Pilgrim Hospital Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the nursery confidently and ready to learn. They enjoy the responsibility of setting up their own activities and choosing which resources they would like. Staff ask questions such as 'What do we need next?' which encourages children to think and come up with their own ideas. Children practise their physical skills when they use knives to cut real vegetables in the play kitchen. Staff set up activities for children to enjoy and supervise them closely to ensure they are safe. Children enjoy learning alongside staff, both indoors and outdoors. At group time and throughout the day, children are encouraged to explore books and stories. Children laugh when they retell a story about three little pigs. They wear masks and move around the room, using their imaginations and what they have learned from the book to act the story out. Staff support this well, and as a result, children's communication and literacy skills are promoted.

Children are respectful to one another. At lunchtime, children sit patiently as their friends get ready for a healthy lunch. Children serve their own food while engaging in conversation with children and staff at their table. This enhances children's personal, social and emotional and communication development. Outside, children persevere, with the support staff, to overcome new challenges. They succeed in climbing up to the top of the play equipment and are praised for their achievement.

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

• The manager has a secure knowledge and understanding about child development. This is reflected in the curriculum that is implemented across the nursery. All children, including those who speak English as an additional language and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, have meaningful learning opportunities.
• Staff in the three rooms are aware of what children can already do and are clear on how to support them to make progress in their learning. Children who require additional support are quickly identified. Where appropriate, referrals are made to external professionals to support children's development further.
• Staff have strong and positive relationships with parents. These are established early on, even before children start attending, through a well-structured induction. Staff share information daily, when children move rooms, at parents' meetings and through an online system. This ensures continuity of learning between home and the nursery. Staff use the information to offer new learning experiences for children. For example, providing sensory and messy-play activities which allow children to explore different textures.
• Secure attachments are formed between staff and children through an effective key-person system. Relationships are sensitive and responsive across the nursery. This supports children's sense of belonging and emotional well-being.
• Both indoors and outdoors, children are encouraged to move their bodies in different ways. Staff have discussions with children about healthy foods and recipes. Children visit a local allotment and learn where food comes from and how to grow, harvest, cook and then taste different foods. This promotes children's physical development, understanding of the world and understanding of their bodies and what keeps them healthy.
• Staff feel well supported by the management team. This ensures their well-being is promoted and facilitates effective teamwork across the nursery. Staff work together to continuously improve the environment for children.
• Children's early literacy development is promoted well. They enjoy song time where they choose an object from the song bag, join in with the actions of the nursery rhyme and sing confidently. Staff and children enjoy reading stories together on the sofas. Children turn the pages and point to pictures and staff comment and ask questions, supporting children's vocabulary.
• The baby room is airy and spacious. Staff set toys up on different levels to encourage babies physical development. Babies crawl, shuffle and walk to the tough tray. They find out that there is cooked spaghetti with dinosaurs buried among it to feel and explore. Babies enjoy this sensory, exploratory experience.
• Overall, children's learning and development are supported well. However, sometimes, staff do not always extend children's learning during the spontaneous interactions they have while playing. The manager has not fully supported staff to recognise that they can embed and extend children's learning through every interaction they have, not just those that have been planned.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend children's learning and development further by enhancing staff's interactions with children as they play
• support staff to recognise when opportunities arise to embed and extend their learning intentions for children.