The Ark Day Care Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly greet children and parents as they arrive, which helps children to feel welcome and settle quickly. Children are very self-assured and separate from their parents with ease. Staff encourage children to be independent at various times throughout the day. For example, they take off their coats and know where to hang them. They confidently serve themselves at mealtimes and have plenty of opportunities to choose what they want to play with. Children demonstrate that they feel emotionally safe and secure.

The manager and staff have an ambitious curriculum in place to support all children's learning. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works effectively in partnership with parents and other professionals to ensure that all children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive good support. This positively impacts children's learning and the quality of education provided. For example, the manager ensures that children are in small groups with their key person throughout their session. They ensure that one-to-one support is provided for children who need it the most, which highly benefits their learning.

The interactions between staff and children are positive. Children know their key person well and develop strong bonds. Staff are calm and polite in their interactions with the children, who, in turn, demonstrate politeness. Children are happy and eagerly participate in activities. They learn how to behave and treat each other with respect.

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

• Since the last inspection, the provider has taken appropriate steps to ensure improvement has been made. Leadership and management of the provision is effective. The new manager has worked hard to develop the team and worked with the local authority early years team to support staff training. These changes have enhanced the quality of teaching and learning for all children.
• The manager is passionate about her role. She ensures that the SENCo attends training to develop their knowledge and skills. This helps to ensure that staff working with the children are effectively supported to enhance children's progress. For example, the SENCo supports staff to meet with parents and professionals. Staff gather and share in-depth information to ensure swift intervention to help close any gaps in children's learning.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. The key-person system is now effective and all parents know who their child's key person is. Parents talk about the daily conversations and regular meetings they have with their child's key person. This effectively enhances the two-way flow of information between staff and parents. Parents speak highly of the staff team and the level of support provided to them and their children. They comment positively on the progress their children make.
• Staff help children to develop good speech. For example, they introduce new words during activities. They use lots of singing and discussions to support language skills. However, staff do not consistently use systems that are already in place to enhance the understanding of children who are learning English as an additional language. Children are, at times, unsure what is expected of them and what is going to happen next. As a result, changes between activities are not always as smooth as possible.
• Staff use their observations and assessments of children well. They identify what children can do, what they already know, what they enjoy doing and need to learn next. Staff use this information along with what they have learned from parents to accurately identify children's curriculum focus. They then tailor children's next steps according to their individual needs. However, during some group times, such as story time, staff do not always adjust their teaching to suit children of varied abilities and needs.
• Staff teach children the importance of a healthy lifestyle. For instance, they learn how to care for their teeth and eat well through activities about food and at mealtimes. Children engage in physical exercise outdoors. They explore a good range of interesting activities, such as climbing, riding bicycles and engaging in games that encourage them to move about and promote their good health. They learn about keeping themselves and others safe as they play. Children's behaviour is good.
• Staff say that they enjoy working at the setting. They have regular supervisions with the manager and receive feedback on their practice. They are effectively supported through training and continuous professional development. Together, they review and evaluate what they do. This helps to ensure that they can continually improve.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently implement systems to help children who are not yet fluent in English, or have communication difficulties, to fully understand what is going to happen next, to promote a smooth change in activities
• help staff to consistently differentiate their teaching during group activities, such as story time, with children of varied needs and abilities to support their learning further.