The Secret Garden Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly welcomed by the nurturing and kind staff. Staff know the children very well and understand their differing emotional needs. The nursery provides a welcoming and homely feel, which helps children to settle quickly. Children demonstrate excellent manners and behaviour as they watch and learn from the behaviours of the staff. This helps children to feel safe and secure.

Children enjoy a sequenced curriculum that is appropriate for each stage of their development. This builds on what children know and can do. For example, while babies navigate the soft-play steps and crawl through the tunnel, toddlers balance across the obstacle course. Pre-school children ride their bicycles around the path and explore the wooded area. These activities develop and strengthen children's gross motor skills to support their balance, walking and control of their movements.

Children enjoy listening to and learning new stories. They join in the book 'Meet the Parents' and take it in turns to tell their friends what they enjoy doing with their parents. For example, they pay when they go to the shops and go swimming. Children gain confidence talking in groups and recalling home-life experiences.

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

• Staff are fully aware of children's learning needs and how they learn. They assess children's development successfully, which enables them to plan effectively for what children need to learn next. This means that children make good progress in their learning, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• From an early age, children are encouraged to explore their senses. For example, when children question what chocolate smells like, staff provide children with cocoa powder to paint with. Children describe the texture as 'smooth' and 'soft' and smell the powder as they mix it in the water.
• Staff introduce numbers and mathematical language from an early age. For example, babies enjoy banging with the tambourines as the staff member counts 'one, two, three'. Toddlers fill pots of sand to 'half full' and 'full' as they explore measure. Pre-school children create repetitive patterns, using beads. This helps children to make good progress in their mathematical learning.
• Throughout the day, staff work in small groups with the children. This enables staff to make the most of learning opportunities as they arise. Children benefit from focused time with staff, which builds their confidence and develops their speech and language skills.
• The manager ensures that the food provided is healthy, and mealtimes are a social event. However, at times, staff carry out tasks for the children that they can do for themselves, such as serving themselves and pouring their own drinks.
• This does not always support children to be independent.
• Staff use additional funding effectively to provide children with opportunities to broaden their experiences. For example, new resources and books enable children to share their experiences and interests with others. The impact of any additional funding is regularly reviewed to ensure that gaps in children's learning and development are narrowing.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents comment how much progress their children make at the nursery. They value the home-from-home feel that the nursery and staff provide. Parents are kept up to date with what their child is learning. Ideas to continue children's learning and development at home are shared with parents to enable children to make even better progress.
• Managers support staff well. For example, all staff have supervision sessions to discuss their professional development needs. Regular peer observations and discussions help to identify any areas for development, which staff say they find helpful. Highly qualified staff act as mentors to apprentices in the nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that children are provided with every opportunity to develop their independence skills, especially at lunchtimes.