Rosedene Ormesby

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are content in the care of the staff at this nurturing nursery. They happily leave their parents and carers at the door, waving goodbye and smiling before joining their friends. Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure, such as when they confidently welcome and talk to new visitors to the setting.

Staff have high expectations for children, who are kind and behave well. Staff provide age-appropriate strategies and encouragement, where necessary, to help children learn about sharing and turn-taking. At circle time, children take it in turns to talk. For example, they pass a soft toy around to indicate that it is their turn to talk. This helps children to understand that their voice and opinions matter.

Children enjoy being outdoors. They test their physical skills by moving in various ways, such as balancing and digging. Staff confidently follow children's interests to incorporate what they want children to learn. For example, children learn about numbers. They delight in finding a spider in a big box. Staff tune in to this interest, asking children questions about spiders, including how many legs a spider has. This helps children to make good progress in their learning and development.

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

• Children's speech and language are well supported. Staff use everyday, real experiences to promote children's language. For example, children explore real fruit and vegetables throughout the nursery. Staff use these opportunities to name food and talk about what they smell and taste like. Even the youngest children confidently name broccoli and lemons. Children learn words, such as 'squeezing', 'squish' and 'squash', when trying to get the juice from an orange. These experiences help to introduce children to new language.
• Staff guide children to develop early mathematical skills, particularly in counting and number recognition. They encourage children to count forwards and backwards from five. However, staff do not consistently extend older children's mathematical thinking. For example, while filling and emptying cylinders with fruit and water, staff limit the mathematical experience to counting. They do not include talking about size, shape or quantity. This limits children's ability to understand different mathematical ideas from an early age.
• Children learn to recognise and understand different emotions. For example, the youngest children use wooden spoons with pictures of basic emotions on, such as happy or sad. Older children use stampers with a range of different emotions on during a play dough activity. Children confidently name different emotions and say what would make them feel this way.
• The providers and manager are committed to ensuring that good-quality care and education are maintained. They actively seek guidance from external professionals to support staff in their roles. Children are cared for in a nursery where their needs are put first.
• Parents receive regular updates about their child's progress and the experiences which they have at nursery. Staff use different ways to communicate, such as through an online platform, daily feedback at pick-up times and a parents' noticeboard. Before children start, staff offer shorter settling-in sessions so they can get to know children and begin to build up a relationship with the family from the start. This helps to support the well-being of the whole family.
• Overall, children develop their independence skills well. They learn from a young age to put on their own shoes and coats, go to the toilet and wash their hands. Children independently choose what they want to play with and whether they want to be indoors or outside. At mealtimes and snack times, they confidently use tongs and serving spoons to serve themselves and scrape any waste food into the bin.
• Staff could support children's independence skills even further, particularly at lunchtime. For example, although cutlery is readily available for children, staff do not consistently encourage them to use it. On occasion, children eat with their fingers. This means children's independence skills are not fully supported in preparation for their eventual transition to school.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend older children's mathematical development further to build on what children already know and can do
• support children during mealtimes to promote their self-help and independence skills, particularly in the use of cutlery.