Nippers Nursery (Yorkshire) Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are excited as they enter this exceptionally well-resourced and vibrant nursery. Children of all ages show the highest levels of confidence and self-esteem as they immediately settle. The eagerness of children wanting their day to begin demonstrates how extremely safe and secure they feel in the nursery.

Children relish the learning opportunities the extensive outdoor area offers. They show determination to succeed and a can-do attitude to their learning as they play. Younger children carefully hold magnifying glasses as they move very slowly across the ground, searching for spiders and other bugs. Older children look for worms. Children show exceptional care and consideration as they gently place the worms onto their hands to watch them move. The intense concentration of children shows their fascination for the natural world and respect for living creatures in the environment.

Babies delight in developing their physical skills. They learn how to manoeuvre their bodies and use large brushes to paint fences. They work out how to balance as they bend down to put water on their brushes. Babies persist with their movements until they become upright and steady, before stretching their arms out to continue their painting. The look of delight on babies' faces at their achievements is a joy to see.

Behaviour is excellent. Children show high levels of respect and consideration for others. They happily welcome other children into their play, sharing resources and explaining what they are doing. Babies sit together, contentedly exploring resources they pass to each other.

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

• Staff confidently discuss where children are in their learning and what they want them to learn next. They plan activities to support children with their future development. For example, staff encourage children to carefully search through rice to find the hidden 'jewels'. They describe how this activity helps to develop children's small-muscle skills and their early mark-making skills.
• The development of children's self-care and independence skills are a key feature of the nursery. For example, staff ensure children know why they need to wash their hands before eating. At mealtimes, children willingly wait their turn to pour their own drinks and serve their own food. Children automatically clear their plates away when they have finished eating.
• Partnership with parents is excellent. Parents are particularly complimentary of the support given by staff throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They comment on staff's dedication in providing resources and ideas to support their children's learning at home. This enabled children who missed being in the nursery to quickly settle back in and their development to continue to flourish.
• Staff are creative in the ways in which they encourage children to learn about diversity and other cultures. For example, parents bring food and clothing into the nursery to enable children to join in with celebrating different festivals and cultural events.
• The management team have a clear vision for future developments at the nursery. For example, they have plans in place to continue the ongoing changes to the outdoor area to further support children's development. The management team highly value the staff and involve them in every aspect of the continuous improvement to the nursery.
• Staff talk clearly to children as they play. They use the correct pronunciation and introduce new words to help children extend their vocabulary. For example, as children use play dough, staff talk about the 'crescent' and 'curved' shapes they are cutting. However, staff do not consistently ask questions that encourage children to extend their ideas and to think and problem solve.
• Staff use routines and activities to support children's developing mathematical language. For example, as children play with water, staff talk about containers being 'full, half full' and 'empty'. However, staff are not consistent in encouraging children to use numbers and counting in their play, to extend their learning to a higher level.
• Partnership with local schools is of the utmost importance to the management team and staff. They share information about children's development with their feeder schools. Staff hope, with the lifting of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, to restart teachers visiting the nursery. This helps children to be prepared to enter the next phase of their learning.
• Staff are immensely proud to belong to this vibrant nursery. They are passionate about their work. Helping children to flourish and achieve is at the heart of everything the management team and staff do.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the already good teaching further by consistently asking children questions in a way that encourages them to further develop their learning
• support staff to develop consistency in using numbers and counting during children's play and routines.