Mon Ami Children's Nursery @ Ormsby Lodge

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are keen to join the activities staff plan for them and stay engaged for long periods of time. This positive attitude to learning is due to staff knowing the children well and playing alongside them. Children in the baby room make choices about what songs they want staff to sing, helping to support their early understanding of words. Staff introduce new words in the toddler room for children to learn, such as 'share', and help them to understand what this word means. Children have opportunities to be physically active. For instance, in the toddler room, children excitedly listen and follow instructions when staff play music and ask them to move their bodies in different ways. Children swing their arms, tap their feet and clap their hands. When children balance as they walk across wooden planks, staff remind them to hold out their arms and to jump off the end. Staff stand close-by to support, if necessary, promoting their safety.

Children receive praise from staff for their achievements, helping to reinforce positive behaviour. For example, when children in the baby room are asked to tidy away toys, staff clap their hands when they do this. When pre-school children dress themselves independently, they receive a high five for doing this on their own. Children show pride in their own achievements. When staff ask pre-school children to self-serve their lunch, they say 'I did it'.

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

• The manager uses additional funding that some children receive to support parents to continue their children's learning at home. For example, this includes providing activity bags for them to borrow. The contents of these bags include helping parents to develop their children's love of stories, to support their children's toileting needs and to encourage them to share.
• Staff say that they feel supported with their workload and emotional well-being by the management team. The manager helps staff to extend their professional development. This includes staff attending training courses to extend their knowledge of how to support children's communication skills. For example, when staff ask children questions, they give them plenty of time to respond, encouraging their thinking skills.
• Staff know the children well. They use observations and assessments to help identify what children need to learn next. This includes encouraging children to be independent. For instance, staff ask children in the toddler room to wipe their noses. In the pre-school room, children pour their own drinks and wash their cups and plates when they have finished eating snacks.
• Staff quickly identify children's developing interests, such as helping them to use their imagination to be creative. For example, they provide activities for children to build on their interests in making wands. Children wind furry wire around a stick and tell visitors that they will take them home to turn their parents into a frog.
• Children show an understanding of the routine of the day that is embedded by staff. This contributes to children understanding what happens next, supporting their emotional well-being. However, during personal self-care routines, staff do not always provide privacy for children when changing their nappies.
• The manager and staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. For example, when staff communicate with children, they use words and visual pictures to help children understand routines in the day and activities and toys that are available for them.
• Staff support children to understand how to use tools safely. For example, at lunch time, staff show children in the pre-school room how to use safety knives to cut bananas. Children explain to visitors how they handle the knife, being careful not to touch the sharp edge.
• Staff implement rules and boundaries to help children understand what is expected of them. This includes asking children to use their walking feet. Staff talk to children in circle time about how they are feeling, supported by the use of picture cards. However, staff do not carry this through into children's self-chosen play, discussing how they feel if they become upset.
• Parents say that they are thankful to staff for bringing on their child's development. They explain how staff go above and beyond to teach life skills to their children, such as how to share, be kind and to listen.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to provide children with privacy when changing their nappies
• support staff in the toddler room to find ways of supporting children to manage and identify their emotions when they are upset during self-chosen play.