St Peter's Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly greeted by the caring staff, who are attentive to them. This allows them to confidently separate from their parents or carers. Children demonstrate that they are happy and feel safe in the nursery. Children behave well. Staff develop children's awareness of their emotional well-being effectively. For example, they ask children how they are feeling during group times, and they use positive reward strategies to help children learn. Staff offer a rich language environment for the children, which supports their communication and speaking skills. Staff recite stories that thrill and captivate children of all ages.

Staff provide a clean, welcoming and safe environment for the children to play. Children have access to a good variety of toys and resources. They benefit from a curriculum that is designed to give children the knowledge they need to succeed in life. For example, staff support children to develop their independence. Babies and young children are encouraged to feed themselves and progress from a highchair to a chair, whereas older children are supported to put on their own coats and fasten them. Staff know the children well and they support them as unique individuals. All children, including those in receipt of additional funding, demonstrate that they are making good progress.

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

• The management team and staff work well together, and they reflect regularly on their practice and skills. All staff receive regular training and supervision. They confirm that they are well supported by a kind, compassionate and supportive management team. The adult-to-child ratio is well maintained and staff are suitability deployed to meet the needs of the children.
• Overall, staff support children's learning well, providing a good range of activities and experiences to help them to learn. Through discussions, staff know how activities can be used to support children's development. However, at times, some staff do not deliver the intended teaching outcomes they have planned for, which means that some teaching is not as effective in extending children's knowledge and skills. Nevertheless, children have opportunities to be engaged in activities that they enjoy.
• Staff are kind and respectful to the children. They are calm and caring and are good role models. They use positive strategies to manage children's behaviour. Children are kind and considerate to their friends. For example, they take turns well and show friendly behaviour to others as they help them to manage tasks. Children have fun playing together. For instance, children can be heard laughing together as they explore happily in the play kitchen and dress up.
• Children's health and well-being are well maintained. The staff provide balanced meals for the children, which they enjoy. Staff are suitably trained to cook for the children and good hygiene routines are maintained. Staff provide daily opportunities for all children to play outside. Children are seen to have fun as they explore on the balancing beams, create pictures using chalks and paints, and play imaginatively as they take a ride on a boat to Spain.
• Staff understand the importance of supporting children's language skills. They model speech effectively and take time to enhance children's communication skills through effective activities. Staff teach children new words and meanings to help them build their vocabulary. For example, as older children explore the ramps with the cars, they learn words to describe the surfaces and the movements the vehicles make.
• Parents and carers speak highly of the staff and how they provide their children with a happy and nurturing environment where they can play and learn. They comment that staff are kind and management go above and beyond to be supportive. Parents receive regular updates about their children's progress. This, along with the lending resources provided by the nursery, helps them to support learning at home.
• The management team has appropriate policies and procedures in place to ensure children's health is maintained. For example, suitable sickness procedures are followed to minimise the risk of infection. Medication, accident records and risk assessments are in place and are used accordingly to protect children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the implementation of the curriculum and tailor teaching more precisely to ensure intended learning is supported to help extend children's knowledge and skills further.