Rabbit Patch Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are confident and settled at this caring, friendly nursery. Staff know all children well and are sensitive to their individual needs. They took great care to stay in touch with children who did not attend due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) restrictions, including through zoom calls and activities online. This helped children to return to nursery happily and to settle well.

Children quickly become more independent and even the youngest confidently explore the environment, particularly outdoors. Their behaviour is good. Staff respond to children calmly, and gently help them resolve any disputes. Children show care and concern for each other. They ask their friends what the matter is when they notice they are upset and try to help them feel better. Older children show high levels of cooperation as they play. They include younger friends in their games when they are playing outside. Younger children enjoy copying them, which helps them practise new skills. For instance, they eagerly helped the older children scoop water from a puddle with a bucket.

Staff have high expectations for all children's learning. Children who need additional help or who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress in their development. Staff throughout the nursery understand their needs and how to support them. This helps staff to provide a highly consistent approach.

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

• The management team have worked hard to make a number of important changes since the last inspection. This has had a positive impact on the quality of children's experiences. Staff throughout the nursery now consistently guide and support children to help them behave well. Managers have implemented an effective system to ensure all staff receive appropriate training, support and guidance to develop their skills. They ensure any issues with staff performance are addressed promptly.
• Staff regularly monitor and assess children's progress. They observe children to find out about what they already know and can do, so that they can plan for what they need to learn next. Staff are clear about the skills and knowledge they want children to gain over their time in each room. This helps prepare children for the move to a different room and for starting school. For example, babies begin to feed themselves with spoons in the baby room, and in the toddler room they learn to use forks and drink from an open cup. In the pre-school room, children handle tools and cutlery confidently and pour their own drinks.
• Children have excellent opportunities to develop their physical skills outdoors. They benefit from a large, secure garden where they can climb up and down slopes, carry logs and sticks, balance on planks and build with large construction. All children move confidently around the garden. They have great fun splashing in puddles or working together to mix potions in the mud kitchen.
• Staff provide effective support to children to help them become confident communicators. They encourage pre-school children to express their ideas and broaden their vocabulary. In the toddler room, staff focus on building children's skills such as encouraging them to ask for help when they need it. Babies enjoy songs and listen very attentively when staff read them stories. Children who are learning English as an additional language benefit from hearing greetings and singing songs in their home language as well.
• Although parents now drop their children off outside due to the pandemic, staff still make sure they have time to talk to them and share information at the door. Parents feel well informed about their child's progress, which helps them continue their learning at home. Staff offer resources, such as story bags, to take home, which are very popular with parents and children.
• Children are familiar with the daily routine. For instance, they understand that they need to wash their hands before mealtimes. They develop their self-care skills well and learn to manage handwashing on their own. However, during the lunchtime routine, staff working with toddlers are sometimes busy with tasks such as laying tables and setting out beds, rather than prioritising children's needs. Children wait for long periods and become unsettled and noisy.
• The manager ensures that children receive any additional funding they are entitled to. However, staff do not always consider how additional funding for some children, such as those from disadvantaged backgrounds, can be best used to support their individual learning needs. They do not routinely check to make sure that the funding has helped close any gaps in learning and had a positive impact on children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation of daily routines, such as mealtimes, so that the needs of all children are considered and the length of time children spend waiting is reduced
• use additional funding more effectively to help close any gaps in individual children's learning, and measure the impact on children's progress more closely.