Partou Ashmoor Day Nursery & Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a welcoming and friendly environment and show genuine affection towards children and their families as they arrive. Children settle quickly and explore the carefully planned activities. Staff get to know children very well during the extended settling-in sessions that they offer. This helps staff to swiftly recognise when children may need additional support. Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure as they look towards caring staff before interacting with visitors. These strong bonds show that children's emotional needs are carefully considered.

Each room has a well-planned and sequenced curriculum that builds on what children already know and can do. The committed team have high expectations for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff work exceptionally well with parents and other professionals to offer all children a consistent approach to their learning. This helps to prepare children as they move through the nursery and as they progress on to school.

Staff model good manners and expected behaviour. Children sing a 'please and thank you' song before lunchtime to help them remember to use their manners during the self-service meal. They readily make space for their friends during group circle time and praise each other for tasks well done.

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

• Stories and singing are used throughout the nursery to promote children's language skills. Staff use puppets to help children remember the order of stories. Children are encouraged to offer opinions on what happens or what could happen next. Older children learn the words and actions to a song that they are learning for their graduation celebration.
• Children have lots of opportunities to practise their mark-making skills. For instance, children take ice-cream orders. They carefully make marks to represent the flavour and toppings. Following reading a story, children are encouraged to look at the pictures on each page and to draw images from the story. This helps to prepare children for their future writing skills.
• Past activities are used to recall what children have learned. For example, children notice sand and containers on a tray. Staff encourage children to smell the liquid in one of the containers. Children identify the liquid as vinegar and, with assistance, remember the other ingredient is baking powder. Children recall how to make a 'volcano' and how mixing the vinegar and baking powder makes the volcano 'erupt'. However, at times, children are not supported to a high enough level to think for themselves to solve problems. For example, while making bracelets, the threaded beads fall off the thread. Staff tie a knot in the thread rather than encouraging children to think why they fall off and to come up with a solution.
• Children develop their physical skills in many ways. For instance, in the large and well-equipped outdoor area, children practise hitting balls with bats, kicking footballs and bouncing basketballs. Children enthusiastically play chasing games with their friends and bounce on the floor-level trampoline. Younger children enjoy trying to balance on logs and scooping sand.
• Staff constantly encourage children's early independence during daily routines. For example, older children set their own places for lunch, including pouring their own drinks. Babies confidently feed themselves using spoons. All children move around the rooms making their own decisions on what they want to play with. This shows that children are confident and comfortable in the nursery environment.
• Children's good health and hygiene routines are promoted. For example, older children independently wash their hands after using the toilet and before eating. They recognise when they need to wipe their nose and know to dispose of the used tissue afterwards. Babies learn to wash their hands and faces after eating and all children brush their teeth to encourage good oral health.
• Overall, the deployment of staff is good. Children are engaged in both adult-led activities and activities of their own choosing. However, on occasion, less experienced staff or those lacking confidence struggle to manage the demands of groups of children. This means that, at these times, children's needs are not always met.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• expand on questioning techniques to support children to think for themselves and develop their problem-solving skills
• review staffing arrangements to ensure children always benefit from consistently high-quality practice.