Tiny Tugs Medway Trust Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy coming to this warm and friendly nursery. They enjoy interactions with caring staff, who provide activities that are planned around children's interests. Children actively engage in activities of their own choosing and confidently lead their own play. They enjoy playing outdoors. Staff ensure that they provide free-flow access to all, to help ensure that children who learn best from being outdoors can do so. Children benefit from purposeful teaching across the areas of learning. Children are learning about the wider world. For example, they share their diverse backgrounds with each other. Parents are involved with helping to provide foods and cultural information from the countries that they derive from. Children compare what is similar and different among their peers and celebrate what makes them unique.

There are high expectations for every child. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who speak English as an additional language, are supported to feel settled and secure. Staff take time to ensure that they get to know their children well from the start. Children behave well and respond positively to the expectations of staff. Staff are good role models, who talk to children in a calm and respectful manner, gently reminding them of the need to share and take turns. Children have a positive attitude to learning. Staff show good respect for children's work and give meaningful praise for their efforts.

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

• The manager and staff have taken effective action to bring about improvement and address the actions from the last inspection. They have implemented ongoing training and opportunities for professional development. Staff feel well supported, and feel more confident in their approach to the planning and delivery of tailored learning. For example, they provide a good balance of both child-led and adult-directed activities. Children are focused and enjoy the curriculum offered.
• Books are everywhere in the nursery, and children enjoy sharing them with adults. They become enthralled as staff tell stories with expression and help to finish off the rhyming sentence in familiar stories. Children are asked questions about specific things in the pictures and relate it to their own experiences. This helps to develop a love of books and early reading.
• Children are becoming confident communicators. Staff introduce new vocabulary to extend children's knowledge. For example, they explore the snow outside and describe the 'steam', and 'freezing' and 'melting' ice. At times however, children are not always given enough time to answer the questions asked of them. This means that their independent thinking may be interrupted too early.
• Staff help to develop children's mathematical knowledge, particularly about numbers and quantity. For example, children count out the number of play dough leaves that are needed to complete a picture of a plant. Staff ask how many leaves they need and encourage them to count as they create each shape. This helps children to learn that the number of items counted needs to be the same as the numeral shown.
• Staff provide children with a range of resources, including those that are open-ended and encourage children to explore. For example, babies squeal with delight as they knock down mirrored blocks, and older children create pretend campfires with small logs. This helps children to develop their imagination and lead their own play.
• There are many opportunities for children to develop their independence. Children help themselves to snacks and use forks and spoons at mealtimes. Children understand the importance of good hygiene practices. For example, toddlers enjoy activities that promote good oral health. Staff ensure that children learn important self-care skills that will benefit them in the future.
• Parents share their compliments about the care and education provided by the staff. They speak warmly about the 'home from home' approach and friendly staff. However, at times, parents are not informed regularly enough about their child's next steps in learning. They are not given suggested strategies, which they can use at home to help their child practise the skills they have learned.
• Staff ensure that children who may need additional help are supported effectively. They work closely with parents, other professionals, such as speech therapists, and staff from other settings the children attend. This provides continuity, and children with SEND make good progress.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support children's communication and language further by giving younger children more time to gather their thoughts and answer questions
• improve information sharing arrangements with parents, to ensure that parents are more regularly informed of their child's ongoing progress.