Partou Radcliffe Road Day Nursery & Pre-School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are excited to learn in the vibrant environment staff create. They enjoy a wide variety of resources and learning experiences, including exploring items in the sandpit. Children develop their hand muscles while digging and patting sand into different objects, imagining they are cakes. They learn the names of different-shaped tins and new words they can use to describe quantities, such as 'half full'. Children confidently share their ideas with staff about the flavour of their cakes. They listen closely to staff's instructions while searching for natural objects to place on top of their cakes, such as bark to resemble carrots. Staff encouragement motivates children to invite their friends to join their play, and they happily share resources. They all giggle, as a child pretends to cook the cakes 'quicker' with 'magic electricity'.

Children have strong relationships with all staff. They are happy to ask questions and seek a reassuring cuddle when needed. Children are eager to try things for themselves from a young age. For example, children in the baby room persevere to pull a musical instrument out of a basket when it is stuck. They clap and smile with staff, showing they are proud of their achievement. Children behave extremely well. They line up and patiently listen for staff to call their name before entering the garden. They are polite to one another and independently use the phrases please and thank you when responding to others.

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

• Since the last inspection, leaders have taken the relevant steps to ensure the premises are safe when visitors arrive. They ensure documents are now securely stored.
• Staff work closely as a team and alongside parents and carers to identify what children already know and can do. They also find out about the experiences children have at home. Staff use this information to carefully plan activities and the learning environment, to support children to build on their existing knowledge and skills.
• Leaders have a clear ethos and vision for how they want staff to support children to learn within the setting. However, some staff do not fully understand this and are not consistent in their approach to children's learning. Consequently, at times, children do not receive the same opportunities to learn. For example, while exploring water outside, some staff encourage children to tip and pour water freely on a slide and practise sliding down it, but other staff discourage this, warning children they might get too wet.
• Staff take into account children's interests and the new knowledge they want them to learn when they plan engaging activities for children. Children show deep concentration as they use different tools to peel clay from around a pretend dinosaur egg, to reveal a selection of baby dinosaurs. Staff encourage children to hold extensive conversations, using information they learned previously, including about a dinosaur with a long neck, which it needs to reach trees to eat leaves like a giraffe. Staff teach children new vocabulary, such as 'extinct', and discuss what they think it would feel like to meet dinosaurs in real life. Children exclaim it would be 'a disaster'.
• Overall, staff interact well with children and support them to develop their communication skills. Staff play alongside the youngest children, repeating key words, and reply to children's babbling using simple phrases. They name objects and sounds, including 'ball' and 'running water', that children try to copy. However, some staff have not developed their interactions to the same high quality. At times, they use too many direct questions and focus their communication on the end product of an activity rather than the learning taking place. Therefore, at times, interactions do not support children to make the progress they are capable of.
• Staff teach children how to take care of themselves and their belongings. They help children to put resources back when they have finished with them and explain how to treat resources with respect. Staff help children to find their bags and get a change of clothes after getting wet splashing in puddles outside.
• Staff help very young children to pass resources to each other and understand the concept of sharing. They praise children for noticing that this makes their friends happy and encourage them to develop a caring nature.
• Parents comment positively about the setting and staff. They say children are safe and well cared for and they feel that the support staff offer is excellent.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to improve the consistency of interactions and questioning skills
• develop staff's understanding of the setting's chosen approach to learning to improve the consistency of learning experiences provided for all children.