The Little Academy Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy a wide variety of activities in this bright, welcoming nursery. Staff develop secure relationships with children, allowing them to feel safe in the nursery. Staff use children's interests to plan activities. Babies explore the sensory tray. They explore various dry textures in large trays, crunching the cereal flakes in their hands and watching to see what happens next. This helps children to become inquisitive learners.

Staff have high expectations of children. Children receive a lot of praise and encouragement from staff as they play, such as when children climb up the ladders to the climbing frame. Staff encourage children to try this independently. As their confidence builds, staff members gradually offer less support. These achievements build on children's self-esteem. Children are well behaved and play cooperatively. Younger children play alongside their peers. They watch intently as their friends play with toys, copying and following their lead. For example, older children excitedly experiment rolling balls down the drain pipes to see which one travels the fastest. Younger children copy them and join in the fun. Children develop social skills and the ability to work together.

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

• The new manager and staff team have begun to create an ambitious curriculum for all children. They know the children well and understand how they learn. A robust settling-in policy ensures that key persons gather information on what children can already do, and what they need to learn next. Staff use observations and assessments well to design an appropriate curriculum for children to help scaffold their learning.
• Staff help children in their future learning. For example, they promote good communication and language skills. They make eye contact with babies and young children and provide a running commentary to help them learn new words. Staff provide singing sessions and read stories to help widen children's vocabulary. They introduce words such as 'pat' and 'ready steady go,' as they make shapes in the sand with moulds.
• Staff support children to regulate their emotions and to become independent learners. They successfully use stories and discussions and 'calm-down boxes', to help children talk about and begin to regulate their emotions. Children behave well. This is evident as the older children support their friends to zip their coats up when they struggle.
• Room transitions are well supported throughout the nursery. Key persons complete detailed documents to share children's development information. The new manager and staff meet to discuss children's individual needs and personality traits and how to best support the children. Parents are happy with the setting and state they are 'well informed about transitions,' and their children are 'happy and safe'.
• In the main, staff encourage children to develop good routines and habits, such as handwashing. Children are offered a large variety of fresh fruit at snack times. The children learn to carefully cut vegetables independently. They talk with staff about the different vegetables and where they come from. However, staff do not consistently support children to understand the impact that healthy foods might have on their bodies.
• Children's physical development is actively encouraged. They energetically ride bicycles, climb on apparatus and reach up high, stretching their muscles as they practise throwing rubber rings around cones.
• Staff provide many opportunities for children to develop their literacy skills. For example, children enjoy listening to their favourite stories and can access a range of resources to make marks in various ways. However, staff do not incorporate mathematics as well as they could. For example, staff do not consistently build on children's interest in mathematics by using further mathematical language or numbers in children's play and exploration.
• Staff receive good support from the management team through targeted supervision meetings and training. The new manager has made significant positive changes since the last inspection and has a clear plan in place to continue the development of the nursery. She understands her role in the journey they are on and how she will continue to support staff.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend children's understanding of how healthy eating habits contribute to their overall health
• develop the programme for mathematics to build on children's previous learning and develop their mathematical skills even further.