Nik-Naks Daycare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are settled and content at this nursery. Staff build positive relationships with children and their families. They engage with children in generally positive interactions throughout the day. Children are calm and behave well. They cooperate with daily routines, including circle times, snack and main meals and sleep times. Staff promote the nursery rules consistently, and they encourage positive behaviour. They teach pre-school children about a range of emotions, including how to recognise, express and regulate them. As required, staff manage challenging behaviours appropriately and in clear communication with parents and relevant professionals. This helps children to gain confidence and good social skills.

The management team has clear priorities for the curriculum. The environment is generally well resourced and organised throughout. Children benefit from a broad range of activities and experiences. Babies enjoy investigating the sensory texture of sand. They also engage in small-group role-play games such as caring for baby dolls. Toddlers delight in making play dough with staff in a small group. They take turns and learn new language as key vocabulary is introduced to describe the texture such as the word 'sticky'. Pre-school children make their own play choices freely. They enjoy drawing on the art easels, building with construction resources and playing board games with staff. All children make good progress in their learning.

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

• The premises are secure, clean and safe. Managers and staff are knowledgeable about and fully understand their safeguarding duties. Managers understand how to manage any complaints raised with them. Records are accurate, including accident and incident paperwork, and shared with relevant parties as required.
• The management team provides staff with support and plenty of training opportunities. However, due to occasional dips in teaching quality, there is scope to build further on staff's skills. The management team has plans to monitor staff's teaching practice more closely, but these are not yet embedded in practice.
• The curriculum is good. Staff know children well. They observe and assess their learning routinely. Staff plan activities and promote children's learning through their interests. This helps ensure all children gain the key skills they need to move on to the next stage of learning and eventually school.
• The management team monitors children's progress and has an overview of this. It ensures staff rapidly identify children requiring additional help. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from targeted support plans. Staff work especially closely with these parents and engage positively with a range of external professionals. All children benefit from appropriate support.
• Communication and language are a key focus in this nursery. Babies enjoy reading books with staff. Toddlers love engaging in active singing and dance sessions. Pre-schoolers sit and listen during whole-group sessions where they read and recall familiar stories and sing songs with instruments.
• Staff promote children's physical skills well. For example, babies build strong physical muscles as they climb up and slide down on the indoor apparatus with staff support. Toddlers love the opportunity to enjoy physical play on a bouncy castle under close supervision outside. Pre-school children line up and carefully throw bean bags at a stack of cups with precision to knock them down during a spontaneous game inside.
• Staff manage children's care needs sensitively, and they are very flexible in their approach. For example, an individualised food menu is provided as needed. Children learn about the importance of being healthy and keeping themselves well in varied ways.
• Children have opportunities to learn about the local community and the wider world. For example, they routinely visit the local library to choose books and a nearby charity shop to purchase resources. They have recently enjoyed a picnic in the park and a trip to a transport museum as well.
• The management team promote positive parent engagement. Staff routinely talk to parents and share information with them about children's time at nursery. During graduation, they welcome parents to celebrate their children's time with them. Parents comment that their children gain a lot from attending and become the best versions of themselves.
• The management team is ambitious and strives to promote the best outcomes for all children. However, there is room to enhance communication between the management and staff team. Staff do not routinely take an active role in reflecting on the quality of the provision. This does not help them share leaders' priorities for improvement to help them reach and achieve their goals.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• embed the arrangements to monitor staff's teaching practice more closely to help disseminate excellent practice throughout the team
• enhance communication between the management and staff team and support staff to reflect on and share leaders' vision for the nursery to help promote the best outcomes for all children.