Riverside (Spicey Gill) Private Day Care

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children take part in first-hand scientific explorations. For instance, they learn about the life cycle of a caterpillar. Children learn new words, such as cocoon. They identify colour in bubbles and learn how colours looks depending on the light. Babies show how they can safely use the slide, with staff close by to supervise them. The curriculum supports children to demonstrate their listening, counting and physical skills, to learn about the world and to use language about time. Staff have high expectations for children's learning.

Staff have strategies in place to support children who, at times, struggle to regulate their behaviour. Children begin to understand a sense of right and wrong. Their behaviour is good. Children learn to be kind to their friends. They share toys and wait for their turn, for example when they blow bubbles. Children show that they are happy and safe in the nursery.

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

• Members of the management team have worked hard to address the actions raised at the last inspection. They have welcomed support from the local authority early years team to help raise the quality of education for children. The management team has implemented weekly training days to support and enhance staff's knowledge and practice. There are appropriate arrangements for induction and supervision meetings for all staff. Staffing arrangements meet the qualification requirements to help keep children safe.
• The management team has considered the working pattern of all staff and the days children attend. This has helped to create an effective key-person system. There is also a secondary key person in place. Key persons now tailor every child's care and learning to meet their individual needs. Parents are also aware of their child's key person. This helps to support continuity of care and learning between the nursery and home.
• Older children celebrate their achievements with a graduation party. Teachers visit children in the nursery and invite them to the school with their parents. Staff prepare children emotionally for changes in their life and the wider social network of school.
• Staff support children's early language development well. For example, they encourage children to find letters from their name and stick them on a board outdoors. Children have a go at blowing bubbles. This helps them to strengthen the small muscles in their mouth needed to form clear sounds when speaking. Babies and toddlers enjoy stories. Staff lay books on the floor so that children can see the pictures. However, when toddlers ask questions, such as 'where is the owl?', staff do not give them an opportunity to think for themselves. Staff answer the question and move on with the story. This does not fully support toddlers' early literacy skills.
• Children go on field trips and take visits to the nearby riverside. They develop their knowledge and understand the need to respect and care for the natural environment and all living things.
• Staff review case studies, such as incidents of choking. This helps them to understand the importance of good supervision at mealtimes, and that food that is high risk to young children because of the shape, texture and size. Children enjoy a healthy balanced diet. They sit around a table for snacks and meals and sit up straight.
• Staff know children's individual interests well. They plan the environment to meet children's needs. However, staff do not always have knowledge of some children's development. This means that, at times, staff cannot interact to teach the next steps in learning for that unique child at that precise moment.
• The special educational needs coordinator ensures that referrals are made for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff work with parents, grandparents and other professionals to help children receive the targeted support they need.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to encourage toddlers to explore their own questions and enhance their literacy skills further
• strengthen the quality of interactions with children by ensuring that staff consistently know what children need to learn next.