The Horseshoe Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this very friendly and welcoming nursery. They are happy, settled and secure. Staff place a strong emphasis on children learning about the natural world. Children benefit from daily access to fresh air, exercise and green space. They are taught to care for plants and creatures. This helps to support children's personal, social and emotional development. For example, they grow potatoes and sunflowers in the enclosed garden. Children dig in soil and plant bulbs. They care for caterpillars until they turn into butterflies and search for insects, using magnifying glasses.

Relationships between children and staff are good. Staff are kind, caring and sensitive. They speak to children respectfully and encourage them to use their manners. Key persons form close bonds with the children they care for. They know individual children very well. Overall, staff have a strong understanding of what they need to do to further embed and extend children's learning. Children become increasingly independent. They fetch and put on their own coats and aprons. Children benefit from a nutritious and balanced menu of healthy, home-made meals.

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

• Children are eager, enthusiastic and motivated to learn. They benefit from a wide range of stimulating and challenging activities. Staff plan exciting experiences for children which are based on their interests. For example, children pretend to camp in the garden, using a tepee. Staff encourage children to use their senses to explore herbs and flowers. They take the children to see the horses and ponies in an adjacent field.
• Staff plan strong support for children's physical development. Children develop their small-muscle skills through rich opportunities. For example, they take part in messy play, using their fingers and hands. They develop their large-muscle skills by climbing, swinging and balancing on equipment outside. Children build strength as they roll tyres up and down slopes in the nursery garden. They delight in this activity as they take turns to see who can roll their tyre the fastest.
• Overall, support for children's communication and language skills is good. Staff ensure that children hear lots of language each day through singing and stories. They introduce new words and ask questions that encourage children to give detailed answers. However, staff are not deployed consistently during group and transition times to provide greater support for children's listening and attention skills.
• Staff support children's literacy well. They plan activities for children which are based on their favourite books. For example, children take part in food tasting sessions which are based on the food in the story 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. They grow beans in pots after reading the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk'.
• Staff weave children's developing mathematical skills into their everyday play and activities. For example, children identify the colours of cups they use to dig with soil. They count the number of jumps they make in music-and-movement sessions. Staff discuss with children the size of animals in the toy farm and the numbers on a measuring tape as they measure in the garden.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Parents speak very highly of the nursery and the staff team. Staff have built good relationships with partner professionals in education. For example, they invite teachers from local schools to the nursery to help support children's moves from nursery to school.
• Staff provide good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For example, staff act on suggestions from health professionals to help to provide consistent support for children's development. They use sign language and visual prompts to help aid children's understanding and communication.
• The manager provides strong support for her staff team, including for their well-being. She provides support for staff's professional development through review meetings, training, observations of practice and constructive feedback.
• The manager gathers views from parents, and staff reflect on activities for children. They use this information to plan for the continuous improvement of the nursery. The manager is dedicated and passionate about the experiences offered for children and the quality of the service the nursery provides.
• Overall, staff support children to manage their behaviour. However, they do not consistently explain or help children to understand the impact of their behaviour on others.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• deploy staff more effectively to support children's listening and attention skills, particularly at group times and as children move from one routine to another
• help children to understand the impact of unwanted behaviour on others.