The Stables Day Nursery Swinton Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the nursery happily and ready to engage in learning. They display good levels of confidence and self-esteem. Encouraged and supported well by the staff, children behave well and develop good self-care skills and independence.

Since the last inspection, the leadership and management team has designed a well-sequenced curriculum. It helps children to build on what they already know and can do and make good progress. In addition to other experiences, staff purposefully provide children in each age group with daily access to dough, sand, water, outdoor space, books and songs. Staff carefully plan these experiences to help each child to build on their skills and what they learned previously. For example, babies enjoy the sensory feel of dough, toddlers experiment with flour and water to make dough and older children make pizzas from dough. Children enjoy a wide range of sensory play. For example, babies experience the feel of lime and lemon slices in water. Older babies scoop rice crispies into bowls with spoons.

Children are well prepared with essential skills to move up from the baby room, through each age group in the nursery and on to school. Staff work closely with parents to actively seek early help for children when needed. This enables children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who receive funding, to make good progress.

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

• Following a review of all aspects of practice, leaders, managers and staff have worked together well to improve the quality of care and education. They have a clear view of their strengths and are working through plans to build further on their good practice.
• Children enjoy stories read well by staff and look at books to seek information. For example, children learn the names of dinosaurs and whether they have a plant- or meat-based diet. They use their new knowledge well while playing imaginatively.
• Staff model language well and repeat key words. Core books and songs are identified for each age group, which staff share with children repeatedly. This repetition helps children to develop good speaking and listening skills. Staff also help to build up children's mathematical language and skills while they play. Toddlers talk about big and little while comparing the size of the toy animals in the water. Older children use words, such as massive, to describe the size of dinosaurs. They count the number of scoops taken to fill different-sized containers with sand.
• Some experiences support children to recognise the similarities between themselves and others. Staff link some activities to calendar events. For example, for Pride Month, children look at books featuring different families and draw their own families.
• Managers increasingly observe staff's practice and provide regular feedback on their performance. They are beginning to focus on staff's individual professional development. Since the last inspection, the focus has been on training, such as behaviour management, to benefit the whole nursery. For example, staff make more consistent use of ways to help identify the triggers for any unwanted behaviour. They encourage children consistently to use 'kind hands' and indoor voices and to follow these and other 'golden goals'.
• Staff ensure children's beds and any comforters required are ready when needed. This, and listening to soothing music as they fall asleep, helps children to feel emotionally secure. Some children sleep outdoors, as part of a trial following research on the benefits of sleeping in the fresh air.
• Staff follow strong procedures for children who have allergies and special dietary needs. Children are provided with healthy meals and snacks. They talk about healthy eating, why they need to drink water and how regular exercise keeps them physically fit.
• Children form secure attachments to their key person and other staff members who know them well. When children move up to the next age group, they take with them a full report of their interests and abilities. Good use is made of this information to help children to continue their learning journey.
• Parents speak positively about the staff, how much their children enjoy attending and the progress they are making. They receive photographs and exchange information regularly through an electronic system. Increasing use of displayed information helps to inform parents about the nursery policies and the planning. Managers are beginning to request more information about children's home experiences, so they recognise and close any gaps in their learning more swiftly.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the link between observation of practice and the support, coaching and training provided to improve staff's skills to the highest level
• exchange information even more effectively with parents to support continuity in children's learning.