Second Steps Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

From the moment children enter this nursery, they are immersed in an environment that is exciting and enriching, where their imagination can run wild. As a result, children are extremely keen and active learners, who thrive and flourish. Staff expertly promote babies' and children's speech and language from an early age. This helps them to articulate their feelings and communicate with such advancement that staff are able to hold two-way communications with the older babies. Children are fiercely independent. Throughout their nursery life, they are taught how to manage many of their self-care tasks. For example, children from babies upwards help to serve their own meals, pour drinks and dress themselves. Staff are always on hand but rarely need to intervene, as children are confident in their own skills and abilities.

Children are extremely well behaved and understand the nursery routines. They move confidently around the areas of the nursery dedicated to them and guide much of their own play and learning. Children are actively encouraged to move resources to enhance and develop their play. Staff have exceptionally high expectations of the children, providing them with clear and comprehensive instructions. Children rise to staff's expectations as strong, able and confident learners. They develop a deep love of books and stories as leaders and staff share their passion for children's lives to be enhanced through literature from an early age. Parents are encouraged to borrow books, games and resources to help to continue this exceptionally high level of engagement with literacy at home.

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

• Leaders expertly lead and manage the nursery. They support staff extremely well, taking into account their emotional well-being. Staff incentives and opportunities for staff to support and praise each other help to build a strong team, who value each other's contributions and input. Staff are provided with excellent opportunities to further progress their professional development. They regularly attend training events and access training online.
• Parents cannot speak highly enough of the staff and managers. They comment how exceptionally well their children are progressing. Parents attribute much of their children's knowledge to the highly effective curriculum in the nursery and the staff's dedication to expert quality teaching.
• Children thoroughly enjoy their regular trips to the garden throughout the day. Here, their learning continues to an extremely high standard. For example, they express themselves, painting in the 'art studio', or explore the large selection of physical development opportunities. Children's knowledge is expertly enhanced when staff take them out of the nursery for walks to local places of interest such as the library.
• Staff and managers give careful consideration to the way in which every room in the nursery is organised. They create vibrant, exciting spaces where children can explore, create and be inspired. For example, staff hang creations from the ceiling in the baby room as they are mindful that babies spend some of their time lying down and looking at the ceiling.
• Staff and managers celebrate each child's and adult's differences and individuality superbly. Children who speak English as an additional language are provided with excellent opportunities to hear their home language being used in the nursery, as staff learn core words. Translations of displays and labels around the rooms enable children to recognise and see familiar words in their home language. Parents help staff to understand how to pronounce words in the children's home language.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are expertly supported. Staff spend valuable time getting to know the children and working with their parents to determine clear plans for their care and learning that help them to make exceptional progress. Staff and managers work closely with other professionals and agencies to gain a comprehensive understanding of how to support all children and to help parents to access any additional funding available to them.
• Babies receive extremely warm and affectionate care from kind and caring staff. They enjoy close relationships with their key person and other staff in the baby rooms. Staff create an exciting exploratory environment where children are provided with an excellent range of activities to enhance their knowledge. Much of the sensory play is based around food, making it safe for babies to put in their mouths. Staff take account of children's dietary needs, for example, making the play dough from wheat-free flour on the days that children with wheat allergies attend.