Mumbles Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at this nursery. Managers welcome them at the door, and staff collect their key children. They benefit from good attachments with staff who are responsible for them. Staff listen to children's needs and respect their decisions as they are offered choices during lunch. Babies snuggle into staff when they are upset, and toddlers and pre-school children are encouraged to share and take turns. For example, when children want to use the same resources, staff explain how to resolve conflicts appropriately. Staff support children's emotional development well, which promotes good levels of behaviour.

Children access a wide range of resources, which they do with confidence. Babies and toddlers explore a number of sensory opportunities, including varied materials and shaving foam. Pre-school children explore sand, water and play dough independently. Staff chat to them, listen to their thoughts and respond to their questions enthusiastically. All children, especially those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, receive the support they need to ensure they make good progress

Pre-school children learn about healthy lifestyles by taking part in the nursery 'farm to fork' initiative. This includes growing their own vegetables, which are used to create their snacks and meals that they help prepare. Babies and toddlers have lots of opportunities to build on their physical development in an adjoining outdoor area. Pre-school children also benefit from engaging in different experiences, such as yoga, dance and forest school.

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

• Leaders and managers have clear intentions for their ambitious curriculum. They know what they want children to learn, which builds in a spiral model from one room to the next. For example, pre-school children enjoy building on previous knowledge about space to create and make rockets for science week using a wide range of materials.
• Managers understand the importance of communication and language development for young children. They have robust systems in place to spot and support those with delayed development. However, babies do not benefit from a consistently language-rich environment. On occasion, staff sometimes place too much emphasis on getting through the daily routine and managing babies care needs. Therefore, at times, they offer babies little back-and-forth verbal interactions to fully extend their learning.
• Children across the nursery enjoy sharing stories. Babies snuggle into staff as they read together, and pre-school children share stories in a group with staff. This helps to develop children's communication, language and literacy skills.
• The setting has strong links with the local community centre. Children attend charity coffee mornings and use the community bus to visit local experiences, such as the 'monkey forest'. This helps to develop children's understanding of people and the wider world.
• Staff share plenty of information with parents about children's care and well-being. Parents are invited to regular curriculum workshops, and their thoughts are gathered to inform changes within the nursery. Although staff do share information with parents about children's individual learning at nursery and the progress they are making, it is not exactly clear and concise. This does not help parents to be able to fully use it to build further on this at home.
• Personal, social and emotional development is a priority at this nursery due to the recognised impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Key-person arrangements are good. All children are allocated a key worker, and they establish good bonds with children. This helps children to develop confidence and independence.
• Managers and leaders prioritise the team. Staff engage in continued professional development to help them build their knowledge and skills. Regular supervisions contribute to staff well-being, which ensures staff can support children.
• Managers are very reflective. They can identify their key strengths and any weaknesses in practice. Their dedication to reflection means that teaching and learning are continually monitored. For example, they have recently identified that the transitions between the baby room and toddler room are not swift enough. They understand that this means the baby room is a bit overcrowded, and some babies who are developmentally ready need to move on earlier than two-years old. Therefore, they have plans to rectify this, which includes changing the age ranges of children within the baby and toddler room. However, these are yet to be implemented effectively in practice.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to provide babies with a consistently language-rich environment that offers plenty of back-and-forth verbal interactions to fully extend their learning
• communicate information about children's development with parents more clearly and concisely so that they can better support and extend their children's learning at home
• implement the plans to review the organisation for transitions between the baby and toddler room so that children who are ready developmentally to move on can do so promptly.