New Horizons Day Care LTD

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have developed strong bonds with staff, who provide a welcoming and secure environment where children feel safe. Staff are kind and nurturing, helping children to develop good levels of self-confidence. Children manage their personal care well. They understand how sensible hygiene routines contribute to their good health. In the baby room, staff use every opportunity to engage babies in good quality interaction, which is crucial in supporting their emerging communication skills.

Staff plan good opportunities for outdoor play for children to develop their physical skills. Children enthusiastically scoop and dig in the sand and scoot along energetically on ride-on toys. Staff support them well as they try to climb the steps of the climbing frame, encouraging children to persevere.

Staff in the baby room, provide warm, consistent care and respond quickly to babies' needs. They make sure they stay close by, providing babies with a sense of security. Children's behaviour is good. They follow the good example set by staff, who gently remind them of the rules about sharing and taking turns. Staff praise children's efforts and this helps build their confidence and reinforces their positive attitudes to learning.

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

• Since the last inspection, the provider has worked with the local authority to improve the quality of education for young children. Some staff are new to the team, and they benefit from a clear induction to help them understand their role and responsibilities.
• All children benefit from a curriculum designed to help them build on their developing knowledge and skills. Staff have a good understanding of their children and use this knowledge to help them plan for each child's individual learning needs. In addition, they liaise with other professionals where appropriate and this helps them to decide what to teach children.
• Children are highly independent for their young age. They competently manage their personal needs, putting on their coats for outdoor play with minimal support. Staff show children how to complete simple tasks and this helps children to master new skills. For example, after mealtimes children clear their plates away and stack them ready for washing. Sometimes, staff do not consistently engage with children to enhance the social aspect of mealtimes.
• Babies practise their growing physical skills as they crawl to explore the inviting space. Staff have arranged the furniture to support and encourage babies' drive to stand and walk. Low-level shelving enables babies to easily choose what they want to play with.
• Partnerships with parents are well established and valued. Parents provide very positive comments about their children's experiences at the nursery. They say that staff are approachable and share good information about their children. Parents also say that staff are very supportive, particularly during the settling-in period, which they found so reassuring
• Staff encourage children's communication skills through purposeful interaction. Children eagerly engage in simple conversations because staff get down to their level, ensuring they pronounce words correctly, and ask questions that develop children's thinking.
• Children join in with great enthusiasm, singing familiar songs and rhymes, which provide them with good opportunities to use their voices. They enjoy listening to stories and staff encourage them to think what happens next. Babies bounce up and down with delight as staff sing songs to them.
• The provider offers effective supervision, ensuring staff have regular opportunities for training to enhance their practice. Staff work well together and there is a strong team spirit. They say they feel valued and supported to do a good job. However, the provider has not fully established ways to help staff deepen their knowledge about how to deliver the curriculum content, so that it continually improves the learning experiences of children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to model and guide the social aspect of mealtimes to enhance children's experience
• build on the already good practice and seek further ways to help all staff deepen their knowledge of how to deliver the curriculum content.