Sunshine and Smiles Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This nursery offers a warm, nurturing and inclusive environment. Children build secure relationships with caring practitioners, who foster children's emotional well-being and a strong sense of belonging. Children arrive happily, interact confidently with others and demonstrate a keen curiosity for learning. Practitioners draw on their knowledge of child development to deliver an engaging and thoughtfully structured curriculum, tailored to reflect children's individual interests and promote deep, meaningful learning.

Through intentional planning and responsive interactions, practitioners skilfully provide appropriate levels of challenge that support each child to make good progress across all areas of development. Practitioners enhance children's critical thinking by creating purposeful opportunities for enquiry and discovery. For example, when children experiment with rolling items down a slide, adults extend learning by encouraging children to think about distance and movement. This good practice promotes children's positive attitudes towards learning.

Practitioners are good role models. They are respectful towards children and each other, and encourage good manners, such as saying please and thank you. Overall, children display positive social behaviours. They are visibly delighted to see their peers arrive, greeting them warmly and offering toys as a gesture of friendship. Throughout the day, children play cooperatively, supported by practitioners who model and encourage key skills, such as sharing and taking turns.

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

• Managers and practitioners build strong, positive relationships with children and know them well. They understand each child's abilities and provide the support they need. Practitioners set high expectations. As a result, all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have positive attitudes towards their learning and make good progress.
• Practitioners demonstrate a secure understanding of their key children, which enables them to plan and deliver learning experiences that reflect individual interests and developmental stages. Staff understake accurate assessments and swiftly identify emerging gaps in learning. Children are supported well to ensure they make sustained progress across all areas of development.
• Practitioners provide effective support for children with SEND. They work in close partnership with parents, external agencies and professionals, such as the local authority SEND team and schools, enabling the use of shared strategies. These include tailored approaches that enable children to engage meaningfully in activities and follow daily routines with increasing independence.
• Overall, communication and language are supported well. Practitioners consistently engage children in meaningful conversations, introduce new vocabulary and use questions to encourage children to think and express their ideas. However, on occasion, practitioners ask questions in rapid succession, which limits opportunities for children to process their thoughts and respond fully.
• Practitioners support children's transition to school effectively. Older children are independent and motivated to learn. They confidently engage in mark making and early writing. For example, children use dry-wipe pens and paintbrushes with water outside to make marks. They also show secure counting and number recognition during play. Pre-school children remain engaged, display curiosity and manage their personal care well. They play cooperatively with high levels of self-esteem.
• Practitioners promote positive behaviour across the setting. They provide clear guidance, using gentle reminders to reinforce expectations and help children understand appropriate ways to behave. This contributes to a calm and respectful atmosphere.
• Practitioners use visual aids to support children who are non-verbal or who require additional help with listening and attention. This helps children to understand routines and behavioural expectations. However, practitioners do not always use these aids consistently. As a result, some children occasionally struggle to understand what is expected of them.
• Practitioners actively promote children's physical development by encouraging them to engage in activities that strengthen both their gross and fine motor skills. Outdoors, children confidently explore the environment, where they are provided with opportunities to climb, balance and navigate space with increasing coordination and control. A variety of equipment, including slides, scooters and balls, supports their physical play and helps build core strength.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support practitioners to develop children's communication even further by giving them time to process and answer questions
• consistently use chosen strategies to further support children's understanding of behaviour expectations.