Monkey Puzzle Bedford

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children become confident in this nursery, where staff are calm and caring. Staff encourage children to be independent from the youngest ages. Babies have opportunities to feed themselves. Toddlers have a go at putting their shoes on and older children use the toilet independently. Staff offer a lot of specific praise, which helps children behave well. When babies repeat single words, staff clap and smile. Staff tell children they are good helpers and kind to their friends. Children demonstrate good manners and respect for each other. For instance, when they want to walk around the table they politely ask their friends to move out of the way.

Staff encourage children to explore with their senses and get messy. Babies feel water and sand. Staff encourage them to sprinkle the sand and smell flowers. This helps to meet their natural exploratory impulses. As children grow through the nursery, staff provide them with more structured activities that help develop their concentration skills. Toddlers manipulate tweezers to pick up pom-poms and older children hold pencils to competently trace around number and letter shapes. This helps to develop control of their small hand and finger muscles.

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

• The managers have clear goals for the nursery and regularly reflect on how to make improvements that benefit the children. Staff feel well supported personally and professionally. They attend regular training and managers encourage them to complete qualifications. The managers recognise the staff team's hard work through a range of rewards. This helps staff to feel dedicated and excited to care for, and educate, children.
• Managers know the staff team well and use more experienced staff to support the newer team members. Staff know children well. They use accurate assessments and next steps to help children make good progress in their learning. However, not all staff deliver high-quality teaching and interactions when working with the children.
• Parents are very happy with the communication they receive about their child's learning and care. They receive regular development updates and support as to how they can help their children learn at home, through the online learning journal. Parents report their children have developed their English speaking skills and are happy to attend the nursery.
• Children's good health is promoted consistently well throughout the nursery. Staff encourage them to wash their hands at appropriate times and wipe their own noses. They change children's nappies in a sensitive and hygienic way. Children receive a range of healthy nutritious food and spend a lot of time in the garden, balancing, running and moving their bodies in a range of ways.
• Staff support children's communication and language skills well. They listen carefully as babies repeat single words to help build early conversational skills. Staff sing to toddlers who join in the words. Older children hear a range of words to extend their vocabulary during play. For example, staff label different underwater creatures when playing in the water tray.
• Staff effectively support children who speak English as an additional language. They build strong relationships with families and children to understand words in their home language. For example, parents record the words of books in home languages. This helps children to feel connected to their home and family environment.
• Older children play with their friends and are learning a range of social skills. For example, they build houses together out of bricks in the construction corner. Staff skilfully help them to understand and negotiate whose turn it is to kick a ball into the goal. This helps children to understand ideas from different points of view.
• There are clear, secure routines in place for all rooms in the nursery. However, during some times of transition, staff do not engage toddlers in meaningful learning. As a result, children play games that raise noise levels and occasionally disrupt others.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to develop their teaching skills further, so that children receive consistently high-quality provision and interactions
• review transition times in the toddler room to make sure these are more organised and encourage more learning.