Old MacDonald's Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are confident learners. They are eager to talk about their activities, such as when they make cakes with play dough and decorate them with 'candles' and sprinkles. Older children demonstrate high levels of curiosity. They explore their natural environment, hunting for minibeasts and finding out about their distinguishing features. Younger children show good concentration as they play games with their key person, such as 'What's in the box?' They smile as they discover hidden items, such as a star, banana and ball.

Children develop secure attachments with their key person. Young children benefit from positive interactions with them during nappy changes. These help to promote their developing communication and language. They seek comfort and cuddles from their key person after waking from their sleep time. Older children have the reassurance that their key person is nearby as they learn to using the toilet independently.

Children benefit from a range of exciting activities, which help to prepare them for their future learning. For example, they learn to persevere, independently squeezing pegs and placing them on fabrics, to make dens during forest school activities. Children learn to keep themselves safe. For instance, they learn about sun safety and the need to wear hats and sunscreen.

Children behave well. They benefit from consistent praise from staff to recognise their efforts and achievements.

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

• During COVID-19, staff have swiftly identified children's learning needs. For example, during periods spent at home, staff kept in touch with parents. They sent forms home for parents to complete to find out about children's experiences. This has enabled staff to identify a need to support children's physical development further.
• Staff provide positive opportunities for children to learn about how they are unique. For instance, children learn about 'Finland'. They learn Finnish terms and taste traditional Finnish foods, such as Blueberry pie, that their friends eat at home. This helps children to learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others.
• Children demonstrate their positive attitudes to learning through their enjoyment of their activities. For instance, they draw on their prior knowledge to explain to others what seeds need to grow. They cooperate with others, making decisions and independently planting seeds to look after.
• Managers ensure that their provision is highly inclusive. For example, they actively liaise with a range of professionals, such as the nursing team, occupational therapy and speech and language support. This helps them to ensure that staff have the required training to support children's individual needs.
• Staff develop extremely positive relationships with staff at settings that children transfer to, such as schools. For example, they encourage receiving teachers to visit nursery. In particular, this has a positive impact for children with special educational needs and or disabilities. Teachers find out about strategies that they will need to implement to support children in their successful transfer.
• Staff have a clear understanding of what they want children to learn. However, on occasion, they are not fully effective in using the spaces and resources available to help implement the curriculum. For example, they do not make full use of rooms available for their age range, when the learning environment becomes excessively loud. At times, the quality of children's experience and their attitudes to learning are affected by the rising noise level and regular interruptions from other groups of staff and children.
• Managers give high priority to staff well-being. They implement a range of support systems to help staff retain a good work-life balance and feel valued. For example, staff report that they have regular 'well-being catch ups'. They talk about time provided during the working day for them to complete activities related to childcare qualifications that they complete. Staff also enjoy complementary relaxation activities, such as yoga.
• Managers ensure that procedures are in place to support staff practice. However, these are not yet fully effective in raising the quality of staff interactions with children to a consistently high level across all parts of the nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff and help them to recognise when and how to use the spaces and resources within nursery to enable them to deliver the curriculum more effectively
• strengthen opportunities to share best practice between staff within each age range and raise the quality of staff interactions with children to a consistently higher level across the nursery.