to the setting, such as a football coach. These activities will resume as soon as it is safe to do so, as staff report that children benefited from and enjoyed the learning experiences. However, children still have some opportunities to learn about their local community and visit a local grocery shop.

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

• Babies' individual care routines are well promoted and children receive good support with toilet training. Children enjoy healthy meals and snacks throughout the day. Staff are well aware of children's dietary needs and preferences. However, drinking water is not easily accessible to all children. Children talk about and are excited to eat a dessert that they helped to make, after shopping for the ingredients.
• Children love playing outside. They are skilled at avoiding obstacles when using a range of ride-on vehicles. Children participate in role play, which promotes their imagination and language skills. For example, they pretend to be selling ice creams and talk about the different colours, flavours and toppings. Children also express creativity when involved in different craft activities.
• Children show an interest in books and enjoy story times. They learn about letters and letter sounds when playing I-spy. They select foam letters from a water tray to make their name. However, the reading area outside is not well used by children as it is not currently attractive or inviting. In addition, the slide is currently out of bounds, waiting to be repaired.
• Children's hand-to-eye coordination is promoted when they dig with different utensils. They scoop and transfer mud, sand and water into containers of different sizes. They also have opportunities for solving problems when selecting the correct-sized vehicles to fit into tunnels and tubes.
• Children have lots of opportunities for counting and recognising numerals. However, they are not challenged to learn about and compare quantities, such as 'more than' or 'less than'. That said, children do learn some positional language when using vehicles, such as 'forwards', 'backwards', 'left' and 'right'.
• Staff work really well in partnership with parents and carers to ensure that they are kept informed of their child's development and progress. Parents comment that their children have made very good progress since starting at the setting, particularly in relation to their social development. Parents also comment that they find staff very caring and approachable, also that staff have supported them when needed.
• Staff benefit from an effective appraisal process and have access to ongoing training and development courses, such as safeguarding children. Staff demonstrate a positive attitude towards continuous professional development. They have also completed specific training that enables them to support children's language and communication skills.
• Children's language and communication are well promoted across the setting. Children participate in lots of singing and story time routines, such as singing songs related to the current theme around farm animals. Children's listening and speaking skills are also promoted through interesting activities. For example, they record words and phrases and listen carefully to others' recordings. In addition, a book-lending library system is in place to support literacy at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that fresh drinking water is available and accessible to children at all times
• improve some aspects of the outdoor play area so that children make better use of all of the outside resources
• promote children's mathematical skills further, for example, by providing opportunities for them to learn about and compare quantities.