Play 2 Learn Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and settled in this welcoming and friendly setting. Staff offer tailored settling-in processes to ensure that children build secure emotional attachments to them. During this process, staff gather key information about children when they first start to ensure continuity of care. Children move between rooms seamlessly. This is because staff carefully manage transitions to help children to develop strong and secure attachments with their new key person. Staff consider all children's interests and learning needs. This is central to the planning and delivery of an ambitious and sequenced curriculum. This helps all children to make very good progress.

Children benefit from an incredibly broad variety of activities and experiences that help them understand the world around them and nurture their individual talents. For example, children learn to dribble, tap and kick a ball during their weekly sports club. Staff use this team activity to help children to develop their physical strength and important social skills, such as making friendships through a shared interest. Children demonstrate high levels of confidence, such as when they excitedly jump high in the air and say 'goal'. Staff champion children's efforts and achievements and give them a 'high five'. This further boosts children's self-esteem and motivates them to keep up a positive attitude to discovering and learning new skills.

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

• Staff are knowledgeable about how children learn and understand the skills they need to develop to support successful transitions to school. For example, children mould dough and develop strength in their fingers in preparation for later writing skills. Staff use an autumn-themed dough activity to introduce babies and young children to new words, such as 'rolling' and 'leaf'. Staff repeat these words and show children pictures in books. This helps babies to attempt to copy and learn new vocabulary through purposeful and enjoyable activities.
• Overall, staff plan environments that are inviting and stimulating. Resources are high quality and safe. Children feel empowered to discover their creativity and try out new ideas with resources they have chosen. For example, they proudly tell visitors that they have collected the conkers and sticks, which they are using to make pictures, from home. However, at times, staff do not fully consider how to organise the environment or resources to enhance children's engagement and learning outcomes further. For example, staff do not consistently provide mark-making tools, such as chalks for the outdoor blackboard. For those children who prefer to learn outdoors, this limits their opportunities to foster their creativity and practise skills to support their early writing skills.
• Staff use assessments and share their children's progress regularly with parents and carers. They support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. Staff demonstrate an excellent understanding of individual children's needs. They work closely with a wide range of external professionals to provide bespoke support tailored to each child.
• There is a very strong leadership and management structure in place. Managers use regular observations, high-quality supervision meetings and reflection processes to give staff ongoing support and training. Staff report excellent well-being. They praise a positive and collaborative culture, where they work together to give children the best start in life.
• Managers and staff go the extra mile to ensure that communication with parents is highly effective. This is achieved through daily face-to-face discussions and online updates shared with parents. This collaborative working means there are procedures are in place to support the overall well-being of all children, including those with complex health needs or SEND.
• Children become increasingly independent in their personal self-care. For example, older children serve their own food at mealtimes. Staff implement meticulous routines that prioritise children's safety and well-being as they eat. However, the organisation at mealtimes means that children sometimes wait for long periods of time to be served their food. This causes young children to get frustrated and those who are learning new routines to feel a bit unsettled.
• Staff introduce positive affirmations, where children repeat statements, such as 'I am kind', to themselves at shared group times. Staff also act as positive role models, promoting turn-taking and sharing. Overall, this approach helps children to develop good behaviours, which are evident in children's cooperative play and polite manners.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to extend children's participation and learning of the intended curriculum, such as by considering the organisation and choice of resources
• review the organisation at mealtimes, to consider all children's needs and reduce the length of time children spend waiting.