Rightstart Daycare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have positive relationships with all staff. They engage in the experiences and activities on offer. For instance, children and staff play hide and seek cooperatively with each other in the garden. Children have a good attitude to their learning. When leading their own learning, they mark make, draw pictures and build with construction. Children show that they are proud of their achievements. They confidently talk to visitors about their favourite songs and rhymes. Children demonstrate that they feel happy and secure.

The new manager and staff have put in place a learning programme where children participate and have fun. The special educational needs coordinator works effectively with parents and outside agencies to ensure that all children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive good support. The provider uses additional funding, such as early years pupil premium, to promote the well-being and learning of individual children. This has a positive impact on the quality of education that all children receive.

The nursery provides healthy food choices and children's individual needs are met, particularly those children with allergies, religious or medical needs. The manager has put in place new guidelines to support staff to better assist children who are toilet training, to support children's health and independence.

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

• Children learn in lively environments, indoors and outdoors, which support all children's learning in an age-appropriate way. Staff plan trips and take children to places of interest in the local community. These help to enrich children's experiences and motivate them to connect to the wider world around them.
• Staff help children to be independent. In preparation for mealtimes, children independently wash their hands. They choose what they would to eat and share it themselves. Children show resilience as they attempt to put on their coats and hats.
• Overall, children's behaviour is good. However, staff do not always model a consistent approach in supporting children's positive behaviour in line with the manager's expectations for how they manage children's behaviour. This means that, on occasions, children do not fully understand what is expected of them.
• Staff plan and provide interesting play activities that develop babies' curiosity. When children are playing, staff talk to them about what they are experiencing. For instance, staff provide interesting picture books about fish, as babies observe real fish in tanks. Children's early literacy skills develop well.
• Staff introduce children to new vocabulary, such as 'herbivores', as they learn about dinosaurs. This promotes children's communication and language skills.
• Staff skilfully help pre-school aged children to develop their counting skills. For instance, staff encourage children to count each other before going outdoors to play. Children learn early mathematical concepts through meaningful experiences.
• Children joyfully extend their interests. Staff are encouraging and help them to ride bikes. Children enjoy sensory opportunities as they scoop and pat the sand. In the water tray, some children explore and question if water drips fast or slow. Babies and young children pull themselves up and over age-appropriate play apparatus. This helps to promote children's small- and large-muscle development.
• Overall, staff know children well. They build positive relationships with children and their parents. However, at times, the key person role is not consistently effective in promoting children's progress and development to a higher level. For instance, there is a less effective key person system for children in the toddler room.
• Staff have access to a range of training opportunities to support their professional development. However, the nursery's new manager is yet to fully evaluate and monitor individual staff's practice to enhance children's learning even further.
• Parents are complimentary about staff at the nursery. They talk about the progress which their children make. Furthermore, parents like the settling-in routines and feel comfortable at how quickly their children settle.
• Staff have a positive relationship with parents. They provide regular feed back to parents through daily feedback, termly reports and parents' consultation meetings. This has a positive impact on children's next steps in education.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to provide a more consistent approach to managing children's behaviour to help children gain a better understanding of what is expected of them
• strengthen the role of the key person so that it is consistently effective in promoting children's progress and development to the highest level
• strengthen training and support for staff to ensure that they are able to deliver the highest quality teaching.