Tinky's Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy coming to this nursery. Children are greeted warmly by staff as they arrive at nursery and settle quickly into the routine. Staff and parents have strong relationships. Staff take the time to talk to each parent when children arrive. This means that the transition between home and nursery is easy for children.

Children develop close and trusting bonds with the staff, who have a caring and friendly manner. Staff get to know the children well and use their individual learning styles or interests to support them to achieve their next steps. This helps children to make good progress.

Children engage enthusiastically in the wide range of learning opportunities available for them. They build strong friendships and play well with their peers. Children enjoy balancing along beams, riding balance bikes and climbing over crates to support their physical development in the garden. They benefit from a wide range of activities delivered by specialist external providers throughout the week. For example, children participate with enthusiasm in an interactive storytelling session, which supports them to learn new language.

Children behave well, showing they feel safe and secure. Staff are good role models to children and have high expectations of children's behaviour. There are clear rules and routines in place.

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

• Staff prioritise teaching children important social skills, such as taking turns, caring for each other and sharing. Children wait patiently for their turn as they dish out the food and pass it to the next person. Children care for their friends. For example, they make pretend cakes out of play dough and sing happy birthday when it is their friend's birthday. These skills will help children on the next stage of their learning journey.
• Staff support children in their communication and language development consistently throughout the nursery. Staff repeat words as children play, such as 'mix, mix, mix' as babies mix the jelly. This helps children to relate their actions to new language. Staff narrate what children are doing throughout the day. This supports children to develop their sentence structure and build their vocabulary.
• Staff provide plenty of opportunities for the children to develop in their physical skills. Children learn to take risks safely as they climb along crates and jump off them. They develop their balance as they balance along beams or ride on balance bikes. Children strengthen the muscles in their hands by squeezing and pushing on play dough or using tweezers to pick up objects. This helps children to make good progress in their physical development.
• Staff support children to develop their independence skills well. Children serve their own food, pour their water and make their own choices about their play. This helps children to build their self-esteem and develop important life skills.
• Leaders support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) very well. They work closely in partnership with parents and external professionals to ensure that children get the support they need. Staff implement strategies that these external professionals recommend, to help children make progress and meet their individual learning goals.
• Staff fulfil their role as a key person well. They work hard to develop a good understanding of what children know and need to learn next. They carefully consider how to support children to achieve these next steps. This leads to children making good progress from their individual starting points.
• The manager understands what good practice looks like. She uses this knowledge to model good practice to staff and support them in their professional development. Staff appreciate the way that the manager is approachable and supports them with their well-being. This leads to good outcomes for children.
• On occasion, staff are not ambitious enough about the range of vocabulary they use with the children. At these times, staff do not expose children to new vocabulary, which does not support their communication and language development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that the curriculum for communication and language is sufficiently ambitious, so that staff support children to develop a rich range of vocabulary.