Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff form meaningful bonds with the children, which helps them to feel comfortable in their surroundings. Due to this, children separate from their parents confidently at the door when they arrive. Staff adapt activities to support individual children's needs. This tailored support helps each child to make good progress in their learning.

Communication and language skills build consistently as children progress through the nursery. Babies begin to talk, repeating words back to staff as they share simple books together. Toddlers speak confidently about their own experiences to visiting adults and use new vocabulary. For instance, they speak about the 'fluffy' towel they use to clean the dolls. Pre-school children respond positively to the praise staff provide as they confidently articulate their thoughts and knowledge in more detail.

Staff promote positive behaviour across the nursery. They sensitively support children to learn how to share and take turns with one another. Toddlers enjoy playing together and staff support these interactions well. The oldest children sit and listen to one another during group activities. They respect one another and wait patiently for their turn at the interactive whiteboard, learning that staff who work with them value everyone's thoughts and feelings.

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

• Staff develop a strong knowledge of the children who attend the nursery. Key persons speak about the children they care for confidently. Staff work collaboratively to help children make good progress. For instance, all staff in each room have access to children's individual targets. This helps staff to provide children with meaningful interactions that are relevant to their individual age and stage of development.
• Generally, staff support children to settle into the nursery well. Younger children quickly become familiar with the routines and staff's expectations. However, occasionally the strategies staff use to help children who require more support to adapt to the nursery, are not as effective. As a result, some children do not understand the routine that staff expect them to follow and struggle, particularly at times of transition.
• Managers have good oversight of the nursery and are able to accurately reflect on the provision on offer. They ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of each child who attends and addresses any gaps in children's learning experiences. They recognise the broad multi-cultural community of which they are a part of. Staff support children, using a wide range of languages and promote an inclusive environment for children to learn in. This benefits children's understanding of the wider world around them.
• Staff speak positively about the support they receive in their roles. Managers regularly assess their performance and provide them with meaningful support and targets to work towards. Staff appreciate the range of training and professional development opportunities available to them. They make the most of these opportunities and develop their knowledge further, completing in-house training as well as formal qualifications. This helps them to develop their interactions with children to an even higher standard and the manager's oversight ensures that all children receive good quality teaching.
• Parents are happy with the care their children receive. They speak highly of the strong communication about their children's progress. Staff also use the various communication methods on offer to share ideas with parents to help promote children's learning when they are away from the nursery. Staff gather a range of relevant information from the parents when children start and this helps them to plan a range of relevant and interesting activities for the children. This supports children's strong levels of engagement and enjoyment during their time at the nursery.
• Overall, children learn about good hygiene practices in the safe and clean nursery environment. They develop the skills they need to meet their own personal care needs. On occasions, staff do not promote children's ability to recognise the importance of good hygiene. For instance, they do not consistently remind children to wash their hands after using tissues to clean their nose.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to develop the strategies they use so that all children are able to understand and follow the routines in place at the nursery
• consistently promote children's understanding of the importance of following good hygiene practices.