Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery Guildford

Inclusion: Strong standard

Leaders and staff provide a welcoming and nurturing environment where all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and who face other barriers to their learning, thrive and make progress. Staff are experts at ensuring that observations are completed when children start at the nursery, with ongoing, regular assessments. This enables staff to swiftly identify children's specific needs.

Leaders carefully identify precise training opportunities to enhance staff knowledge and teaching skills. Following professional development, staff have successfully created and adapted the resources used during group times, to better meet children's needs. As a result, children are increasingly able to sustain their concentration and continue to make strong progress in their communication and language development.

Staff have developed strong relationship with parents. This helps them to continually discuss children's progress and plan interventions to support children's learning and development. Furthermore, leaders build exceptional connections with professionals, such as speech and language therapists, to address children's learning gaps. They ensure that children who may be eligible for any additional funding are supported to ensure that they can access any additional support they may need for their eventual move to school.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders have created a ambitious curriculum that focuses on children's personal, social and emotional development. Staff use assessment well to identify the skills and knowledge that they want children to learn. Overall, the curriculum is well taught and learning is well sequenced to build on what children already know and can do. Typically, this helps all children to make progress from their starting points.

Staff incorporate regular singing and story time into daily routines, enabling children to have regular exposure to different vocabulary and build on their mathematical and literacy skills. Babies wiggle and babble as they listen to familiar songs. Older children are absorbed in various stories and listen intently. This helps children to develop their expanding vocabulary. Staff weave in opportunities for children to count and compare sizes as they play. This promotes children's understanding of early mathematics in readiness for later learning. Babies have ample opportunities to develop their physical development as staff encourage them to stand and cruise around the furniture.

Staff plan activities that are engaging. They introduce new concepts to children, such as colouring mixing and planting. However, sometimes, routines take precedent over children's learning. This means that children do not always benefit from the intended learning.

Achievement: Expected standard

Typically, children make steady progress from their starting points and develop the knowledge they need for future learning, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Children develop their language and communication skills. Babies babble as they turn the pages of their familiar stories. Older children are articulate and have meaningful conversations as they play. Children demonstrate their mathematical knowledge and show a sense of pride and achievement. For example, they proudly count the seeds as they plant carrots.

Children develop their physical skills and have plenty of opportunities to develop both their small and large muscles. They grow in independence, confidently serving their food and pouring drinks, and show increasing autonomy as they choose activities and shape their play. Children know that they need to wash their hands before mealtimes, showing they understand the hygiene routines. As a result, children become increasingly independent, confident and ready for their next stage of education.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Children enjoy attending the nursery and generally engage well with the activities available. They show curiosity and interest in their play. Staff help children to develop independence through daily routines. Babies are learning to feed themselves, toddlers are confident at pouring their drinks and older children are keen to help staff set the table ready for their lunches. Children know the routines well across the nursery.

Staff have developed caring and respectful relationships with the children. Typically, staff address incidents of poor behaviour promptly, but their responses are not yet consistent. Although some staff have completed behaviour training, this is not yet fully embedded across the nursery. For instance, some staff overlook unwanted behaviour, such as children snatching toys or if there is a minor dispute. This means that staff do not typically support children to understand how their actions may affect others. Leaders recognise this as an area of development and how the staff's approach to support children's behaviour is not yet consistent across the nursery.

Leaders promote the importance of regular attendance. They monitor attendance patterns and work with families to support children's consistent routines. This helps to promote a positive attitude to future attendance at school.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Leaders and staff know the children and families who attend the nursery very well. Staff share daily feedback and find out about children's lives outside of nursery. They use this information to adapt children's care routines to align, as much as possible, with routines at home. This helps to provide continuity of care for all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. As such, babies regularly check-in with their key person when they need a little reassurance. Toddlers and older children are settled and happy in the nursery environment.

Leaders provide children with healthy and balanced meals to develop their overall physical health. Staff actively encourage children to make healthy choices. They discuss with children the positive impact that food has on their bodies, developing their interest and desire to make healthy choices. Staff manage dietary needs and allergies carefully. Older children recognise individual place mats as they help to set the tables and understand that some foods are not safe for everyone. Staff further teach younger children how to stay safe in the sun in hotter weather. This helps children to develop healthy habits for later life.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders maintain a clear focus on communication and language and inclusion in the nursery. They are highly reflective and committed to ensuring that all children access a curriculum that is ambitious and broad. Leaders plan training that is specific to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This helps all children to make progress in their learning.

Leaders prioritise staff's wellbeing by providing staff with professional development opportunities that help them to develop their practice. They ensure that any staff who are training have additional time to complete course work. Leaders are aware of how staff can become overloaded with paperwork and ensure that they have regular feedback meetings and supervision to identify any concerns. As a result, staff report feeling supported and confident in their roles. Leaders are committed. They are highly reflective of what the nursery does well and have identified the next priorities for improvement. They recognise that the teaching is not yet consistent across the nursery, particularly in some adult-led activities.

Leaders have developed secure relationships with parents. Parents praise all staff for the care they provide to their children. The comment on how the regular communication helps them to support their children's learning at home.