Sammy Snail Day Care

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff welcome and greet both children and parents at the gate, taking time to share important information. As a result, children arrive happy and settle quickly in the nursery, where they feel safe and secure. The staff are kind and attentive, forming strong bonds with the children and providing reassurance. This nurturing environment greatly supports the emotional well-being of the children.

Children benefit from the nursery's ambitious curriculum, which mainly focuses on supporting children's communication and language and physical development and on promoting children's independence and emotional development. The nursery's curriculum is sequenced well and based on children's interests. For example, many of the children are interested in dinosaurs. Staff skilfully intertwine all areas of learning through this theme, which helps children build on existing learning and gain a wide range of knowledge and skills they will require for their future learning.

Staff role model good behaviour and have high expectations for all children to be kind and respect one another. They encourage and support children to listen, express their views and communicate their ideas, which contributes to how the nursery is set up and run. Staff and children have created simple rules together to help children understand what is expected and how to behave. As a result, children behave well and are eager to learn.

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

• Leaders work closely with staff to implement a curriculum that reflects all children's individual needs and interests. They gather information about the children and use this to plan exciting learning experiences. However, staff have not considered gathering further information about children's starting points to plan activities that support their learning right from the start.
• Children develop a love of books. Books are a vital part of the curriculum and are incorporated across the learning environment. Children enjoy independently accessing a broad range of books linked to their interests and various areas of learning. For example, children enjoy looking at books as they compare and identify different dinosaurs while playing with them. They also enjoy referring to recipe books while playing in the home corner and pretending to make food from play dough. This helps children develop their early literacy skills.
• Staff prioritise communication and language development in their curriculum. They create a language-rich environment for all children and follow their lead in play. They model good language and teach children new words. However, occasionally, the pace at which staff ask questions and give information during play and activities is too fast for some children to consider, develop and express their thoughts and ideas.
• Parents report that their children enjoy attending the nursery. They speak highly of the staff and comment on how supportive and caring the team is.
• Leaders understand their role in supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Ongoing assessment helps to identify any gaps in children's learning and development. Staff act swiftly when there are concerns and speak to parents. Leaders have close links with external agencies and work with them to get children the specialist support they need to help them make the best possible progress.
• Mealtimes are special. Children are happy and enjoy dining together while engaging in rich conversations about their day and the healthy food they eat. Staff skilfully facilitate these conversations and encourage children to try new healthy foods that they may not have eaten before. Children demonstrate high levels of capability as they use tongs to dish their food up, drink out of porcelain mugs and eat their food using knives and forks.
• The nursery celebrates the diverse community it serves. Staff and children learn about one another and enjoy learning new words from different languages. Children also enjoy learning about various festivals throughout the year and learn about a wide range of families outside of their own experiences.
• Children delight in spending lots of time playing outside. They play outside in all weathers, get lots of fresh air daily and confidently move around the garden in various ways, running, jumping and hopping. Staff teach children how to use hammers safely, and children enjoy skilfully hammering sticks into pumpkins. Children concentrate as they do this and demonstrate good coordination.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• gather more precise information when children first start at the nursery to clearly establish starting points and use the information to support children's learning from the outset
• give children more time to think about and consolidate the information given by staff during activities to enable them to process information and share their thoughts and ideas.