Poppys Day Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are safe, extremely happy and thrive at this nursery. They thoroughly enjoy playing and exploring in their environment, which provides excellent learning opportunities. Children access exciting learning opportunities in the superb outdoor area. For example, children build towers in the builder's area or use their imagination in the mud kitchen. Younger children flourish through learning songs and rhymes and have an excellent choice of resources. Throughout the nursery, it is wonderful to see the very high levels of engagement and concentration children. show.

Children receive outstanding care and seek support from staff. Even younger children are able to independently manage tasks, for example, putting on shoes and using cutlery successfully. Highly skilled staff, involve children in planning and focus on their interests. Children recently visited their local supermarket and made shopping lists focused on the sound of the week. The role-play corner was then turned into a shop for children to practise this through their play. Staff give excellent thought and care, so children have the best experience possible and make exceptional progress. For example, the older children excitedly enjoyed making a road for their cars, using pens confidently, and a long roll of paper to strengthen their early writing skills even further.

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

• The provider and manager are passionate about the well-thought-out sequenced curriculum designed to meet the needs of all children. They have an exceptional understanding of children's starting points and next steps.
• Staff's professional development is highly prioritised and shows a personalised approach. Staff access ongoing training to reflect the needs of the children. For example, staff access for training and advice to enable them to develop an excellent understanding of how to support children with speech and language needs.
• Procedures for supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are outstanding. The manager provides highly individualised plans and works closely with other professionals. Staff use picture cards for children who are not in confident in communicating what they need. This enables all children to share their views, which staff very highly value.
• Partnership with parents is excellent. Parents spoke about the incredible, caring nature of all staff and how their children have developed educationally and emotionally in a happy, warm, and safe environment. Managers go above and beyond to support families and communicate children's development.
• The importance of communication and language is evident throughout the nursery. For example, when finding sea creatures in the blue foam, children were asked to describe how it felt with staff introducing new vocabulary. Staff use exceptionally, effective methods to support children's language development. Children were able to use picture cards to indicate their need, worn by staff.
• Staff plan the environment purposefully to promote the highest levels of engagement. Young children enjoyed using tweezers to reach for insects hidden in the sand through weaving in and out of webs. Outdoors, children use the equipment safely to climb and practise their excellent balancing skills.
• Children show extremely high levels of respect for each other and can solve problems through communicating with their friends. Children take pride of their environment understand the importance of the rules in place and work as a team. For example, when finished with an activity, children tidy away the toys together and then set up a new activity, giving out pens to friends.
• Children learn the importance of a healthy lifestyle through everyday activities. Mealtimes are an opportunity for children to understand about their health and learn new skills. During the day, the children made pizzas for their tea and choose their own toppings.
• The provider and manager have an excellent understanding of the impact of the pandemic on children at their setting and the steps they needed to take. They ensure that they do everything they can for the families of the children ensuring parents as well as children are happy. This all leads to an extremely positive impact on the children's well-being and learning.
• The provider builds extremely effective relationships with those in the local community. For example, they have fundraised to purchase a defibrillator as there was not one near to the setting. She also intends to support local settings with first-aid training to help reduce cost impacts.
• Key persons have a secure and thorough understanding of children they work with. Individual plans are in place with specialised strategies or resources unique to that child. Excellent communication is evident between staff, parents, professionals, and management working together for the benefit of children.