Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff provide a calm and happy environment that prioritises children's safety and well-being. There is an effective key-person system. This ensures that children are greeted by familiar and welcoming staff, who help them to settle and feel secure. Children quickly develop affectionate and nurturing relationships with staff, they show that they feel at ease and are ready to learn. For example, babies enjoy looking at books with staff. They are keen to discover new words and point eagerly to the pictures, confident that staff will respond positively to them.

Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. Overall, they use consistent methods to help children understand behavioural boundaries. For instance, they remind children about their 'golden rules', such as doing 'good listening' and using 'kind hands'. Children listen to staff, follow the daily routines and play nicely with others.

Staff place good emphasis on what children need to learn before they start school. For example, they teach children from an early age to manage their personal care, health and hygiene. Staff provide a range of focused learning experiences for older children as they prepare for their future learning. These help children to develop early literacy skills, such as pencil control and to learn about shapes, measurements and numbers in different contexts.

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

• Leaders are committed to providing high standards of childcare. They recognise that a happy and skilled staff team is key to this. Therefore, staff supervision sessions and training are a priority. Staff describe how leaders have inspired them to gain or improve their qualifications and skills. They say the setting is like a 'second home' and they feel well supported, both personally and professionally.
• Staff monitor children's progress across all areas of their learning to identify any gaps within their development. They seek advice and support from other professionals if children need additional help with learning. Staff provide targeted support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, such as one-to-one sessions to enhance their language and social skills. This strong partnership working helps all children to make good progress from their starting points.
• The support for children's language and communication skills is a strength. Staff incorporate opportunities for children to practise speaking and listening throughout the activities. They introduce a wide range of words, to help children develop broad vocabularies. Children become confident communicators and express themselves effectively. They love to sing and happily join in with their favourite stories.
• Overall, children develop good independence in the nursery. For instance, babies and toddlers learn to wash their hands and to feed themselves. Older children serve their own food at mealtimes and scrape their plates afterwards. However, staff do not always plan the learning environment for older children effectively, to support them in making independent choices about their play.
• Staff value the diversity of children's cultures and backgrounds. They ensure that the routines and activities reflect children's experiences and the languages that they speak at home. For example, parents contribute family recipes to add to the nursery menus. Children enjoy stories and activities, which teach them about the variety of cultures in Britain and around the world. They show a positive appreciation of their similarities and differences to others, as they greet each other and sing songs in different languages.
• Staff provide some support for children to understand and manage their emotions. For instance, they read books about feelings and have created cosy spaces, where children can go if they feel overwhelmed. However, staff do not consistently help children to understand how their strong emotions and behaviour can affect others, as part of learning to regulate their actions.
• Leaders and staff work hard to develop strong and effective partnerships with parents. They ensure that there is a continuous exchange of information about children, to support consistent care and learning experiences. Parents speak highly of staff and how they closely attend to their children's individual needs. They appreciate opportunities to be involved in the nursery, such as by reading to children and attending special events.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review and improve the organisation of the learning environment for older children, to further promote their independent play and learning choices
• support staff to provide more consistent guidance for children about emotions, to help them understand their own feelings and how their actions may affect others.