New Brighton Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and are quick to become busily engaged in inspiring play. They are extremely eager to join in activities that ignite their curiosity and deep thinking. With gentle guidance from staff, children persist and try hard as they experiment with paints to work out how to make green. Children demonstrate patience and positive attitudes to the world around them. They carefully search for insects and talk at length about spiders and woodlice. Staff skilfully join in with children's investigations. They provide appropriate challenge to extend children's knowledge.

Children have an exceptional sense of self-confidence. They talk in detail about their play dough creations. Without prompt, children recollect key features of favourite stories and facts in books. They show great enthusiasm for learning as they take part and have a go at new things. Because children are highly engaged in purposeful play, their behaviour is excellent. Older children are polite towards each other. They are superb at listening to instructions from each other and adults. Children take pride in their nursery. They show delight as they proudly present their creations to parents in a special art gallery celebration. Babies confidently explore their surroundings and practise their new physical skills. Right from when babies first start, they settle very well because staff are highly nurturing.

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

• Staff adopt a curriculum that helps children to develop new skills over time. All areas of learning are supported very well. Nature-based learning and developing children's self-expression, confidence and creativity are key features of this nursery's curriculum. Children participate in rich, hands-on activities as part of forest school. They visit the beach to explore and investigate sea life and nature. Children have many opportunities to create art and develop their early writing and drawing skills.
• Children develop a deep understanding of how they feel and their emotions. They learn how to respond with appropriate behaviours based on how they feel. Babies explore what their face looks like in mirrors when they are happy or sad. Older children learn about emotions, such as calm and angry. Staff use stories and discussion in small groups to help children to identify what emotions are and link colours to how children feel. Children express themselves well in their drawings. They discuss their own prior experiences and link this to new learning.
• Overall, staff know their key children very well. They consider specific next steps in learning for each child and support their development well. However, staff who are temporarily covering the key-person role are not clear about what they want children to learn. On occasion, staff do not build on what children know and can do.
• Children who need extra help are identified very quickly. Staff sensitively support children who may struggle at times, for example when following the nursery routines and expected behaviours. Staff are patient and calm in their interactions and follow plans to provide support. They work tirelessly with external professionals and use appropriate strategies to help to close any gaps in children's development.
• The provider strives for 'excellence in early education'. Following a period of staff changes, they have recently restructured the leadership team. This enables leaders to provide more targeted and specific support for staff in their professional development. Staff particularly appreciate having well-being reviews and they feel supported in their work. A vast amount of training is provided for all staff to complete further qualifications. This continually improves the quality of their teaching over time. Staff recently completed training on sign language, to support younger children's communication skills.
• Parents speak extremely positively about the professionalism of the nursery staff. They say that staff 'go to great efforts' to make their children feel included. Parents are very well informed about what their children are learning. They receive regular updates via an online journal. They comment on the superb resources and activities provided for children that excite them while they learn. Parents say, 'We love it here. It is so personal.'

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen information-sharing to ensure that all children receive personalised and specific support and teaching at all times, including when their key person is absent.