Small Wonders Day Care Nursery and Enhanced Activity Centre

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted with warmth and enthusiasm by staff when they arrive at the nursery. Staff take time to find out about how children are feeling and ask parents about what they have done at the weekend. Children share news and talk about their family with attentive staff during the day. Children feel comfortable to explore their environment. Babies show particularly close bonds with the staff who care for them. They seek staff out for cuddles.

Staff take a consistent approach to teaching children about the boundaries for their behaviour at nursery. They talk to children in an appropriate way and encourage sharing and taking turns. They discuss in detail different levels of volume in their voices and when it is appropriate to use these. Children enjoy participating in the sensory and creative opportunities that are available to them. The youngest babies explore sand with their whole bodies, developing their exploratory play skills. Toddlers experience foam and water while learning about the seaside. Children are given a wide range of experiences. This helps to ensure children make good progress from the start.

Children and staff have good relationships and staff know children well. This enables staff to plan experiences that are tailored to meet children's individual learning needs and interests. The rooms where children play and learn are well considered. This helps to ensure that children have access to a wide range of exciting opportunities and supports them in making choices about their own learning.

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

• Leaders and staff support families very well. They identify children who may require additional support in order to make good progress from the start. Staff work closely with families and outside agencies to implement bespoke strategies that support children. They have created areas in the nursery which allow parents to discuss sensitive matters or collect information through leaflets and posters. This helps to provide a consistent approach for all children.
• Leaders have a clear intent for what they want children to learn. Overall, staff demonstrate a good knowledge of child development. However, there are occasions when staff do not precisely identify the knowledge and skills they intend children to learn during activities. This means that, occasionally, children are not supported to make the very best progress.
• Interactions between staff and children are very good. Staff understand the importance of repeating, modelling and demonstrating language. This supports children's language acquisition well. For example, children playing with minibeasts learn different types, such as scorpion and centipede. They extend their learning further by talking about which insects sting. As a result, children are confident talkers and develop good skills to support future learning.
• Staff provide choices for children such as what resources they would like to play with. They follow children's interests and extend this learning through play experiences. For example, children have an interest in the story 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. Staff encourage children to recall the story by providing figures, different sized beds and chairs. Children enjoy acting out Goldilocks moving to the different sized beds and use language, such as 'big, medium and small'. This consolidates children's learning and introduces mathematical concepts.
• Staff promote children's health and well-being throughout the nursery day. For example, they encourage children to put on their own shoes and wipe noses. The setting are aware that some families need help with understanding the importance of good dental hygiene. They have supported parents to find local dentists and share with children the impact of too much sugar in certain drinks and how this affects their teeth. This supports children to understand the importance of good hygiene from an early age.
• Parents are happy and comment on the 'good vibes' the staff and leaders create. They feel well informed about their child's progress and talk about the different development skills they are working on. They celebrate the progress their child has made throughout their time at nursery. The staff share information on topics such as toilet training and how to promote communication at home. This encourages consistency and reaching the best possible outcomes.
• The leadership team is passionate and dedicated and staff share their enthusiasm. Staff benefit from effective support and supervision sessions. This helps staff to develop confidence. It also supports the high morale and positive attitude within the setting.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff in how to identify more clearly what they want children to learn as they plan and provide opportunities and experiences.