Pathways Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the nursery excitedly, and friendly staff greet them warmly. Staff encourage children to be independent in hanging up their coats and placing their lunch boxes in the designated area. Children and staff have formed highly positive relationships. Children feel safe in the presence of nurturing staff.

Staff implement a good range of educational programmes for children in their curriculum. Staff read stories and encourage children to talk about how characters might be feeling. Afterwards, children take it in turns to look in a small mirror and then choose an emotion picture card that relates to how they feel. Staff encourage children to talk about why they feel happy, sad or angry. This helps to support children's understanding of emotions in a safe environment.

Children behave well. Staff help children to look out for one another and encourage teamwork. For instance, when children climb on gym equipment in the outdoor area, other children stand near their peers saying, 'I've got you.' During group activities, children work together to build a train track, calmly negotiating where each piece will go. Staff use positive affirmations consistently with children to help build their confidence and willingness to try new activities.

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

• Staff plan free-play activities very well to capture children's interests and to build on their experiences. For example, staff create imaginative role-play areas such as a pretend coffee shop. Children learn new words, including 'cafetiere' and 'plunge', to support their language skills.
• Children enjoy mathematical games to enhance their understanding of patterns, numbers and counting. They count the dots on the dice and then find the same number of pretend food items and match this to their 'shopping list'. To extend learning, staff support children in placing numbers in order from zero to 10. They encourage children to identify which number is missing to help develop their thinking skills.
• Staff incorporate adult-led activities throughout the routine of the day. Children learn about letter sounds. They enjoy pushing the toy train to a pretend animal situated around the wooden train track. Staff encourage children to hear and say the initial letter sound of the animals, such as 'b' for bear or 'z' for zebra. However, children find this difficult, and the activity goes on for too long. Children begin to lose interest and become restless. Staff do not plan and adapt these sessions around children's next steps of development to ensure they build on their existing knowledge and remain focused.
• Children develop a great love of books. Staff encourage children to retell stories independently, such as 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. Children do so with excitement. Staff use real suitcases containing various props to enhance well-loved tales. They tell the children how the story will take them on a journey. Children develop a positive attitude to early reading.
• Staff attend frequent training and use this to benefit children. Staff teach children key nouns, including naming objects or places. Once children are confident in using these, staff help children to understand verbs, such as using words to describe actions. This helps to support children's communication skills.
• Parents comment on the strong progress their child has made since starting in the nursery. They talk about how their communication and language skills have greatly improved and about the supportive staff, who are always there for them as a family. Staff provide monthly activities for children to try at home. However, these are not tailored to children's individual needs to help provide a consistent two-way approach to learning.
• Staff ensure children who need extra support receive early intervention. They work closely with other professionals, developing effective strategies to support children's development. For instance, staff use visual aids and distraction techniques to support children who find sharing difficult.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• plan and adapt adult-led activities around children's individual learning needs to enhance their development further and to ensure they remain fully focused
• tailor home learning more precisely around each child to provide a consistent two-way approach to learning.