Toad Hall Day Nursery (Bicester) Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children play in a happy and welcoming setting, where staff interact well with children to support their individual next steps in their learning. Staff provide a caring and nurturing environment. This helps children to have fun, feel reassured and comforted. Children have a strong sense of belonging in the setting. They build secure relationships with familiar staff and develop close friendships with other children. Staff effectively support children's emotional needs. For example, adapting routines to ensure children are well supported during times of transition.

Children are enthusiastic learners. They constantly question, enquire and solve problems. For example, older children work out that there are not enough plates for everyone in the food game. They quickly calculate how many more they need, finding plates within the home corner for their friends.

Children experience a wealth of planned activities outside the nursery that enhances their awareness of their community and environments. For example, children take train rides, learn how to buy tickets, identify houses and experience different forms of transport. They visit the markets to look at different fruits and vegetables. This helps to enhance their understanding of healthy eating and expand their confidence to try new tastes. Children confidently share their experiences from home with others, such as going to the hairdresser.

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

• Staff support children to gain confident independence skills. Throughout the setting, they provide resources that reflect the children's interests. For example, babies learn to explore their play environment, deciding what to play with from a wide range of accessible experiences. Older children confidently communicate their needs to staff to support them, such as when they ask for help in the bathroom.
• Staff help children to gain a clear understanding of social rules and expectations. They help them understand how to behave appropriately in their play. Staff are positive role models, working well as a team to help each other. Children show great care and compassion towards their friends. For example, at mealtimes, they ensure everyone has a seat, seeking a place next to their friend to share this social experience.
• Staff provide effective support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The knowledgeable staff help others to identify concerns and liaise sensitively with parents. They signpost them to external support they may need. Staff develop strong relationships with other professionals involved in children's care. This helps to provide a consistent approach to children's ongoing development.
• Staff provide children with fun and stimulating play that highly supports their next steps for learning. They encourage children to explore resources and extend their play themselves. For example, young children explore water and paintbrushes outdoors. They watch as the water runs down to the floor. They repeat the process, listening to staff talk about how the sun dries the water up. However, during some activities, such as stories and songs, staff do not support children's understanding. For example, sometimes, older children lose interest as the learning is not challenging enough for them, whereas the learning is too ambitious for younger children.
• Staff promote children's learning through an effectively planned curriculum, both indoors and outdoors. This highly supports children's decision making and their preferences as to where to learn. In the main, staff interact well with all children, especially during planned and child-led play. However, children's engagement is not always successfully promoted in some group activities, prior to mealtimes. Sometimes, staff concentrate on the next task with little explanation for children to understand what is expected of them.
• Staff have positive attitudes towards their continuous professional development. They are eager to improve and implement new strategies. They actively share ideas with each other, adapting practices to meet the needs of the children. Leaders provide opportunities for all staff to complete training to support the needs of children attending.
• Staff support parents in preparing children for school. They provide them with a wealth of information to help them understand what their children do in the setting and how to support their learning at home.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• use routine tasks more effectively to fully implement the learning intention for children
• help staff plan group activities more effectively to support all children's learning and development.