Redhill Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children respond happily to the friendly staff and go easily to them for cuddles. Staff liaise closely with parents to understand their children's individual care routines and needs. They help children settle in at their pace to feel comfortable and secure in the setting. Children learn about being kind and helpful to others. They start to take turns in games, such as when they throw and catch balls together outdoors. Pre-school children are willing to help tidy up their toys. Toddlers interact well together as they fit some colourful cogs onto a rod and then laugh as these topple over.

Staff provide a broad curriculum overall and are keen to help children achieve through their play. For example, babies start to recognise familiar songs and smile as they follow the actions, 'rowing their boats' together with a friend. Toddlers show fascination as they see the bubbles floating out of a bubble machine, and they try to catch them in their hands. Pre-school children use their imaginations as they fit some colourful bricks together to make a house and learn about size, shape and space. Children develop their creativity, making 'rockets' from cardboard boxes. They like to climb into these and pretend they are flying to the Moon.

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

• Leaders support staff well with their professional development. As a team, staff have raised their awareness of behaviour management strategies and the importance of implementing these consistently. This has helped them to support children's understanding of appropriate expectations more effectively.
• Parents speak very highly of staff and appreciate the care, reassurance and support they give their children to help them achieve. They say staff provide good communication each day about their children's achievements and how they are supporting them to make progress. They comment that they feel staff support them very well to be involved with their children's learning at nursery.
• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities very well. They liaise well with parents and other professionals involved to provide a consistent approach and ensure that all children get the necessary support to help them achieve at their individual levels of ability.
• Children develop good personal development skills. They know to wash their hands before eating and learn how this helps to get rid of germs. Staff encourage children's independence skills, such as feeding and dressing themselves from a young age. Children enjoy being physically active, and staff support their developing mobility effectively through their play. For example, pre-school children try swinging their hips to keep a colourful hoop spinning. Toddlers jump and run enthusiastically across different textured mats. Babies start to pull themselves up the shallow ramps of a climbing frame. They smile with delight as staff praise their efforts at walking independently.
• Staff plan a range of activities to support children's early mark-making skills. For example, toddlers like the dinosaur toys and use them to make footprints in play dough. Pre-school children become engrossed using chop sticks to create patterns in some flour. Babies make marks using their hands and stampers as they explore paint with interest. However, staff do not always use resources to enhance children's learning and help them make stronger connections in some planned activities, for example to reinforce babies' understanding of their interest in space and the toddlers' favourite rhyming story.
• Children behave very well. Staff keep clear daily routines and boundaries that help children feel secure and know what will happen next. Children learn to show kindness to their friends. They help each other climb over tyres outdoors or pass spoons to their friends to serve their snack foods. Staff provide a calm, reassuring approach and help children to understand their emotions.
• Children enjoy their play, and staff get to know their interests and abilities well. Staff monitor children's achievements and identify what they need to learn next. This contributes to children making good progress. However, staff have not fully considered how to develop the curriculum to help children acquire the essential life skills they need to succeed, for example by providing a wider range of enriching experiences that would help to promote their knowledge and build on their cultural capital.
• Staff promote children's communication and language skills effectively. They look at different ways to support all children's communication and understanding, such as using visual resources. Children gain confidence in expressing their ideas and show delight when saying a friend's name. They enjoy singing favourite songs, such as 'Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We're Going to the Moon'. They try different foods, such as olives, and tell staff, 'Our taste buds don't like it.'

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make more use of additional resources relating to children's interests within planned activities to support their understanding and enhance their learning consistently well
• enhance the curriculum to develop children's knowledge and skills further through a wide a range of enriching experiences and opportunities that build on their cultural capital.