Shelford Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The highly ambitious manager creates a curriculum that puts children at the heart of all they do. Each element of the setting has been carefully thought out to support children's learning and development. Children's personal, social and emotional development are key to it all.

Staff take time to get to know children. From the moment children start at the setting, staff embed a clear key-person system. This provides children with an adult who they feel safe and secure with. Children actively seek out their key person for comfort when needed. For example, in the baby room, when children become unsettled with unfamiliar adults, they look for their key person. Babies are comforted by their key person's company, allowing them to explore the room while knowing they are close by.

Staff create a calm environment for children to learn and develop in. Increased staff numbers ensure that staff provide children with good levels of attention. This leads to exemplary behaviour by the children. Staff plan activities that not only meet the learning and development needs of the children but also their interests. Staff effectively embed science, technology, engineering and mathematics into activities to build on children's learning.

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

• From the moment children start at the setting, they are at the forefront of everything. The environment is arranged to offer invitations of play for children to explore and investigate. Children enjoy exploring independently and as part of a group. Staff are knowledgeable of children's learning needs and create activities to support them. However, staff do not always know how to implement the intended learning during activities. This means that children do not always benefit from the best-quality teaching and learning.
• Children are encouraged to create healthy lifestyles. Staff help them to develop an understanding of how to keep themselves healthy. For example, children participate in a 'boot camp' every morning. Staff talk to children about how they can move their bodies in different ways and what happens to their bodies as a result. The nursery cook creates healthy meals for all the children to enjoy. At mealtimes, children sit in the same seat each time, together with their friends and key person, simulating a family mealtime. This encourages children to build friendships and develop their social skills.
• Staff promote children's communication and language skills well. They sing songs and read stories to the youngest children, exposing them to a wide range of language. Across the setting, staff narrate activities. They strategically ask children questions and encourage them to think independently. This develops children's cognitive skills. Staff expose the oldest children to a wide range of vocabulary. For example, they introduce them to words such as 'symmetry', which they later use in their own play and learning.
• Staff regularly revisit learning with children. They encourage children to think about what they have already learned, before building on this further. For example, children explore cornflour in the pre-school room. Staff talk about how they mix the cornflour before adding balls. Children experiment with how quickly they can make the balls move across the water. However, staff do not always stretch and challenge the most-able children's thinking during these activities, so that they learn even more.
• Parents speak very highly of the setting and praise the experiences they have had. Parents of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities comment on the rapid speed in which concerns are raised and support plans put in place for their children. Parents comment on the high levels of communication they receive from the setting. This makes them feel part of their child's nursery day.
• The knowledgeable manager is passionate about her role and has a highly ambitious vision for the setting. The leadership team models excellent practice to all staff. They demonstrate how to effectively teach children and encourage them to learn. Staff feel highly supported by the manager and leaders. Effective supervisions and appraisals allow for continuous professional development. This ensures that staff make progress in their own learning and continue to develop the quality of the nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to further develop their interactions to implement the highly ambitious curriculum and engage and extend the most-able children's learning consistently.