Overndale Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Babies and children thrive in this welcoming, friendly nursery. On arrival, caring, enthusiastic and joyful staff greet them, and children happily settle in. Staff are playful and responsive to their needs. They build warm relationships with the children, supporting them to feel happy, settled and secure. Staff plan an ambitious curriculum based on children's individual learning needs. Their innovative ideas spark children's interests and encourage them all to become involved in activities. For example, older children practise their fine motor skills, using tweezers to pick up the animal 'medicine' in the role-play vets. Children 'cook' in the outside kitchen, skilfully cutting real herbs with scissors and scooping sand with small spoons into their bowls. All children make good progress.

Managers support staff well and promote an inclusive environment to ensure consistency in children's learning throughout the nursery. Staff follow similar routines in the different age groups, building on what children already know and can do as they get older. For example, at snack time, babies are given chopped fruit, toddlers help to cut food up, and pre-school children cut up and serve their own fruit. This supports children to acquire new knowledge and skills and to build their confidence as they move through the different rooms.

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

• The strong owner/managers have high ambitions and dedicate their time to improving the nursery. They noticed that children's speech and language skills were lower after the pandemic and have made this a key focus throughout the nursery. Staff get down to children's eye level and are attentive to all children's communication. They model language and introduce new words to extend children's vocabulary. For example, staff in the baby room say 'book' and start reading when non-verbal babies hand them a book.
• Dedicated staff play alongside children, commenting and encouraging them while following their lead. In general, all areas of learning are well covered, and children have many opportunities to reinforce their learning. For example, at snack time, children know how many pieces of each item to take, as they read the number in front of each bowl and count them onto their plate. However, there are not always opportunities for children to find out more about different people and events outside of their setting to strengthen their knowledge of diversity.
• Children have many opportunities to recall previous learning, as staff skilfully question them, helping them to remember. For example, when eating apples at snack time, staff question children about where apples come from. Children explain that the 'apple tree gets blossom, which goes brown and dies, then apples grow.' Staff make learning enjoyable and interesting, and children retain the information they learn.
• Children's independence and self-care skills are evident throughout the whole nursery. Staff skilfully support children to try to do things for themselves. For example, babies get their own aprons when they want to paint. They approach staff for help with getting their apron on. Older children change themselves for physical education, with staff providing support, where needed.
• Parents speak very positively about the nursery. They love the welcoming, homely atmosphere and feel that staff and management know their children and families well. They get suggestions from staff about how they can further support their children's learning at home, including developmental milestones in their children's lives, such as toilet training.
• Staff allow children the space to take risks in their play and try out new skills. For example, young babies balance on rocks in the sensory area, carefully climbing independently. They look around and smile at staff when they get to the top, showing a sense of achievement.
• Children behave well and are kind and polite. Older children work well together to try out their ideas and develop their imaginative play. For example, children work together, lifting blocks and crates to create a 'combine harvester'. They proudly explain to adults what the different parts of their creation are and beam with happiness when staff praise their work.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• raise the quality of children's learning even further by providing more opportunities for them to find out about different people and events.