Quackers Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and thoroughly enjoy their time at the nursery. They excitedly explore the wide variety of activities on offer. For example, babies giggle with glee as they explore the feel of streams of paper and throw them into the air. Older children excitedly busy themselves pretending to 'fix' a box. They eagerly work away using toy tools to help them. Children's confidence and ability to try new things is impressive.

Children have a wonderful sense of curiosity. For example, they delight in hunting for frost and ice in the garden. Staff enthusiastically inspire children and extend their learning very well. For example, they excitedly admire what children are finding, such as frozen water in bowls. They encourage children to proudly take the 'heavy' tray around the garden to show others. Children are learning about the world in exciting and engaging ways.

Leaders have lovely strategies for promoting positive behaviour. They are consistently used by all staff throughout the whole nursery. All staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. For example, they expertly support young children to take turns, and children often repeat the words 'my turn' and 'your turn'. Older children are very polite and regularly say 'please' and 'thank you' to their friends. Children have the skills they need to manage conflicts effectively. They are beginning to learn how their behaviour impacts others.

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

• Leaders have a clear vision to provide all children with an environment where they feel welcomed and grow into unique individuals. To achieve this, they work extremely well with parents and get to know the children and their families. Leaders prioritise supporting children's emotional development. They use recent training to plan individualised sessions for those children who may need further support. This helps children to learn the language of feelings and enables them to feel confident and secure.
• Overall, the curriculum is well planned and sequenced, and children make good progress in their development. For example, staff precisely plan for babies and support their personal, social and emotional development. Babies receive plenty of cuddles and explore a lovely range of resources appropriate to their age. However, there are times in the day when babies are included in activities with a larger group of children of different ages. At these times, babies do not consistently benefit from the same good level of focused attention to support their learning.
• Overall teaching is strong. However, due to the nursery staffing levels being directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the manager has spent more time working directly with the children. She recognises that leaders have had less time to focus on improving teaching for less experienced staff. This has resulted in a small degree of inconsistency in the quality of interactions children receive. However, experienced staff know how to promote the different areas of learning, and have exciting ways to encourage children to learn new skills. For example, they enthusiastically sing familiar nursery rhymes and younger children clap and wiggle to the music. They joyfully join in with staff by banging on instruments and pretending to play the guitar.
• Staff focus on teaching children a wide vocabulary to help them to have strong communication and language skills. This helps children to develop a good spoken language. For example, while children explored the ice activity, staff taught them words such as 'magnifying glass' and 'slippery'.
• Staff and children have amazing bonds. Staff use their knowledge of the children and know when to stand back and promote their independence. For example, children 'huff' and 'puff', as they try and move laden wheelbarrows around the garden. They persevere and beam with joy as they navigate around corners and other objects. Children have an amazing way of using problem solving skills to extend their play.
• The nursery has very strong partnerships with parents. Staff share regular updates with parents about their children's learning and development. Parents particularly like the online journal and detailed daily verbal feedback. They are eager to share their views and say that the nursery offers a homely feel and staff are extremely friendly. They appreciate the wide variety of exciting activities, such as visiting the farm. Parents say their children are well prepared for school when the time comes.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the arrangements to coach and mentor individual staff to continually improve the quality of teaching
• support staff working with the youngest children to plan more precisely for babies at times they are involved with a larger group.