My Sunflowers Day Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children receive a warm welcome from the friendly, caring staff. They show that they are settled and happy. Staff respond sensitively to children's needs. Babies gain confidence to explore, investigate and develop their physical skills, knowing staff are close by to offer reassuring cuddles as needed. Staff successfully plan and implement a curriculum that helps children of all ages make good progress in their learning from their individual starting points. They receive good support to develop confident communication skills. Staff provide a narrative for babies' play and use songs and rhymes effectively to introduce sounds and words. They respond quickly to nonverbal communication to ensure that children's individual needs are met. Older children hold conversations, ask questions and recall past experiences.

Children preparing to move on to school gain the skills they need. They are confident, motivated to learn and independent. Staff encourage children to become independent from a young age. For example, children aged two years find their drinks bottles, collect aprons for art activities and help to tidy away resources. Children learn to play cooperatively and are well behaved. They learn to wait patiently to take turns and follow adults' instructions. For example, children line up, know to hold the hand rail as they descend the stairs and walk safely to the garden area.

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

• The management team and staff are all enthusiastic in their roles. They are positive role models, and they foster children's self-esteem well, encouraging children to take pride in their achievements.
• Management work closely with staff and foster team spirit. They implement effective induction procedures and provide good access to training. They complete regular supervision and monitor staff practice. They ably identify strengths in practice. However, they lack confidence in identifying weaknesses to help target professional development to raise the quality of teaching further.
• Key persons assess children's progress and identify gaps in their learning well. Staff in each of the nursery groups have a good awareness of children's individual needs, likes and dislikes. They interact with the children well to ensure that children have positive learning experiences. However, staff do not always use what they know about children's learning needs to challenge children as they go about their self-chosen play. For example, staff say they want older pre-school children to learn to recognise numerals but do not actively promote this when children show interest in number lines displayed outdoors.
• Children benefit from time spent outdoors. They explore the inviting outdoor play space with confidence and independence. They develop their small and large muscles as they use balance bikes, climb and take their 'babies for walks', pushing dolls' buggies. Staff provide many opportunities for children to chalk and colour. Children practise their early writing skills and give meaning to the marks they make.
• Children gain understanding of the world through some carefully planned topical activities. For example, they learn about people that help us, such as during a visit to the local hospital where they recall seeing ambulances taking poorly people to hospital. Additionally, children learn about Remembrance Day. Babies enjoy the sensory experience as they create handprint poppies. Two-year-olds search for hidden poppies in coloured rice, while older children join in the two-minute silence. The children have diverse cultural backgrounds, but staff do not actively help children to gain greater understanding of cultures, families and communities beyond their own.
• Partnerships with parents are very strong. Parents give high praise for the support they and their children receive from the staff team. They feel extremely well informed about their children's learning. They enjoy partaking in family activities suggested by staff to extend children's learning at home. For example, they had fun collecting leaves during autumn walks and talked about seasonal changes. Parents like to see photos of their children's activities and appreciate daily feedback from staff.
• Staff work proactively to develop partnerships with other settings children attend. They promote a two-way communication to ensure that their provision enhances the experiences children have elsewhere.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support and coach staff more effectively to raise the quality of teaching to enhance children's learning and development
• provide pre-school children with greater challenge during self-chosen play to effectively build on what they already know and can do
• help children to develop an understanding of other cultures, families and communities beyond their own.