Over the Moon Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff have created an environment which is welcoming for children and their families. As children arrive, they choose from a wide range of activities. They chatter happily with staff with whom they build strong relationships with. Staff gather information about children's likes and interests and plan activities around these. This helps children to settle and feel safe and secure.

The curriculum is well designed to consider children's current interests as well as their individual stages of development. Children show high levels of engagement at their chosen tasks and are curious and keen to try new experiences. Staff are good role models and provide children with plenty of positive praise. This helps to raise children's self-esteem and confidence. As a result, children behave well and show they know what is expected of them.

Staff have high expectations of children. They encourage them to be independent with self-care tasks, such as handwashing and wiping their own noses. This helps children develop their confidence and an understanding of their personal needs. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well. Staff work with other agencies and parents to ensure that referrals and individual support plans are in place.

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

• Leaders and managers support staff well. New staff receive a thorough induction to ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities. Staff receive effective one-to-one sessions and daily team meetings. Managers observe staff to identify training needs and provide them with feedback on how to improve their practice. Staff are positive about the training opportunities available to them.
• Support for children's mathematical development is a strength of the nursery. Staff make good use of opportunities while children are playing, to support their understanding of numbers and quantities. For example, staff ask children how many objects they have. They extend this by asking how many there are when they add one more or take one away. This supports children to learn about simple mathematical concepts.
• Overall, children's communication and language is supported well. Through daily group times, children are building conversation skills and understanding when to listen and wait for their turn to talk. Children are confident to share what they enjoy doing at the nursery. However, at times, staff do not give children the time they need to answer questions and are quick to give children solutions to problems. This does not fully support children to develop their critical thinking skills.
• Children learn about leading a healthy lifestyle. They explore a range of activities and equipment in the garden that supports their physical development. For example, children laugh as they run and jump to pop the bubbles in the garden. They develop their fine motor skills as they use brushes and water to draw pictures on the fence and chalk board. Children are excited to water the fruit and vegetables and talk about how they planted the seeds and care for the plants to make them grow.
• Staff know the children well. Through regular observations and assessments, they plan for children's next steps. However, when a child's key person is not present, other staff are not always aware of children's next steps and do not plan effectively for this. This means, at these times, planning does not always support children's individual learning needs.
• Staff plan activities to support children's understanding of the world around them. Regular walks help children to learn about their local community and people that help us, such as the police. Children learn about life cycles as they care for eggs and watch the chick's hatch. This enables children to gain an understanding about nature and have hands on experience of caring for living things.
• Staff work in partnership with parents to ensure all relevant information is shared. They provide parents with regular feedback about what their children have been doing and their progress. This enables parents and staff to work together to meet children's needs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to more consistently encourage children to problem solve for themselves and further extend their learning
• plan more precisely for individual children's next steps to enable them to make the progress they are capable of.