Roger's Burrow Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This unique nursery for naval families provides a nurturing environment, where children feel emotionally secure, safe and happy. The management team prioritise the children's emotional, personal and social development following the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Children embrace the opportunity to now socialise and are eager to greet their friends and immerse themselves in the wide range of activities available. Key persons know the children well and plan an exciting and interactive curriculum based on the children's interests, questions and needs. For example, some children show an interest in dinosaurs. The staff create a dinosaur egg hunt outside. Children search with anticipation around the outside area, planning where they will look next.

Babies and toddlers learn using their senses. They explore the sound of their voices in the sensory room, where technology reacts to children's sounds to make colours and patterns move. Play with lemons, limes and herbs enable the children to smell, touch and manipulate food items while learning new vocabulary, skilfully modelled by their key person. Children show high levels of curiosity. Older children ask questions to find out about the world around them. For example, children play in the role-play vets, asking questions about how they might make the animals feel better.

Children play well together, take turns and are respectful of their friends. Older children teach the younger children how to play a game, build toys from construction and share books together. Parents no longer enter the nursery as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. They do however, comment on how their children settle quickly and make progress with their confidence and language. As the nursery remained open throughout, many children were able to benefit from small groups and consistent routines.

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

• Staff skilfully teach children mathematical language during play, enabling them to see simple number patterns. For example, when playing a fishing game, staff model counting and adding the numbers on the fish together. Children recognise patterns when adding 'one more' to a given number. They then apply this knowledge by taking 'one away'.
• The manager and key persons' intent for every child, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, is successfully implemented. They take time to find out about each child's home routine, interests and needs. Staff plan activities that will actively engage children, built on their interests to enable them to have new experiences.
• All children are excellent communicators both verbally and through the use of gestures. Staff competently develop the children's skills. For example, adults model how to join the construction pieces together make a 'car'. The children copy and discuss in detail what they need to do next to make the wheels work. Later, the children return to adapt their models without adult support. They then explain and role model to younger children what they have learned.
• Children develop a love of books and will seek out an adult to share their favourite stories. Younger children are eager to share the story alongside. They talk about the characters and what is happening, relating it to their own experiences. Children learn some early literacy skills through play. However, staff are not always ambitious enough to build on children's literacy skills, such as supporting their understanding of rhyme and letter sounds to extend their learning further.
• Staff confirm that they feel well supported by the management team. Leaders monitor the quality of teaching, offering bespoke support and training. Staff feel that reducing their paperwork has enabled more quality time to play and teach the children. Managers and staff are reflective in their observations and planning. As a result, there is a plan to introduce signing and 'letters and sounds' training to enhance the children's experience and understanding.
• Parents praise the key-person system and the positive relationships that have developed to enable their children to feel settled. They appreciate the regular updates about their children's daily experience. However, parents are not always sure of what systems of communication and support are available when they are far away from home with the navy. Additionally, since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been less opportunities for parents to talk about their child's progress face-to-face and staff have yet to provide extra strategies to enable them to support children's learning more at home.
• Children make good progress from their starting point. Early identification of children who require additional support have rapid intervention that is implemented into daily routines. Staff work well with supporting professionals and liaise regularly with other provisions a child might attend. Staff discuss information about children's learning and progress, as part of the transition on to school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• increase opportunities for the development of early literacy skills to enhance children's learning and make the curriculum more ambitious
• enhance systems of communication with parents so that they understand what support is available and how they can support their children's learning at home.