Small Steps Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy and content learners. Younger children develop positive attachments with their key person. They explore the environment, happily knowing they can return for cuddles and reassurance if needed. When growing in confidence, younger children babble, smile, wave and bring toys to visitors.

Children enjoy the wide range of stimulating activities that staff plan for them. They behave well. They demonstrate kind and caring behaviour toward their friends as they reach out to comfort them. They follow routine expectations for behaviour and receive lots of praise and encouragement.

Children demonstrate high levels of engagement and enjoyment in their activities. Younger children laugh and giggle as they listen to nursery rhymes and begin to babble names of the animals in them. Older children cooperate with others well. They take turns as they play ball games, developing control as they throw, catch and kick balls. They dance enthusiastically to music with shakers. They enjoy taking their 'babies' on 'shopping trips' during their imaginary play.

Children are supervised well by staff, who routinely risk assess play spaces to keep them safe. They are well prepared for the next stages of their education.

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

• The manager recognises the impact on children's personal and social development following the COVID-19 pandemic. To help children develop secure bonds with their key person, she implements tailored settling-in procedures. This enables children to spend time in the nursery with their parents in a safe manner prior to attending. This has helped children to develop good attachments from the outset.
• Staff have supported parents promptly during the pandemic when they have struggled to access professional advice, such as the health visitor. For instance, they have provided guidance in relation to sleep routines and also transitions, such as when children are ready to learn to use the toilet. Parents are very complimentary about the support they have received.
• Staff help children to learn how they are unique. They begin to learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others. For instance, during celebrations in the calendar year, children listen to songs from other cultures. Staff also promote opportunities for children to learn about the wider world, through discussion about where they visit on their holidays.
• The manager ensures that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are fully included in nursery life. For example, staff work with parents to ensure they are meeting children's nutritional and medical requirements. They swiftly implement advice from relevant professionals, such as occupational therapists, to help children have equal access to all areas of the environment.
• Key people have a good understanding of what they want children to learn next, and they implement this well. However, on occasion, they are not fully effective in recognising when they can spontaneously teach children new skills or develop their knowledge to extend their learning even further.
• Staff support children's conversation skills effectively. For example, staff use their interactions with older children to help them extend the narrative of their imaginary play. This helps children to learn how to use conversation to draw others into their play.
• Staff ensure that the curriculum promotes children's physical development. For example, staff support younger children to learn to climb up steps on the slide. Toddlers develop their hand muscles as they grasp paintbrushes and make marks on the floor. Older children proudly share pictures that they draw with pencils.
• Staff recognise the importance of helping children to understand their feelings and emotions. The manager has used funding effectively to purchase a range of equipment, such as books, figures and visual resources. Staff use these with children successfully to help them learn to describe how they are feeling.
• Children are quick to follow staff instructions and they behave well. However, on occasion, staff do not fully recognise the lack of flexibility in routines, such as snack time. This means that sometimes they interrupt children's learning for snack and at other times children who are hungry wait until they can be accommodated.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to more effectively identify spontaneous opportunities where they can teach children knowledge and skills, which they can then apply to their future learning
• review the organisation of routine times and ensure all children can participate when they wish and their learning is not interrupted.