The Hunny Jar Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy their time at this home-from-home nursery. Staff know children well and recognise when they may need support. They sensitively support all children and are respectful of their individual personalities, needs and routines. Pre-school children are encouraged to share how they are feeling. Babies cuddle up with staff for reassuring cuddles and comfort. Children build positive relationships with staff and each other. Staff help children to learn how to cooperate with one another as they play. Pre-school children are encouraged to take turns with hula-hoops. They watch and celebrate each other's achievements as they successfully make the hoop swivel around.

Staff provide children with a range of exciting activities that entice them to explore. Children are eager learners and are keen to join in. They are also able to take part in some additional enrichment programmes that build on their talents and interests, such as learning to ride bicycles in the 'bicycle academy'. Toddlers take part in planned music and dance sessions. They laugh together as they engage in high-energy movements before staff encourage them to 'warm down'. Children respond to staff's direction and sit and then lay down, continuing to move rhythmically to the soothing music.

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

• Staff implement a well-planned and sequenced curriculum. They provide activities that help children to continually build on the skills they need for their future learning. Babies develop their small-muscle skills and hand-eye coordination as they are supported to transfer objects from one hand to the other. Toddlers and pre-school children learn how to hold pencils correctly and use these to create marks on paper.
• Staff support children to develop their communication and language skills. They provide running commentaries as they support babies during their play. Pre-school children engage in back-and-forth conversations with staff and each other as they eat together at lunchtime.
• Children show high levels of concentration and enjoyment during activities that interest them. With staff, they observe cars as they drive past the nursery. Staff encourage children to predict what colour car might go past next. Children work together to identify the colour and record their findings on a white board.
• Staff provide an exciting environment for children to develop their physical skills. Babies grow in confidence as they independently move around the room, stopping to explore paint and play with sand. Outdoors, toddlers navigate large play equipment as they climb up and down ladders. Pre-school children ride balance bicycles with increasing confidence as they manoeuvre them around obstacles and into 'parking spaces'.
• Partnership with parents is a strength of the nursery. Staff ensure that parents are kept well informed about their children's learning and development. Parents receive daily snapshots and photos and a verbal update from staff on collection. Staff provide ideas on how parents can support their children's learning at home.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. Staff attend specific training and work closely with other professionals and parents to ensure that children's individual learning and development and care needs are met.
• Staff, overall, engage positively with children as they play. However, there are times during some planned activities that staff do not adapt their interactions to reflect children's emerging interests. For example, when children play with spoons and pots and are curious about the sounds they make when they bang them together, staff redirect their attention to scooping and pouring.
• Staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. They implement consistent strategies throughout the nursery to support children in understanding the rules and boundaries. Staff encourage children to think about how their actions may impact on others and how they can work together. Staff recognise and reward children's achievements.
• Children are supported to be independent from a young age. Staff encourage children to wash their hands before eating. They recognise when children are ready to toilet train. Staff offer sensitive support and encouragement to help children to be confident in managing their own toileting needs. Staff invite parents to attend 'potty workshops' to promote a consistent approach between home and nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff skills to be more responsive to children's emerging interests during activities.