Miss Daisy's Nursery School, Knightsbridge

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The staff team enthusiastically greets children. Leaders and staff provide a safe, welcoming and stimulating learning environment for children. Staff are supportive and responsive to children's needs. This ensures that children's emotional needs are met. Children are curious as they explore a wide range of high-quality resources. Leaders and staff have established an inclusive, diverse setting where children's unique personalities, cultural backgrounds and their families are celebrated. For example, staff help children to make a pretend 'Thanksgiving dinner' during a role-play activity. Staff extend children's learning further during a cooking activity as they make Russian pancakes called blini.

Leaders and staff provide an ambitious curriculum that challenges children. Children of all ages enjoy the learning experiences on offer. For example, staff support children to explore their gross motor skills. Children enjoy moving their bodies in a variety of different ways as they warm up for their football session. Children make good progress from their starting points.

Staff engage well with children and have high expectations of their behaviour. Staff explain to children that they should ask for a turn rather than taking a toy from another child. Staff continue to reinforce the rules when needed, and children behave very well.

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

• Staff actively engage with children in shared reading sessions, where they discuss the characters and retell the storyline. Children then re-enact well-known stories, and they build houses and bridges in the garden. This fosters a love for reading, enhancing children's speaking and creative skills. Staff converse with children and introduce new words regularly. For instance, during lunchtime, children talk about healthy food and its impact on their bodies. This expands their vocabulary and communication skills.
• Leaders and staff are dedicated and hard-working. They observe and assess what children achieve. They know children's individual needs and interests very well. For example, children enjoy playing with cars and staff encourage them to drive cars on the road created on the wall. This helps to improve their hand-eye coordination. However, staff do not always make precise use of their observations to tailor children's learning opportunities. On occasion, staff plan activities that cover a range of learning intentions and do not focus specifically on what children need to learn next. This means that some children do not consolidate their skills before moving on to the next learning intention.
• Staff help children to develop their small muscles and independence from a young age. For example, children confidently peel and cut fruits before snack time. Additionally, staff provide malleable activities, such as play dough or sand exploration, that help to build strength in children's hands and fingers.
• Children benefit from regular opportunities to be physically active. Staff provide a wealth of experiences to enhance children's large physical skills. For example, children enjoy regular forest-school sessions that help to support risk-taking, play and exploration. Children have good fun in the indoor soft-play area, where they practise their coordination and balancing skills.
• Staff support children to understand how to manage their feelings and behaviour. They support their personal, social and emotional development well. Staff help children to learn to be kind to one another and listen to and respect their peers. Staff offer praise and encouragement, which builds on children's confidence and self-esteem.
• Leaders know their roles and responsibilities to ensure staff are supported effectively. They hold regular supervision meetings and complete observations of staff practice to help identify any training needs and to offer best support to enhance their skills further. Staff comment that they feel well supported by leaders.
• Partnerships with parents are well established. A collaborative two-way approach to children's learning and development is achieved by ongoing communication, parents' evenings, open days and daily feedback. Parents speak highly of the quality of the care and education their children receive.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• tailor activities and learning opportunities more precisely to children's individual learning needs to support them to consolidate their skills.