Sutherland Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The nursery ensures that positive relationships, with the families of children who attend, are quickly established. There is a clear settling-in procedure and children's starting points are used to support staff in planning a child-centred approach to learning. The effective key-person system, and strong bonds that staff form with children, enables children to feel safe and secure in their environment.

Staff encourage children to be independent and also work together as part of a team. Children respond well to instructions given to them by staff. For example, toddlers and pre-schoolers follow instructions for giving out the plates and cups at snack time and tidying away after they have finished eating. Babies enjoy the praise and encouragement and responsibility of collecting the balls up after a throwing activity.

Staff support children well as they engage in imaginative play. Babies enjoy role-play cooking and staff support their language development as they play. Staff model stirring, filling and emptying. Older children enjoy listening to heartbeats using stethoscopes and taking temperatures as they role-play being doctors. Staff use effective questioning to further support and extend their play. This supports children's engagement and enjoyment.

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

• Children enjoy the range of planned activities on offer. Babies enjoy painting using a range of different-sized brushes and older children enjoy helping to make and manipulate play dough. However, children's access to space, and the opportunity to spend the time they need to fully consolidate their learning on any given activity, are hampered due to the organisation and the number of resources on offer in some rooms. This means that children do not always get the most from the planned learning.
• Staff support children well in understanding the concept of number. They count body parts and practise counting as they transition between activities. Older children show good understanding as they count cubes on their hands. They recite numbers in the correct order and show an understanding of 1 to1 correspondence when counting. Staff support them further in understanding the concepts of 'one more' and 'one less' and in how the numbers change accordingly.
• The nursery places great emphasis on celebrating children's cultural and diverse backgrounds. Staff speak to children in a range of languages alongside English, and engage children and their parents in cultural celebrations. They celebrate a range of religious festivals, which include Diwali, Ramadan, Christmas and the Lunar New Year. Staff, parents and the local community get involved in fully supporting children to dress up, sing songs and taste a variety of foods. This fully supports children in understanding, respecting and celebrating diversity and difference.
• Staff ensure children understand the importance of having good manners. They remind children of their expectations for saying please and thank you. Staff support children with sharing resources with friends and provide them with strategies to resolve disputes. However, staff do not always make their expectations for children's behaviour clear. For example, children are not given age-appropriate information about the safe use of the indoor climbing frame, turn taking and sitting for group times. This means that children do not fully understand safe and suitable ways to behave that will further support them as they transition to their next stage in learning, including starting school.
• Parents are happy with the nursery and its home-from-home feel. They say their children enjoy coming and that they are kept fully up to date with their children's learning. They feel particularly supported with the advice the nursery gives them on managing their children's sleeping, eating and behaviour. They are warmly welcomed into nursery to attend workshops and celebration events.
• The leadership team has a clear vision in moving forward and places great emphasis on training opportunities for staff. Their thorough and regular staff meetings allow staff opportunities to learn from one another and reflect on current practice. They use a range of external agencies to support them in creating specific learning plans for individual children and make effective use of the support on offer from the local authority.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to ensure they make their expectations of safe and suitable ways to behave clear to children
• consider ways to organise resources, activities and equipment more effectively to ensure children can better navigate their environment and fully access and consolidate all learning opportunities.