The Old School Day Nursery - Tommies Childcare

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are happy in this welcoming and well-organised nursery. They form secure attachments with practitioners, who are attentive to their needs, wishes and thoughts. Practitioners speak respectfully to children. They praise children for their efforts during activities and daily routines, such as making models with play dough and serving their own dinner at mealtimes. This helps children to develop their sense of self and confidence. Practitioners welcome parents and children enthusiastically. They take time to talk to parents and ensure collaborative information-sharing. As a result, practitioners can fully support children's well-being during their day, which helps children to feel safe and secure.

Practitioners design a curriculum that focuses on children's interests and next steps in their learning. Practitioners ensure that parents play an active part in their child's learning by sharing children's interests and recent experiences. This helps practitioners to provide a broad curriculum for children. Babies confidently engage in sensory activities, such as water and sand play. Toddlers enthusiastically explore the kitchen role-play area, which has real fruits and vegetables, where they peel onions proudly. Practitioners use stories to support older children's learning. For example, they encourage older children to describe and try exotic fruits from the book 'Handa's Surprise'. Children demonstrate their previous learning by recalling parts of fairy tales that they have read. For example, they talk about 'Little Red Riding Hood' and the wolf hiding in grandma's bed, and they work together to build strong houses with foam bricks, inspired by the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'. All children thoroughly enjoy opportunities to play outdoors, where they use scooters to develop their physical skills and build on their imagination in the role-play shop.

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

• Managers are passionate and driven in their intent to offer good early years experiences for all children. Practitioners work well together to provide a curriculum that builds on what children know and what they want children to learn next. This helps children to make good progress from their starting points.
• Practitioners talk confidently about their key children, and they have clear intentions relating to enhancing children's learning and development. Practitioners quickly identify children who will benefit from additional support. They work well with parents to ensure that support is put in place within the setting, including the use of individual development plans for those experiencing communication and language delay. This helps to narrow any gaps in attainment and ensure good outcomes for all children.
• Partnerships with parents are extremely positive. Parents explain that their children are always happy to come to the nursery, and that they feel that practitioners always take the time to communicate with them and provide detailed feedback. Practitioners update parents about their child's progress. They provide information evenings for parents about topics such as how to support children's communication and language development and promote school readiness. This supports parents and enables them to continue their children's learning at home.
• Children are enthusiastic about the activities that they are taking part in. Older children become immersed as they practise cutting vegetables. They use knives and potato peelers to cut vegetables for their pasta salad, which helps to develop their fine motor skills. Children proudly show off their cutting skills and value the praise from practitioners.
• Children generally behave well. They learn to share and play cooperatively together. However, on occasions, when children display some unwanted behaviours, practitioners are not consistent in their responses. As a result, children do not gain a clear understanding of what is expected of them to be able to follow the nursery's 'golden rules'.
• Practitioners encourage all children to be independent throughout the day. They teach children simple skills from an early age, such as the ability to make choices at snack time, serve their own meals and put on their own coats and wellington boots. As a result, children show good levels of confidence and independence.
• Managers ensure that children have rich experiences as they learn. For example, children build connections in the wider community when they visit and spend time in the local care home. This supports children's social skills and knowledge about their community.
• Managers encourage practitioners through supervision and open discussion. Practitioners comment that they feel well supported by their managers and have opportunities to develop their professional interests, such as learning and implementing the use of sign language. This helps their teaching skills to continually develop, and means that the quality of support that they give to children to develop their communication and language is strong.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support practitioners to be consistent in their behaviour management approaches to help further develop children's understanding of the behaviour expectations in the nursery.