Poppies Day Nursery and Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and are eager to attend the nursery. Staff are friendly and offer a wide range of activities that ignite children's interest and curiosity. Older children learn to operate torches. They keenly explore the shapes and shadows that are made on the walls. Younger children explore their senses as they touch and smell flowers. Children show great determination as they climb and balance on planks and roll small tyres around. This supports children's understanding of technology and further promotes the development of their physical skills.

Children's behaviour is good. Older children show consideration to their friends. They kindly offer support when others struggle to pour from a jug. Children seek out others to join them in their play. They share toys and take pride in their environment as they tidy away. Staff are good role models and continually praise children for their efforts. This promotes children's confidence and self-esteem. Children foster a strong sense of belonging.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, staff are very aware of the need to have an even greater focus on children's personal and emotional needs. For example, arrangements for more flexible and tailored settling-in sessions have been made, and occasional home visits have taken place. This helps support children to develop strong attachments and has resulted in children feeling safe, secure and settled.

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

• The managers are very reflective. They strive for continuous improvement and accurately identify their strengths and areas for development. Managers and staff carry out a wide range of training and research to support their ongoing plans. For example, the garden area is in development to provide more opportunities for planting and growing vegetables.
• Staff provide children with healthy meals and discuss the effect nutritious food has on their bodies. Children independently serve their own food, pour their own water and wash their hands. Children's good hygiene and health are promoted well.
• Generally, a well-sequenced curriculum is in place. Staff provide stimulating learning opportunities that build on children's interests, development needs and what they need to learn next. As a result, children are happy and motivated to learn, although occasionally, some children's emotional needs are not as well supported. Routines at lunchtime and transitions when moving outside are not always smooth and consistent across the nursery. Some children wait for long periods of time, resulting in them becoming restless.
• Managers and staff ensure that children feel valued. They support them to embrace and celebrate differences between themselves, their families and others. Family pictures are on display and toys are available that make children aware of different identities. Additionally, children go litter picking and are involved in competitions within the community. This supports children's understanding of the world around them and celebrates the value of diversity.
• Overall, children's communication skills are promoted well. They sing songs, read stories and explore music. Staff provide older children with a wealth of useful words that reflect meaning during activities, such as 'recipe', 'ingredients' and 'instructions'. They provide hand signals to younger children, such as 'finished' at snack time. However, occasionally, staff do not model the correct words for reference to young children. Furthermore, older children are not always given time to respond to questions that they have been asked. Therefore, children are not always able to think for themselves.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. They are very complimentary about the staff and commend them for their dedication and commitment. Staff keep parents informed about their children's care and development. They provide parents with information to support children's care and learning needs at home. Furthermore, staff make links with teachers from other schools to share information about children's progress and personal needs. This helps support children's continued learning skills and readiness for their transition to school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support children's emotional development further by providing consistent approaches to routines, particularly around lunchtime and when transitioning into the outdoors
• support staff to model words of reference to young children and provide older children with more time to answer questions and think for themselves.