The Little Ripley Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are greeted enthusiastically by staff as they are met at the doors of the nursery. Staff are attentive, building warm and close relationships with children. Babies enjoy lots of cuddles. This helps their emotional development. Children are well behaved. They are supported by staff to learn how to take turns and share. Staff help older children to learn how to negotiate with each other and to cooperate together as they play games. Children thrive on the praise they receive from staff. This supports their self-esteem and confidence.

Children enthusiastically explore the indoor and outdoor environments and find interesting and inspiring activities to develop their imagination. Babies, toddlers and older children have their own dedicated outside space. Toddlers develop their large-muscle skills as they negotiate the garden, climbing up slopes and coming down slides. Older children enjoy finding new ways to roll and slide down the large mounds in their outside space. This enables them to develop physical skills safely.

Staff, children and parents celebrate the pre-school children's graduation from nursery to Reception class. Children enthusiastically and confidently sing songs and perform dances for their parents to show how they have developed during their time at nursery. This helps children to have a good sense of achievement.

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

• The manager has a well-thought-out curriculum, sequenced on what children know and can do and what they need to learn next. As a result, all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress and show positive attitudes towards learning.
• Children develop good communication and language skills. Staff take every opportunity to extend language, introducing new words to the youngest children and engaging older children in meaningful conversations. For example, when older children show an interest in planets and identify which one they live on. Staff introduce new vocabulary and support language development through fostering children's love of books, songs and rhymes.
• Children's development of literacy is supported well. Staff provide children with a range of materials to encourage writing, as well as activities to develop their fine-motor skills.
• Mathematics is embedded well and woven throughout children's activities. For example, when working with younger children, staff count the number of sides on a three dimensional shape and introduce the names of new shapes, such as pentagon and hexagon. Staff say one, two, three, go when playing with babies.
• Children talk to staff about what they have learned during the morning. Staff support this by linking experiences together. For example, when children spontaneously make pirate treasure maps, staff hide treasure for them to find outside. This is later linked to a story about pirates, enabling children to recall what they had done earlier in the day. This assists staff to build the children's knowledge and understanding.
• Occasionally, staff are called away from an activity to carry out routine tasks. When this happens, they do not explain to children that they will shortly return to resume the activity or ask other staff to carry out the task for them. As a result, there are times when children lose interest and move away and the activity is then packed away without children completing it. This impacts on valuable learning time and disrupts children's concentration.
• The manager has a clear vision for improvement and staff say that they feel supported. The manager monitors the quality of teaching and promotes staff's professional development. Staff have regular supervision and staff meetings. This has a positive impact on developing staff practice.
• An effective key-person system supports children to form strong attachments and promotes their well-being and independence. Partnership with parents is good. Parents talk enthusiastically of the progress their children make. Parents receive regular updates on their children's well-being and progress via email and an interactive learning diary.
• Management and staff understand the importance of working in partnership with other providers and do this successfully, supporting children's transitions on to school. They also support children well as they make transitions through the nursery by working with parents and planning for children to make short visits to their new rooms over a period of time. This enables children to settle quickly and become confident learners.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation of daily routines, so that learning is not disrupted and children's attention and concentration is sustained.