Oak Valley Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and busy in this caring and supportive nursery. They make good progress overall and are well prepared for the next stage of their learning, including starting school. Babies make a positive start to their learning from the individual starting points in development. They build strong bonds with the staff who care for them and smoothly settle into the well-considered routines.

Leaders and staff systematically develop children's skills, knowledge and understanding as they move through nursery. For example, staff help babies to develop their self-awareness and sense of touch through peekaboo games with different coloured fabrics. Older children build on their movement control and awareness of shape and colour. For example, they learn to mix primary colours and paint large and small pictures.

Children behave very well. They rise to staff's high expectations. For instance, children politely listen to each other as they remind each other of the golden rules and choose activities together. Children learn to assess their own risks. For instance, they develop their physical skills by designing and using increasingly challenging stepping stone and obstacle courses. Parents and carers appreciate that their children are positively helped to be happy, confident and independent.

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

• Leaders and staff have high expectations overall for children's development at every stage of their learning. The curriculum is designed to progressively develop children's achievements as they advance through nursery. However, staff do not always deepen and extend children's learning fully. For example, sometimes the use of man-made resources rather than the real-life natural objects they represent limits children's development of sensory experiences and expressive language.
• The nursery supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. They identify areas in children's learning and development that need attention at an early stage. Leaders make good use of staff's skills and collaborate with other professionals, such as psychological services and speech therapists, to focus on children's development to maximise their progress.
• Staff promote and value children's communication skills strongly, and they value these as the key to effective learning. Staff help babies to listen to others and to begin to express their desires through physical actions, sounds and early speech. Staff engage children in conversations as they play to model and expand their language skills. They spark children's interest in letters and words through the 'word of the week', songs and games.
• Staff positively promote children's engagement with books and songs to support their development in many areas of learning. They offer children a carefully planned selection of fiction and non-fiction to introduce new vocabulary and experiences. Staff read stories regularly in engaging ways that enhance children's concentration and anticipation. They introduce children to memorable words and phrases that support their understanding of the world and communication skills.
• Staff nurture children's personal development, independence and social skills from the start of their nursery experience. Staff support children's emotional well-being and encourage their self-awareness and increasing resilience in, for example, completing tasks and tidying away. Children learn about democratic decision-making by voting for stories and other activities they would like to do during the day.
• Staff help children to behave well and understand how they can help others. Leaders and staff are positive role models. For example, children learn how to wait their turn, talk to each other politely and increasingly help each other to serve the nutritious meals the nursery provides.
• Leaders are ambitious for children to leave the nursery happy, confident and eager to learn. They review and evaluate the quality of provision to guide developments, including working with other early years professionals from the management organisation and the local authority. Leaders support staff well to develop their professional skills, and morale is high.
• Staff work closely with parents to support children's learning. Parents recommend the nursery. They warmly appreciate the regular information on children's activities through conversations, daily diaries and opportunities, such as workshops, to support their children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to more consistently deepen and extend children's learning, including through real-life and natural experiences, and evaluate the impact on their progress.