Sunbeams Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children develop well in this friendly, fun nursery. The manager, who is the owner, and her team know what they want children to learn and how they plan to teach. Children enjoy a wide range of experiences indoors and out, which help develop their skills and abilities. Staff have close relationships with children and toddlers and are attentive to their individual needs. The flexible routine helps children to know what happens next. Staff are consistent and have clear expectations for children. They set realistic and achievable boundaries, creating a secure atmosphere where children behave well.

There is a clear focus on language for speaking and developing children's confidence. All staff get down to children's eye level and engage in active conversations about what they are doing and how else they might try things. Children develop their imagination during play and link it to real-life experiences. Staff encourage cooperative role play. For example, children use 'money' and tills in the outside 'post office'. They talk together about posting letters to a birthday party, who they want to invite and what will happen at the party. Children show excitement as they discuss with staff how to build and topple large towers made with the crates in the garden. Staff regularly praise, remind and thank children for having a go and doing their best. This nurtures children's self-esteem.

Children are learning to be patient and listen as staff explain and give instructions. Staff model and provide many opportunities for children to take it in turns to wash their hands, line up and be next. This helps support children's self-control.

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

• Staff understand that toddlers enjoy investigating and are beginning to develop their independence. They enable them to explore and are on hand for reassuring cuddles. This helps young children to feel emotionally and physically safe as they play. Toddlers gain confidence climbing on the slide and crawling through the tunnel.
• Children like the focus on nursery rhymes. They experience the patterns and sequence as they begin to learn simple mathematical skills when they recite 'Hickory dickory dock'. They recognise numbers on the clock and are thinking about time and how long things take. Staff support the theme of 'more' and the 'same' throughout daily activities, modelling and teaching. This helps promote children's mathematical understanding and language.
• Staff are a good team. They know their expertise, interests and strengths to promote consistent practice. They feel well supported by the manager, who takes their well-being and workload into account. Staff have access to a range of training opportunities and ad hoc meetings to keep up to date. While staff have individual discussions with the manager, she does not make the most of supervision sessions to monitor staff's professional practice more closely to develop the quality of provision for children even further.
• Relationships with parents are effective. Parents speak very highly of the support, guidance and communication they have with the nursery team. They say staff are approachable and nothing is too much trouble. Parents know about their child's learning and development through regular updates on the online system the nursery uses. They say their children are much more sociable since coming to nursery.
• Staff use children's interests to focus and plan play opportunities. They use observations to assess children's development and identify any gaps in their learning. They plan what children need to learn next. However, they do not always extend and build on what some children can do and provide the challenge they need for even further progression.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. The manager works with her team to accurately identify children's needs. The staff team work well with parents and external agencies to plan the right support. Staff review children's targets regularly. As a result, children progress well.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff support to continuously develop their knowledge and skills to provide more challenge and encourage children's best possible progress in their learning.