Sunflower Daycare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children have fun and enjoy their time spent at this nursery. Babies are cherished and nurtured by kind and caring staff. They receive plenty of reassuring cuddles to build their emotional resilience. Older children are provided with genuine praise and lots of verbal encouragement. Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour and, as a result, children respond well and are confident and self-assured, which helps them to feel safe and secure.

Children show a wonderful can-do attitude, and they repeatedly try until they succeed. For instance, as they build a bridge to walk across, children slowly add more bricks to make it more secure. Staff praise children for their efforts. They introduce children to skills that support their independence. For example, babies start to use spoons at lunchtime, with effective support from staff. Older children serve themselves at mealtimes, deciding how much they want, and talk about the foods they like and do not like. Children tidy away after eating and look after their toys. Children are happy and settled, and they are thriving emotionally and developmentally.

The newly implemented curriculum is already well established and can be clearly seen in the interactions of staff and children. For example, staff support children's pre-writing skills by providing activities, such as cutting dough with scissors. They practise their pincer grip as they pick up tiny pom-poms with tweezers. All children are making good progress in their learning and development.

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

• Overall, staff's interactions with children are consistently good. At times, some interactions and support do not build on the learning intentions of planned activities as effectively as possible. For example, as children paint and print leaf patterns, opportunities to explore texture, origin and colours are not fully explored. This does not always promote learning for the individual needs of the children.
• Staff introduce counting to children from an early age. Very young children count to three as staff sing and read nursery rhymes. Older children count how many knives and forks they need as they set up the tables for lunch. However, children's extended mathematical skills are not fully encouraged, such as when they are using the connecting cubes and building their bridge. This limits the mathematical progress children are capable of making.
• Staff support children's early language skills effectively. They repeat the words children use in full sentences and talk to them about what they are doing throughout the day. For example, as children draw a picture of their reflection, they talk about their individual features and compare these with their friends.
• Staff share books and songs with children at key times during the day. They use these times to reflect on the story, introduce characters and clarify children's understanding of words. This promotes children's speech and language skills.
• Staff promote children's outdoor play appropriately, which provides children with plenty of fresh air. For example, children confidently jump across the large wooden logs, holding the hand of the member of staff when needed. They busily explore the construction area as they fill and empty the trucks with stones.
• Staff promote high standards of hygiene. They sanitise and wipe surfaces before children eat and when they finish playing. Staff wear aprons and gloves during nappy changing. They encourage children to lather and rinse their hands well after using the toilet.
• Staff make regular assessments of children's learning and development. This identifies if any further support or interventions are required for children to make even better progress in their learning.
• The manager regularly checks staff's skills and knowledge to ensure they continue to provide a good level of education to all children. This is supported by staff discussions and through attending a variety of training courses.
• Parents make positive comments about the care and development that their children receive. They feel that children are making good progress. Parents receive plenty of information about their children's day, their achievements, and their next steps in their learning. Staff develop close professional relationships with parents and carers. They support parents to build their knowledge of how to promote children's learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's understanding of the learning intention for planned activities, to enable them to shape activities more precisely to the learning needs of children
• provide and extend opportunities to promote children's wider mathematical thinking in order to raise their achievements to an even higher level.