Tiny Stars Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff warmly welcome children and their families at this happy and family focused nursery. Children leave their parents and carers with ease. They show great independence in the morning routines. Children settle straight down to activities that interest and engage them. For example, children are excited to explore the role-play area and small-world activities. They pretend to make their friends cups of tea, and dress up as pretend police officers. Staff promote children's emotional well-being effectively. They provide cuddles, comfort, praise and encouragement to children frequently. This helps children to feel safe and secure.

Children develop a deep interest in books and stories. For example, younger children select their favourite book. They spend considerable time mimicking the faces they see as they smile and pout at the pictures. Older children can recount parts of the story they have just heard and talk about the characters in the book. Children attend story sessions at the local library and can take nursery books home to enjoy with their families. Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. Younger children learn to behave well as staff gently remind them to use 'kind hands, kind feet' and model how to be kind to their friends. Older children develop firm friendships as they learn to play together, develop skills in sharing and are supported to take turns.

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

• Staff carry out observations and assessments of children's development. This helps them to plan activities based on children's interests and next steps in learning. However, when staff deliver activities to children, they do not always focus on the learning intentions that they identify and plan for. This means they do not consistently maximise children's learning.
• Children benefit from staff who know them well. Staff collect information about what children know and can do from their parents. They teach children about similarities and differences between themselves and others. Staff read stories about different family dynamics and celebrate festivals that are unique to children. This helps to broaden children's understanding of the world and prepare them for life in modern Britain.
• Overall, staff encourage children to develop their communication and literacy skills well. Staff ensure that children hear relevant and useful words. They encourage children to use these words in their learning and praise them when they do. However, staff sometimes do not incorporate mathematical concepts, such as counting and recognising numbers, shapes and colours, throughout everyday activities.
• Children are eager to do things for themselves and try out new skills. For example, two-year-old children persist until they successfully fit blocks together.
• Older children develop their early writing skills. This helps children to prepare for the next stages in their learning, such as moving on to school.
• Children have many opportunities to develop their physical skills. Babies who are new to walking enjoy practising their new skill and smile as staff praise their achievements. Older children learn how to use knives safely and confidently spread jam on their toast at snack time. They enjoy practising their mark-making skills with crayons, chalk and paint with their friends.
• Support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is a particular strength of the nursery. The manager is passionate and very knowledgeable. She works alongside staff to identify and support children who may need extra help. Staff understand the importance of working closely with other professionals in education and health to provide a consistent approach to support children's care and learning.
• Managers have a good oversight of the nursery. They identify where there are some weaknesses and swiftly take action to address these. Managers are reflective and strive to make improvements to the experiences they offer children. As a result, children attend a nursery which is constantly improving.
• Parents speak very highly of the nursery. They talk about the excellent progress their children have made. They are kept well informed about their children's development. Parents state their children are very happy to attend and staff are friendly. They feel listened to as parents and communicate regularly with their child's key person. This helps children to experience consistency of care.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to focus more precisely on what children need to learn when delivering activities, to support children to achieve the best outcomes
• develop staff's awareness of how to incorporate early mathematical language into everyday activities, to help children to make the very best progress possible.