The Stables Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and their families are warmly welcomed into the nursery. Overall, children benefit from meaningful teaching. Children demonstrate a positive attitude to their learning and show an interest in the resources and activities provided. Younger children are shown how to use a spade to fill their bucket with sand. This supports them to develop their physical strength and hand-to-eye coordination. Babies are encouraged to feel the texture of the sand with their fingers. Staff encourage young children to roll their cars down a raised plastic tube. They introduce language, such as 'ready, steady, go', and support the children to differentiate between the fast and slow cars. Younger children explore frozen ice. They eagerly use their hammers to break the ice to reveal the hidden toy fish.

Older children use magnifying glasses to search for bugs and use the outdoor tap to fill watering cans to make 'mud pies' and 'potions'. They play happily alongside each other, sharing ideas and taking turns. Staff provide children with opportunities to recall past experiences that strengthen their memory. They engage in critical thinking and speculate about what might happen next. For example, staff and children chat excitedly about what would happen if they added more water and possible flavours to the mud pies.

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

• Since the last inspection, management has worked hard to address the actions raised at the previous inspection. For example, risk assessment procedures have been reviewed and new procedures implemented. This minimises risks within the nursery environment and supports the children to stay safe. Furthermore, areas of the nursery have now been refurbished and new cleaning protocols introduced. This supports children's good health.
• The provider and the management demonstrate a vision for the continual development of the nursery. For example, they plan to review the overall organisation of the areas used by the babies. Arrangements are in place for the supervision of staff. However, staff coaching, and focused professional development opportunities have not yet been fully prioritised, in order to raise the quality of the provision to the highest level.
• Staff provide a curriculum that uses a blend of adult-led activities and child-led play. They develop good relationships with the children, which supports their emotional development. Staff talk about where children are in their development and what they need to learn next. However, on occasions some staff do not always have a clear understanding of the curriculum intentions and, therefore, their teaching does not consistently focus on what they want children to learn next.
• Staff recognise the importance of storytelling and singing songs to help promote children's communication and language skills. They sing rhymes to babies who demonstrate their enjoyment by rocking their bodies and waving their arms. Staff share story books with the younger children. Young children are supported to identify and point to the illustrations on each page. They are introduced and encouraged to copy different animal sounds, such as 'woof' and 'quack'. Staff become involved in older children's imaginary play and encourage them to think about new concepts and to use new vocabulary.
• Staff skilfully weave counting and the development of children's mathematical knowledge into their spontaneous and planned play. Older children confidently demonstrate their counting skills, and recognise written numerals during activities, such as hopscotch games. They count the number of 'goals' they achieve when throwing the ball into the basketball hoop. Staff playfully make deliberate mistakes in counting. Children giggle and correct them.
• Staff implement effective strategies to support children to learn to manage their feelings and behaviour. Children are encouraged to be kind and respectful to their friends, to share resources and to take their turn. Older children demonstrate that they are learning to play happily alongside other children.
• Management and staff work closely with professionals and parents to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, including accessing relevant funding to meet each child's individual needs. Parents comment positively about the nursery. They are kept fully informed about their child's day, achievements, and progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff further to have a clear understanding of the curriculum intent, so that their teaching consistently focuses on what they want children to learn
• strengthen training and coaching opportunities for staff to identify further training needs.