Shiny Stars Day Nursery Trentham

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this inspiring nursery. They feel happy and safe in the warmth of the loving staff. Children develop strong relationships with their key person. Staff get to know their children and families very well, which helps them to create unique settling-in processes.

Children play and learn very closely with other children in their key group. They sit together at mealtimes and communicate with their friends, and their key person, developing rich vocabulary and language skills. Children's personal care needs are all supported exceptionally well by their key person. This promotes healthy relationships and cooperative play with others.

Children's behaviour is exemplary and staff are excellent role models. Children understand the rules and boundaries. They respect the high-quality resources that they have in nursery and help to take care of them. They hold books carefully and put them back in the suitcase where they belong. All children happily follow the routines. They respond immediately when they hear the tambourine and join in with the songs that gain children's attention.

Staff have extremely high expectations for every child. Babies take part in captivating circle time activities using bubbles to catch and pop. They join in with number rhymes, anticipating which number comes next, and develop their concentration.

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

• Staff and managers in this nursery have created a unique curriculum that stems from the interests and needs of children. Staff provide carefully planned invitations for learning and encourage children to be curious, inquisitive learners. The stimulating open-ended resources in each learning environment allow children to lead their own play. For example, outdoors, children use crates and wooden beams to walk and balance on. This allows children to plan their own play and manage risks. Other children explore long-stem flowers. They concentrate deeply as they remove the petals to make perfumes or food to support their imaginative play.
• Children make exceptional progress from their starting points. This is because staff get to know them very well and have highly effective assessment procedures in place to identify children's individual learning needs. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities settle very well and make excellent progress at this inclusive nursery. The attentive manager goes above and beyond to ensure that all children have equal opportunities and experiences. The staff work closely with parents and other agencies to create unique learning plans for children. This enhances children's learning opportunities even further.
• Staff provide children with meticulously planned daily intervention groups to support them in their communication and language. Children sit and take part in highly interactive story times for extended periods of time. They display high levels of concentration and participation as they listen and join in the story. The experienced staff differentiate instructions so that children have a level of challenge that is matched precisely to their stage of development. For example, when teaching positional language to toddlers, children understand complex instructions and place two toy hippos on top of a box. This helps to extend children's understanding of language and problem-solving skills.
• Parents speak extremely highly of the nursery and the outstanding experiences that children receive. Parents identify that the outings that staff take children on provide valuable learning about the world around them. For instance, staff follow children's interests and take them on trips to the airport to learn about aeroplanes. Parents value the support they receive from staff, such as advice around toilet training and sleep. This provides the children with consistency as the staff and parents work collaboratively to support children's development.
• The manager heavily invests in the well-being of the staff and children at the nursery. She ensures that everyone feels loved and appreciated. The manager has recently added an outdoor classroom. This offers additional space for staff to provide children with individual care and interventions, such as one-to-one support. It also provides staff with a place that they can go to relax and reflect during their breaks.
• Staff and managers continually reflect on and evaluate their practice. On a weekly basis, the staff teams in each room review practice and outcomes for children. This includes identifying strengths and areas for improvement. Staff receive regular training sessions with the manager to support their understanding of how children learn. In each room, staff use vision boards that display images of what they want children to experience and learn. These are used to inspire staff and support their teaching practice. This means that children's experiences are consistently being enhanced and quality of teaching is continually improving.