Mulberry Garden

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The owner/manager has worked hard to improve the quality of the provision. The manager and staff have high aspirations for children and know what they want them to learn. Staff implement a curriculum that ignites children's curiosity to support them to make good progress in their learning. Staff identify and target any delays in children's development. Staff work proactively with parents and other professionals to provide children with extra support to help them catch up.

Staff are caring and friendly. Children demonstrate they are happy and settled, build good relationships with staff and behave well. Children are motivated to make choices in their learning and confidently chat to staff about their play.

Overall, staff support children well to engage in play with others, in readiness for the next stage in their education. For example, babies enjoy rolling balls to each other and take turns to put toy vehicles through different tubes. Staff praise them for their efforts to encourage them to keep trying and to raise their levels of self-esteem. Toddlers develop their imaginations such as when they dress up and pretend to be a nurse and take staff's temperature. Older children become absorbed in activities and play collaboratively together. For example, they thoroughly enjoy a 'bug hunt' in the garden. They talk to each other about where they might find the different creatures so that they can tick them off their picture charts.

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

• The manager has addressed the actions from the last inspection. She has made changes to increase staff's confidence to deliver a curriculum that builds on what children need to learn next. She has improved one-to-one meetings with staff to support their professional development. This includes working alongside the local authority to provide staff with ongoing training, support and coaching to develop their knowledge and skills. In addition, there are now appropriate resources available to support children's personal care routines.
• Staff support children's communication and language skills effectively. Staff get down to children's eye level, model language clearly and introduce new words to extend their vocabulary. Staff provide a narrative for babies and talk to them during routines such as nappy changing. Children enthusiastically join in with songs and actions. Staff engage young children's interests, for example, by using props to develop their listening and attention skills. Toddlers are captivated and giggle with delight as staff manipulate a toy giraffe to make its flashing neck move 'from short to long'.
• Staff organise activities that spark children's interest. Older children enjoy experimenting with 'bath bombs' in the water tray. Staff encourage them to recall their prior experiences of bath-time at home to consolidate their learning. They encourage children to talk about the feel of a dissolving 'bath bomb' and to make predictions such as which will be the last one to dissolve. However, staff do not extend children's critical-thinking skills even further, for example, by encouraging them to think about why this may happen.
• Children develop their independence and self-care skills. Older babies learn to help themselves to drinks of water. Toddlers and pre-school children serve themselves food and clear away their plates. However, at times, the organisation of mealtimes does not benefit all children as well as possible. For example, some toddlers wait too long to eat, and staff do not always make the most of mealtimes to support all older children's social skills.
• Staff promote children's early literacy skills effectively. Babies competently use felt-tip pens to create artwork and enjoy sharing books with staff. Staff encourage toddlers to turn pages and talk about what they can see in the pictures. Older children thoroughly enjoy recalling and re-enacting a story about a bear hunt.
• Children benefit from plenty of fresh air and outdoor play. However, occasionally in the upper garden, staff do not build on some older children's knowledge and skills to extend learning to the highest level. Nevertheless, babies demonstrate confidence and control as they move around by using a variety of equipment. Children explore water and sand, sharing and taking turns with various containers and utensils. Older children exert themselves and make decisions during keep-fit sessions such as choosing to do 'star jumps' and a running race.
• Parents speak positively about the friendly manager and staff and the changes introduced since the last inspection. They state their children enjoy attending the nursery and are developing well.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• build on staff's professional development to further increase the quality of their interactions with children to the highest level
• review the organisation of mealtimes to enhance children's experiences and social skills.