Regent Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff welcome children to this warm and welcoming nursery, where they enjoy spending time. Staff get to know the children well and develop strong bonds with them. This helps children to gain confidence and feel supported. Children make independent choices of where and what they would like to play with. Children benefit from a language-rich environment. For example, toddlers' attention is immediately captured as staff sing songs with great enthusiasm. They bring songs to life with props such as toy animals. Children solve problems and learn critical thinking skills. They enjoy filling and emptying various-sized containers with sand and pretending dinosaurs are hiding in their land.

Staff provide them with a good level of challenge in making meaningful marks with various media. Some children can write their names and recognise the sounds of letters. Children have a positive approach to learning. Older children are confident and curious individuals. They are eager to learn more and frequently question visitors and staff. Children develop good independent skills in readiness for school. For instance, they put on their own coats, eagerly assist in clearing away after lunch, and effectively manage their own personal needs. Children show a keen interest in writing.

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

• Parents speak highly of the nursery and the staff. They comment how appreciative they are of the constant support that is on offer from the 'wonderful' team. Parents particularly appreciate how the nursery shares their children's developmental milestones and allows them to take home the 'Daisy Bear' and use the lending library. This supports continuity between nursery and home learning.
• Children enjoy different celebrations, which helps to promote their awareness of others. They enjoyed the recent Mother's Day stay-and-play sessions and made cards for their mothers. This helped to encourage all parents and carers to come along and join in the festivities.
• Staff narrate as the children play, focusing on keywords in their interactions to help them expand their vocabulary. Children learn words like 'lava' and 'eruption'. Staff interaction with toddlers are warm and gentle. Toddlers are delighted as staff engage in playful activities. This increases their understanding as well as speaking skills.
• Children enjoy home-cooked meals. Staff follow robust allergy management procedures to ensure that children eat the right foods. Before mealtimes, children follow good handwashing routines. Staff talk to children about the importance of handwashing before they eat. This helps children to develop their understanding of self-care routines.
• Staff regularly assess children's progress in their learning. They review their next steps and provide different activities to help close gaps in their learning. The staff work closely with other professionals to ensure that children receive the right support at the right time. This supports all children to make good progress in their development.
• Children are safe and secure and supported by staff to cooperatively play alongside one another. Older children independently take turns exploring balancing beams and have discussions about making space for one another. Children are offered support from staff to jump from different heights, and develop good physical skills as they walk, climb and balance.
• Staff educate parents on the importance of oral hygiene and support them in registering their children with a dentist. Children learn about the importance of healthy teeth and share this information with their families to promote oral hygiene at home.
• Overall, children display good engagement in the activities that are on offer and, in the main, display a positive attitude to learning. However, at times staff at the start of the activity do not offer some of the quieter children as much attention. Consequently, not all children are consistently supported to engage in play and learning.
• Staff work well as a team. They have regular meetings with the manager to reflect on their practice and the learning experiences they provide for children. The manager makes good use of supervision meetings to support staff's well-being effectively. However, monitoring of staff performance is not fully effective to identify clearly how individual staff members can raise the quality of their teaching to the highest level.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen systems to be consistent in engaging less confident and quieter children in play and learning
• strengthen the individual support and coaching for all staff, to improve their skills and the quality of teaching to the highest level.