Pebbles Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have strong attachments with the caring staff at this nursery. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, children leave their families at the door. They confidently enter the nursery, ready to learn. Children talk fondly about staff and say they miss staff who are not working that day. Children play well together and lots of giggling can be heard. They use good manners and respond well when staff sensitively remind them of the expectations of their behaviour, such as using 'kind hands'. These strategies are also shared with families, which means that support for children is consistent.

All children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. They have a real love of books. Babies crawl along pulling their favourite book with them. They take it to staff, who cuddle up with them as they enjoy the story together. Older children act out stories, using dressing-up clothes and props. They retell stories and excitedly take on the role of the character. Children work cooperatively and demonstrate good coordination as they build a wall. They are extremely proud of their achievement and shout to their friends to join them in their 'strong house of bricks'. They reassure their friends that they will be safe in their house.

Staff have high expectations for all children. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported by staff, who ensure that barriers to learning are identified and responded to swiftly. All children make good progress.

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

• Staff work with parents and make regular checks to identify what children know, can do and are interested in. They have also developed good links with a range of professionals who support staff to meet the needs of all children and narrow any gaps in their learning. Staff use what they know about children to provide activities that successfully build on children's prior knowledge and skills, so they make good progress.
• Parents say that their children love coming to the nursery and feel that staff 'go the extra mile'. Staff discuss children's progress with parents and share a range of ideas to help parents to support their children's learning at home. Parents have noticed lots of progress with their children's development during their time at the nursery.
• Children take part in well-planned activities and also create their own play alongside their friends. They make play dough pizzas in the role-play area. As staff praise them for using all their strength to roll out the dough, they proudly state that it was not hard for them. They demonstrate high levels of self-esteem.
• Children experience many opportunities to develop their physical skills. Babies crawl and explore the outside space. Older children carry buckets full of water and push heavy wheelbarrows. Toddlers pick up beads with a range of objects, including scoops and tweezers, and then transport them into pots. These activities successfully promote the strength and dexterity children need for later writing.
• Staff support children's communication skills well. Children explore props and scarves as they swish them along to songs in stories. Staff caring for babies name objects as babies explore them. Older children can recognise words that rhyme and some initial sounds that they hear. These experiences support children's later reading skills.
• Staff provide some levels of challenge throughout the day. However, at lunchtime, staff do not use this time as an opportunity to sit and interact with the children to support their language skills. Furthermore, they do not encourage the children to do things for themselves. For example, they do not model how to use a knife and fork to further encourage independence in readiness for school.
• The manager is committed to ensuring that the nursery widens children's experiences. She provides opportunities for children to be out and about in the community to develop an understanding of the world. Children also benefit from experiences such as visits to the library and trips on various transport across the town. However, children are not consistently encouraged to notice what makes them unique, to support their developing positive attitudes to diversity.
• Staff are well supported by the manager. She encourages all staff to access further training opportunities through supervision sessions and staff meetings. All staff are aware of what their individual next steps are to further their own practice to the highest level. They are happy and able in their roles.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to engage in high-quality interactions with children at lunchtime, to further support children's learning
• help children to develop a greater understanding of the similarities and differences between themselves and others.