Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery Olympia

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff provide a warm and welcoming environment where children happily arrive and settle quickly at their chosen activity. Children confidently explore the resources on offer and make choices in their play. Effective settling-in processes support children to build strong relationships with staff. Staff are very kind and nurturing towards the children, and as a result, children demonstrate they feel safe and secure and are ready to learn.

Leaders and staff have a good understanding of their curriculum. They know the children well and closely observe and monitor their learning. From here, they plan a range of exciting activities around children's interests to support their continued progress. For example, young babies delight in exploring different textures, such as foam, mud and sand. They manipulate it with their hands, make different marks and fill and empty containers to support their physical development. Staff support children's behaviour effectively. They give lots of gentle reminders about sharing and turn-taking, and they create class rules with the older children. As a result, children listen well and help at tidy-up time. They are kind and caring towards each other and demonstrate a positive attitude towards learning.

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

• Staff have recently completed training around the curriculum and their understanding of how children learn. This results in the intent of their activities improving since the last inspection. Staff confidently describe what children need to do next and how they are going to support them. Children delight in using tongs or spoons to transfer chickpeas into different containers. Staff explain this is to support their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, which, in the long run, will help to develop their early writing skills.
• Leaders and staff closely monitor children's development and quickly identify any gaps in children's learning. They work effectively with other professionals and parents and put strategies in place to minimise these gaps. As a result, all children make good progress and are well prepared for the next stage in their learning.
• Staff have recently introduced new ways of supporting children's self-regulation. They use a range of stories and activities to encourage children to learn how to express how they feel, matching it to a colour or an expression. Staff talk to children about different strategies they can use and encourage older children to manage it themselves.
• Staff are well supported by leaders who value the well-being of their team. Leaders complete regular peer observations and invite staff to supervision meetings to discuss their progress and professional development.
• At times, staff stop babies when they are engrossed in play and introduce activities that they are not interested in. This results in babies being unengaged or disinterested in what they are being encouraged to do and hinders them from following their own interests.
• Leaders and staff build strong relationships with parents and keep them up to date with their children's learning. For example, staff share photos and reports on an online app that parents can access at home. Parents are invited to attend regular coffee mornings, meetings and events. Staff provide parents with guidance for topics such as potty training or reading to support families at home.
• Overall, staff support children's early communication skills well. They engage with children at their level, speak clearly and ask questions to extend children's learning. However, at times, staff do not fully give children a chance to think and respond with their ideas when they ask them questions.
• Leaders and staff regularly reflect on their practice. They look at what is working well and what they could do to improve outcomes for children. They take into account feedback from other professionals, parents and staff. For example, after recent menu changes, they looked at what children liked and adapted their menus to support their needs.
• At times, staff do not organise transitions effectively to maintain children's engagement and focus. For example, babies wait too long for meals to arrive and become unsettled and distracted.
• Staff encourage children to develop their independence skills effectively. For instance, younger children learn to feed themselves and make choices in their play. Older children confidently serve themselves, pour their own drinks and manage their own hygiene routines.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to increase experiences for babies to follow their own interests and ideas to support their learning
• enhance staff's teaching skills to allow children sufficient time to respond to questions to fully enhance their learning
• help staff to review how some transitions in daily routines are organised to ensure all children stay engaged and do not lose interest.