Serendipitys Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children show positive relationships with staff. For example, in the baby room, they give staff good eye contact and excitedly anticipate when staff play games with them. Children openly go to staff for cuddles.

Children have opportunities to develop their physical skills. For example, in the baby room, staff provide climbing equipment for children that encourages them to take and manage risks in their play. Children hold on to the sides of low-level slides as they climb. In the toddler room, staff play music and ask children to copy action rhymes. Children show good listening and attention skills as they copy movements such as waving their arms and moving their fingers. Pre-school children learn about shapes. For example, staff talk to them about shapes in the environment, such as the wheels on a tractor. Children draw shapes and use scissors to cut around them. Staff support children to use scissors safely, showing them how to hold them and holding on to the paper to enable children to cut more easily. Children say, 'I did it,' when they cut around a shape, showing a sense of achievement. Children receive praise for their achievements from staff. For example, staff give them a 'high five', thumbs up or say 'well done'. This contributes to promoting positive behaviour and raising children's self-esteem.

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

• Staff support children's emotional well-being effectively, particularly when they face changes. For example, they take children for visits to see staff and the environment in the next room in the nursery before they move on. Staff use the same routines, such as playing a song to initiate tidy-up time, in each of the playrooms, providing consistency for children. Staff give children a toy bear to use as a comforter if they feel unsure during these transitions.
• Children's communication and language skills are supported well by staff. For example, in the baby room, staff name different fruits that children taste, feel and smell. In the pre-school room, staff ask children to use their words to communicate their needs.
• Staff help children in the toddler room to learn about different people, for example the role of firefighters. Children play with toy firefighting equipment and staff help them to learn the names of the equipment firefighters use and what it is used for. However, staff do not help children to develop their awareness of similarities and differences between themselves and their peers, to help all children to understand what makes them unique.
• The manager and staff use their curriculum to promote children's independence. For example, in the baby room, staff provide drinking water at a low level so children can access this on their own. In the toddler room, staff ask children to wash their hands before they eat. Staff ask children in the pre-school room to serve food at mealtimes and to use tissues to wipe their noses.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well by the manager and staff. Partnership working with parents and other professionals helps staff to tailor the care and learning they provide for children. For example, they provide children with opportunities to communicate their needs, such as when they need to go to the toilet. Additional funding that some children receive is used effectively to provide one-to-one support from staff to meet their individual needs.
• Staff actively promote positive behaviour. For example, in the toddler room, staff help children to learn how to share and take turns when they play with resources in the role-play area. In the pre-school room, staff remind children of the rules and boundaries in place, such as children using their 'walking feet'. Children show an understanding of these rules, explaining that they need to walk so they do not fall.
• Overall, staff support children's development well. However, occasionally, during planned activities in the baby room, staff do not help all children to build on their learning. For example, they focus their interactions on particular children, instead of all children who want to join in.
• Parents provide positive comments about staff and their children's experiences at the nursery. They say that staff are welcoming, inviting and they are kept completely up to date with what their children have achieved.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to develop children's awareness of the similarities and differences between themselves and their peers
• support staff in the baby room to strengthen their interactions during planned activities to help all children to build on their learning.