Scamps Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy, eager and ready to explore. Staff are attentive and recognise when children need a little more reassurance. They offer affectionate cuddles and nurturing verbal encouragement when children are unsettled or unsure. Children immediately respond to this warmth and regain their confidence before continuing to play. Nurturing kindness helps to create trusting relationships, which, in turn promote children's sense of confidence. Children are curious and inquisitive. They enthusiastically try new things and demonstrate a sense of accomplishment when they achieve difficult tasks. For instance, children enthusiastically jump and clap when they locate worms in the garden. They play with awe and wonder as they pretend to be bug detectives outside, shouting, 'It's magic' when they find insects. Children's thirst for learning is a great foundation for their progress and development.

All children make good progress. They benefit from an ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum. Staff have high expectations for children and plan activities with increasing levels of challenge. For example, children are encouraged to dab paint on paper five times. They complete this task with ease. Children are further challenged to add five more paint marks, and they successfully count to ten. They begin to learn about quantity and complete addition and subtraction problems to develop their impressive mathematical skills. Staff help children to learn about living things and nature in fun ways. To illustrate, children remember learning about photosynthesis and impressively recall, 'Plants use the sun to grow.' Children's knowledge of the natural world around them is excellent. Ambitious teaching and a broad curriculum successfully help children to learn new skills.

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

• Leaders and managers are motivated, and they aspire to excel. They strive for continual improvements and incorporate the views of parents, staff and children into development plans. This passion helps to drive continual and ongoing progress.
• Staff well-being is given high priority. Leaders ensure that staff are well supported and that their workload is manageable. This creates a happy team that is motivated and driven to work hard and do its best for the families it supports.
• Staff continually observe children and plan activities that are focused on gaps in children's learning. Staff recognise that their role is to teach children. They make the most of their time and interactions to expand children's knowledge and skills.
• There is a lively atmosphere in each room. Children play with purpose, and the environment and equipment are beautifully displayed to enthuse children. Each area has a different task or activity, offering children rich learning opportunities.
• Children explore with focus and engagement.
• Staff are good role models for children. They use calm voices and get down to children's level to speak to them. Children understand what is expected of them because routines are familiar and expectations are made clear through staff instructions and 'golden rules'. Children behave well.
• Children's good health is well promoted. They benefit from daily outdoor play in a spacious garden, where they can run and exert themselves. Children are encouraged to brush their teeth, learning about cavities and the importance of dental hygiene from an early age.
• Children vote for their favourite meals, and their choices are included in the nutritious menu provided. Incorporating children's favourite foods helps to promote children's positive attitude to healthy eating and their good health.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff communicate openly and often with parents. This helps to ensure that children benefit from consistent routines and experiences between the nursery and home.
• Overall, children make good progress in their communication skills. For instance, staff narrate as children play and sing to them during games to expose them to new words and vocabulary. However, some staff lack skills and confidence to extend children's speech to a higher level. At times, staff do not always allow time or opportunities for children to respond to questions and practise talking.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's skills and confidence to help children make higher levels of progress in their speech and language development.