The Island Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Managers and staff create a happy and safe environment for children, that is at the heart of the community it serves. Staff know children well and take time to build relationships with their families and carers. This partnership working helps children to feel settled from the beginning. Staff take the time to get to know children's unique personalities, tailoring care to help children build confidence as they move through the nursery. This is particularly effective for babies and less confident children, who develop good levels of emotional security. Children behave well. Staff teach children kindness and respect in their day-to-day interactions. Children learn the importance of valuing and respecting the differing needs of their friends. For example, toddlers wait patiently for their turn with the water sprayer as they feed the giant African land snails.

Managers and staff create a broad curriculum, which ignites children's curiosity. This helps to motivate children to learn, as staff create exciting play experiences which take account of their individual interests. For instance, children pretend they are in the sea, as they search for crabs and mermaids, excitedly sharing what they find. Additional funding is used well to target areas where children need support, and it has a positive impact on children's progress. All children, including those who receive additional funding, make good progress in their development, in relation to their starting points.

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

• The manager is a strong leader, who shares her ambition and vision with her staff. Leaders and staff are passionate about providing high-quality care for all children. The staff team work well together. Staff say that they feel valued and respected in their roles and are supported well by the leadership team. They benefit from regular supervisions, to support them in their roles. The manager recognises that there is scope to strengthen how staff professional development opportunities are used to enhance teaching skills, particularly around refining children's speaking skills.
• Children are very independent and take great pride in being able to do some things for themselves. Staff support children's growing abilities, offering encouragement to help them become confident and capable in being independent. For instance, toddlers learn how to put on and take off their coats when they have played outside. Staff help pre-schoolers think about how to open packets of foods at lunchtime and to tidy away when they have finished eating. Staff use these early experiences to help children develop skills that support them in readiness for their next stage in learning, including school.
• Leaders and staff recognises that since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an impact on the expected progress in children's speaking skills and imaginative play. Staff create a rich curriculum based around key areas, leaders identify children who need further focus. Staff use opportunities to talk to children, model language and help children to concentrate during activities. They provide a wealth of activities, which help children to be imaginative. For instance, toddlers explore modelling dough as they pretend to make snakes. Staff have a good knowledge about their children. However, at times, the learning intentions for children are not fully explored within the activities that staff provide, to enable teaching to be more precisely targeted to what children need to know or to be able to do next.
• Children with special educational needs/and or disabilities (SEND) are supported well. Staff quickly identify those children who may need additional support and carefully consider how they can help them. Staff work well with other professionals involved in children's care, to promote consistency in children's learning and care. Staff reflect on how they can develop their environment to support children. For instance, funding has been used to create a sensory room, which staff successfully use to help meet children's emotional needs.
• Partnerships with parents are a strength of the setting. Staff recognise and value the relationships they develop with children and their families. They share a wealth of information about children's play experiences and overall progress. Staff offer ideas of how parents can support children's learning at home, which successfully help children with their ongoing progress. For instance, staff offer advice and help support children as they are toilet trained. Parents state that staff are 'amazing and know children's unique needs well'. These partnerships help children to settle and provide a consistency of care for all children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• target future professional development opportunities in order to help to refine and enhance staff teaching skills precisely, particularly around supporting communication and language
• develop clearer links between what children need to learn and the delivery of activities, to shape these to the individual learning needs of each child.